Current Search: Government (x)
View All Items
Pages
- Title
- LOW-INCOME HEALTH CARE NETWORKS: INITIAL CONDITIONS, EXTENT, AND INTENSITY RELEVANT TO COUNTY GOVERNMENT PARTICIPATION.
- Creator
-
Knepper, Hillary, Feldheim, Mary Ann, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Contemporary health care systems in the United States are not equitable. Indeed, as the literature indicates, there are substantial differences in the variety and scope of service delivery based on age, income, and other socio-economic indicators. The recent passage of health care reform in the United States illustrates that Americans are seeking to bring balance and equity to health care. However, as learned in this study, county governments across the country have been working in their...
Show moreContemporary health care systems in the United States are not equitable. Indeed, as the literature indicates, there are substantial differences in the variety and scope of service delivery based on age, income, and other socio-economic indicators. The recent passage of health care reform in the United States illustrates that Americans are seeking to bring balance and equity to health care. However, as learned in this study, county governments across the country have been working in their communities to ensure some balance and equity, by making a safety net available for those citizens who are unable to access health care. Perhaps this is because health care quickly becomes a local government problem. In this current economic climate, county governments are being pinched between declining revenues and rising demands for services (Eaton, 2009; Phaup, 2009). The Orange County Primary Care Access Network is one example studied here that provides clear evidence of how organizations can work together to develop and maintain a sustainable health care safety net for the underinsured and uninsured. This study is the first of its kind to examine county government influences, environmental pressures, and community resources in the context of health care network performance. The methodological research question for this study is what determinants (exogenous constructs) contribute to a health care network and its performance (endogenous construct) within the framework of county government participation? Further, is the model supported by the data and can prediction, direction, and strength of relationships among the variables be identified? The simple answer is yes. For this study, the responses from 123 counties were analyzed with a variety of statistical techniques, culminating in structural equation modeling. The outcome of these analyses provided a reasonable explanation for the variation among the variables leading to network performance improvement in meeting the health care needs of uninsured and underinsured people. These quantitative data were also supported in their results with the inclusion of a case study analysis of a particular health care safety-net, the Orange County Primary Care Access Network in Orange County, Florida. Ultimately, this study learned three valuable lessons that can be used by county government decision-makers and health care providers alike. First, county involvement in community based health care networks results in a benefit that reverberates during economic stress- the leveraging of resources. Second, public-private initiatives are fundamental to reducing disparities in health care access. Third, health care networks improve access to health care for uninsured and underinsured people. Ultimately, county government participation is the largest predictor of network performance in this study.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- Identifier
- CFE0003341, ucf:48475
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003341
- Title
- A Fifty State Legislative Review of Charter School Funding, Governance and Accountability.
- Creator
-
Fordham, Tionis, Murray, Kenneth, Murray, Barbara, Doherty, Walter, Hutchinson, Cynthia, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
As waves of educational reform spread across the United States, charter schools continue to emerge as an alternative to the traditional public school. This study examined funding, governance, and accountability provisions of nationwide charter school legislation to ascertain similarities, differences, litigated challenges and funding issues throughout the United States of America. In order to study charter school legislation and litigation, all of the United States charter school legislation...
Show moreAs waves of educational reform spread across the United States, charter schools continue to emerge as an alternative to the traditional public school. This study examined funding, governance, and accountability provisions of nationwide charter school legislation to ascertain similarities, differences, litigated challenges and funding issues throughout the United States of America. In order to study charter school legislation and litigation, all of the United States charter school legislation was collected along with American court cases related to charter schools and charter legislation. Legislation was reviewed to identify similarities and differences in funding, accountability and governance provisions throughout America. Court cases, involving charter schools and charter school legislation, were reviewed to identify the types of issues being litigated and the resulting legal decisions.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0006217, ucf:51111
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006217
- Title
- Reexamining the Relationship Between Divided Government and Voter Turnout.
- Creator
-
Beck, Heidi, Knuckey, Jonathan, Jewett, Aubrey, Lanier, Drew, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This thesis reexamines the effect of divided government on voter turnout originally posited byFranklin and Hirczy de Mi(&)#241;o (1998), which suggested that each year of exposure to dividedgovernment resulted in a cumulative negative effect on voters leading to alienation and lowerturnout. It reconsiders this argument using more recent data, given that voter turnout in U.S.presidential elections (as measured by the Voting Eligible Population) has increased since 2000,even though divided...
