Social Class and Socio-economic Status: Relevance and Inclusion

1. Social Class and Socio-economic Status: Relevance and Inclusion Heather Wyatt-Nichol, PhD University of Baltimore

2. Social Equity • The fair, just and equitable management of all institutions serving the public directly or by contract; the fair, just and equitable distribution of public services and implementation of public policy; and the commitment to promote fairness, justice, and equity in the formation of public policy.(http://www.napawash.org/aa_social_equity/index.html)

3. Social Class/ Socio-economic Status • Class analysis via a structural approach typically measures social class through indicators of socio-economic status such as income, occupation, and education and allows one to examine mobility

4. Increasing Inequality • Increasing gap between have & have nots • share of national income to families in bottom 40% declined 1/5 (17.4% 1973/ 13.9% 2001) • share to families in the top 5% increased 1/3 (15.5% to 21% • share of income to the top 1/10 of 1% quadrupled between 1970 & 1998 (13,000 richest families in U.S w/ as much income as the 20 million poorest families (Krugman, 2002)

5. Increasing Inequality • Declining Mobility • Only 6% of children born to parents in bottom of income ladder make it to top income distribution • 33% of Americans are downwardly mobile- making less than parents and falling down the income ladder (Economic Mobility Project, Pew Charitable Trusts)

6. Relevance: Impact of Inequity on Public Administration • Economic segregation of neighborhoods • Negative impact on collective efforts • Revenue bases & level of services • Intergenerational poverty • Education • Criminal Justice

7. Social Balance • [insert photos & footage here]

8. The Role of Practitioners • Timeless debate over proper role of government as well as proper role of public officials • Arguments/counter arguments • Administrators as Change Agents • New Public Administration • Positive Government • Progressive Values (Box, 2008) • “…we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers” (Gawthrop, 2008, p. 154) • Normative Teaching & Scholarship (Box, 2008)

9. Current Status in MPA/MPP programs • NASPAA Diversity Across the Curriculum Standard • Program activities must prepare students to work in and contribute to diverse workplaces and communities. Consequently, courses, curriculum materials, and other program activities should expose students to differences relating to social identity categories, such as race, ethnicity, gender, class, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, and disability (NASPAA 2006) • Age & Veteran’s status was also incorporated at the 07 meeting & adoption of the standard

10. Current Status in MPA/MPP programs • Stand alone courses • 10 of 92 program directors responding reported that their programs offered stand alone courses on social class. (Wyatt-Nichol & Antwi-Boasiako, 2008). • A separate content analysis of 50 member institutions, only one program offered a stand-alone course, Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy, that addressed social class (Wyatt-Nichol & Antwi-Boasiako, 2008). • Integrate social class into existing courses • Among 16 NASPAA member institutions, 42 syllabi, 21% addressed issues of class in existing courses (White, 2004) • Among the 92 program directors responding, 72% reported integrating class into existing courses (Wyatt-Nichol & Antwi-Boasiako, 2008

11. Reasons to Address Social Class & Socio-economic Status • Relevance to PA (revenue base, level & quality of services) • Cultural competencies=better service delivery (Rice) • Critical thinking & analysis

12. Strategies for Inclusion • NAPA Standing Panel on Social Equity in Governance (2005) provides measures of equity along the categories of access and distributional equity, procedural fairness, quality and process equity, and outcomes • Handout- Integrating Social-Class/Socio-economic status into core courses • Matrix of core courses along each category