THE POLITICS OF LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT: MONITORING EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN SIX STATES |
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| Authors: | Priscilla Wohlstetter |
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| Affiliation: | Priscilla Wohlstetter is an Assistant Professor of Politics and Policyin the School of Education a t the University of Southern California. She received her Ph.D. in PubIic Policy from Northwestern University, and was a postdoctoral fellow with the Center for Policy Research in Education at the RAND Corporation. Her research interests include education policy, legislative oversight, and state and local politics. |
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| Abstract: | Legislative oversight traditionally has been viewed as a rational tool for achieving democratic accountability. Legislators conduct oversight to ensure consistency between implementation and official policy directives. The major theme of this paper is t h a t oversight is best understood as an integral part of legislative-administrative politics. By examining how six states monitored recent educational reforms, the author finds that legislators conducted oversight in ways that minimized time commitments and maximized political benefits.
The paper concludes that legislative interest in controlling implementation often was secondary to political considerations. Oversight, therefore, may not really be effective as an accountability tool. |
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