Show moreThis thesis reexamines the effect of divided government on voter turnout originally posited byFranklin and Hirczy de Mi(&)#241;o (1998), which suggested that each year of exposure to dividedgovernment resulted in a cumulative negative effect on voters leading to alienation and lowerturnout. It reconsiders this argument using more recent data, given that voter turnout in U.S.presidential elections (as measured by the Voting Eligible Population) has increased since 2000,even though divided government has occurred during this period.This thesis also uses new data and methods to address concerns about the original aggregatelevelresearch design. The research question is tested at the individual-level of analysis todetermine if divided government does interact with political trust to lower turnout. Previousresearch assumed this relationship since there is no aggregate-level proxy for political trust. Byusing survey data from the American National Election Studies it is now possible to test the fulltheory.The aggregate-level models show that misspecifications in the research design of Franklinand Hirczy de Mi(&)#241;o resulting in multicollinearity, and in two instances autocorrelation, whichresulted in a failure to reject the null hypothesis. The individual-level models show that dividedgovernment interacts with low levels of political trust to increase voter turnout, falsifying theargument about the effect of divided government on turnout. Overall, the thesis suggests that theimplications of an aspect of the American political system that renders it distinguishable frommost other advanced-industrial democracies(-)divided party control of the executive andlegislative branches(-)should be reassessed. More generally, the thesis demonstrates theimportance of reevaluating hypotheses in political science with the most recent data and morerobust methods in order to establish whether those original hypotheses are still supported
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007783, ucf:52363
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007783
- Title
- NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND?: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EDUCATION POLICY AND STUDENT SUCCESS.
- Creator
-
Resmann, Brittany, Kiel , Dwight, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This study investigated how education policy influences student success, and if there are linkages between K-12 education policy and higher education. Historically, education has primarily been a function of state and local governments. The role of the federal government drastically changed with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. This thesis focused on the influence of No Child Behind on several indicators of student success in K-12 and postsecondary education. All fifty...
Show moreThis study investigated how education policy influences student success, and if there are linkages between K-12 education policy and higher education. Historically, education has primarily been a function of state and local governments. The role of the federal government drastically changed with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. This thesis focused on the influence of No Child Behind on several indicators of student success in K-12 and postsecondary education. All fifty states were examined in this study. This approach is rather unusual since it is typical to focus on one state or a small group of states. In addition to the state level analyses, macro analyses were also conducted to generate sounder policy prescriptions. This study tested three primary research questions. The first research question tested possible changes in several measures of student success since the implementation of No Child Left Behind. The second research question analyzed the relationship between K-12 education policy and higher education. The third research question addressed the possibility that state education reforms have had an impact on test scores, graduation rates, and college enrollment. Findings showed that K-12 test scores have improved on the national level since the implementation of No Child Left Behind, but there are several states that have witnessed a decline in test scores since legislation was enacted. There was no relationship between the state reforms and the variables that measured student success. Based on the findings, policy prescriptions were generated for both leaders within education and policymakers.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- Identifier
- CFE0002607, ucf:48249
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002607
- Title
- The Effect of the Great Recession on Local Goverment Policy in Florida.
- Creator
-
Levey, Richard, Martin, Lawrence, Zhang, Ning, Lawther, Wendell, Hawkins, Christopher, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The length and depth of the Great Recession of 2008 provides an opportunity to examine the policy behavior of local governments unlike any window since the 1930's post Depression era. Utilizing Peterson's (1981) City Limits typology as a framework for local government policy allows for an evaluation of whether or not the economic downturn caused local governments to change their relative expenditures between policy categories. The City Limits typology has been widely used in the literature to...
Show moreThe length and depth of the Great Recession of 2008 provides an opportunity to examine the policy behavior of local governments unlike any window since the 1930's post Depression era. Utilizing Peterson's (1981) City Limits typology as a framework for local government policy allows for an evaluation of whether or not the economic downturn caused local governments to change their relative expenditures between policy categories. The City Limits typology has been widely used in the literature to explain how expenditures define a local government's role in economic development. The typology has had limited use in a pre-post natural experimental research design to determine if a local government has 'shifted' policy priorities as measured by changes in expenditures among and between policy categories. This research design and the use Peterson's framework combine for a study that has not yet been conducted under similar conditions.Most of the existing literature, including the research from the 1980's, failed to account for inter-state differences that directly affect local government expenditures and policy. Concentrating solely on Florida local governments, this study eliminates the confounding nature of a national study and ensures that the unit of analysis is comparable for research purposes. The study utilizes actual expenditure data for all cities and counties in Florida from FY2006 through FY2011. The research tests for the relationships between changes in policy priorities from pre- to post-recession, and the type of government, form of government, and various socio-economic factors.The research contributes to a new body of knowledge that is just beginning to emerge in the literature about how local governments respond to periods of extreme fiscal stress. The findings suggest that cities and counties had an inverse response from pre- to post-recession with cities shifting toward developmental expenditures and counties prioritizing allocational spending. Differences were also found between forms of government. In addition, the density of population was found to contribute differently to shifts in expenditures for cities and counties. The study identifies emerging patterns that can help local governments understand past behavior and better anticipate future economic downturns.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0005971, ucf:50782
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005971