The Demise of the Public Administration Department

This one is more personal than others. It was written for and published by the Kennebec Journal, Augusta Maine in conjunction with two alums of the University of Maine Public Administration Programs

Public administration at the University of Maine (Orono) is scheduled to be eliminated. This directly affects citizens of the state because the Public Administration Department has trained town managers and other public officials for this state since 1945 through its Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Public Management. The University of Maine (UM) Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) degree program, located in Augusta, is also part of the budget cutting proposal. Cutting public administration affects the Augusta community particularly because the UM Public Administration Department offers the only graduate degree available within the Augusta area. The presence of an MPA program in our capital city is not irrelevant. The legislature established the MPA program in Orono and Augusta in 1968 to meet the needs for trained managers in state government and local communities.

Within the greater Augusta area, 11 public administration graduates serve in positions from town managers to police officers. Eighty-seven work in state government, from executives in commissioner’s offices to nonpartisan support positions in the legislature to professionals in areas as diverse as environmental protection, engineering, technology, transportation, finance, and planning. The former commissioner of Administration and Finance who has an MPA is now serving as the Vice President of Finance for the University of Maine System. Eighteen Augusta area alums work in professional associations ranging from the Maine Municipal Association to the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and in direct-service nonprofits such as Uplift, Inc and local hospitals.

In a state hard-pressed to fund its services even in good times, a public administration degree is cost efficient. It is far cheaper for state employees, area town managers, or nonprofit managers to take a UM course in Augusta leading to an MPA degree than to attend short seminars, stay over a night in Boston or some other city, and lose a day or two of work. The flagship university’s courses are specific to the needs of the state for public servants who are knowledgeable about finance, personnel, planning, organizational development, ethics and many specific relevant subjects. Further, UM’s MPA is accredited which means the MPA is a value-added degree recognized nationally as having the rigor and course work identified as relevant to meet today's needs for public servants.

As public administrators, we need to respond to the public to reduce the size of government, while maintaining its effectiveness. We must also offer a solution. And there is a solution that will save money and add value. It is time to merge the public administration programs of UM with those of the University of Southern Maine (USM) and UM Augusta (UMA).

The University of Maine Augusta offers a BA and Associate degree in public administration (2 faculty); the University of Maine offers a BA in public management and an MPA (4 faculty); and the University of Southern Maine offers a Master's in Public Policy and Management (6 faculty). All have small faculties, many nearing retirement. Merging saves money by reducing course duplication and administration while continuing to provide courses in Orono, Augusta and Portland. Merging has the advantage of improving placement of interns and graduating students, increasing service and research productivity as well as creating fiscal efficiencies the higher education system desperately needs. Administrators at UM, USM, and the system office (and to a much lesser extent UMA) have had opportunities to make this fiscally prudent solution possible but for many reasons chose not to implement this type of consolidation. This program consolidation solution is a win-win for students, certainly for the Augusta area, and, most importantly, for the citizens of our state, who will be better served.

This solution even has a name, the Academy of Public Service, previously agreed upon and signed by the Presidents of UM and USM. But to make this happen beyond a paper agreement, leaders must emerge from the universities, students, alumni, elected officials and citizens. Building on existing program excellence is the sensible way to keep the university system lean while fostering long-term, high-quality public service throughout Maine’s government and nonprofit endeavors. We are willing to be part of the solution team.

Carolyn Ball is MPA director at the University of Maine and teaches classes in Orono and Augusta; Tina Plummer is a current student in the MPA program in Augusta and has BA in Public Administration from UM Augusta and Nathan Poore, Falmouth Town Manager, has a BA in Public Administration from the University of Maine and a Master’s in Public Policy and Management from the University of Southern Maine.

Incrementalism and Healthcare Reform

The healthcare reform, increased coverage for more people, that has taken place divided Congress as absolutely as it possibly could. Part of the problem was that President Obama took an approach of hands-off at the initial stages. To make a major non-incremental change requires major funding, leadership by the President, positive publicity and a public behind the idea rallied by the President. Non-incremental reform is rare because it much different than making other policies. Certainly, Presidents do take the lead in pushing for policy changes, but non-incremental policy making requires that not only does the President rally Congress but the public as well and have the money for the project. President Obama's biggest mistake was to leave it to Congress to develop the details of healthcare reform. By doing so he lost the ability to make any major change.

Now it is true that many perceive what has taken place as a major change, one that means that government intrudes into an area that they have not before. This view has to do with another idea related to policymaking. That is distributive and redistributive, a couple of fancy words. Simply put distributive policies are those that have large consensus behind them and are perceived to help the general public. The bureaucracy, that is federal employees, specific Congressional subcommittees, and regular lobbying groups establish policy on and on-going basis. The classic is agricultural supports for various crops. They do not rise to a battle. Redistributive policies are policies that are perceived to take from one group and give to another, the classic is welfare policies. The president may get involved, opposing interest groups rather than simply supportive interest groups, and many members of Congress. Many of these policies get nowhere or only minor changes occur, because Congress cannot agree.

Incremental policy change is exactly what happened with healthcare reform. It was contentious and in the ultimate of divisions, all Senate Republicans disagreed with all Democrats and few Republican house members crossed party lines. And in a reversal of roles, the AMA, the hospital associations and other well-known health service associations supported reform and were opposed by new temporary interest groups forming to oppose healthcare reform along with the insurance industry.

Its incremental because the new healthcare reform did not lead the federal government into intruding into healthcare for the first time. We have a huge veteran's healthcare system (something I would argue should be eliminated in favor of veterans going to private and nonprofit hospitals that are much more readily available.) Medicare regulation is highly intrusive. It sets the standards of reimbursement that other insurance companies generally follow. It requires hospitals to calculate costs in a certain way, a very intrusive mechanism. Second, as most people know, most of us will obtain our health insurance from employers, not from the federal government.

It does require citizens to pay a tax if they choose not to be covered, perhaps the most damming and radical aspect of the healthcare reform. I do not wish to downplay this aspect.

But let us return to other aspects that are incremental. The reform will fix the doughnut hole in Medicare Part D, prescription coverage. Right now once seniors have used their prescription coverage up to a certain $ amount, they must begin paying on their own. After they pay a certain amount, then their Medicare coverage will again pay. It is good fix to end this donut hole but has nothing to do with mass coverage of the population.

It sets up a series of experiments to contain costs and has no new cost controls. And of course, one of the reasons for having health care reform was to reduce costs. It also allows parents to keep their children on their policies for a longer period of time. This expands the pool of citizens covered without costing much since college age kids are one of the healthiest groups to cover. It does nothing about the costs of illegal alien healthcare. The legislation states that illegal aliens are not covered, but indirectly they are. That is because hospitals cannot refuse to accept a patient in need. They can transfer a patient who has no insurance one stabilized. What this means is that you and I as taxpayers must support their care through our city and county public hospitals. And so, the new healthcare reform, as vitriolic as the debate was is largely a piece of incremental legislation that will be tweaked in the years to come.