The Governor's School of Public Issues
Monmouth University
West Long Branch, New Jersey

Courses

Race, Gender, and Diversity in New Jersey
The purpose of this course is to provide the scholar with a better understanding of diversity in New Jersey. Through an investigation of stereotypes, cultural mores, statistical data and legislation, the scholar will be able to better assess the policy measures affecting a diverse range of New Jerseyans on topics such as affirmative action, gay marriage, urbanization, concentrated wealth and poverty, and income inequality. Definitive proof of the objectives will be met when the scholar understands a compilation of the following: legislation and policies that deal with diversity, and an overall revitalization of compassion for others. Demonstration of conceptual understanding will occur through a series of papers, group projects, and debates.

New Jersey Children's Constitutional Right to Education
" Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day." ~ Thomas Jefferson, April 24, 1816

The words of Thomas Jefferson, spoken almost 200 years ago, still ring true today. Education opens doors that lead to an individual's successful fulfillment of their life. Education is not a luxury; it is a necessity. But who is responsible for assuring that New Jersey's children receive the necessary education? Article VIII, Section IV of the New Jersey Constitution mandates a system of free public schools for New Jersey children, 5 to 18 years old. In this course, students will learn the history of our state's defining document and its role as a model for other state constitutions. By exploring the New Jersey Constitution, students will learn what it means to be a New Jerseyan and what provisions are made for education in the state's founding document. There will be research and a project that will allow students the opportunity to experience how New Jersey's education system works in compliance with the constitution.

Poverty and Urban Planning
Almost one fifth of humanity is living in absolute poverty without the very basic things of life: two square meals a day, safe drinking water, and a roof over their heads. Contrary to what the globalization advocates say about open market and increased prosperity, more and more people are becoming poor in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Even in the North, disparity between the rich and the poor is growing alarmingly. Although the global economy is said to be improving, average citizens are in constant fear of downsizing and layoffs, underemployment, reduced health care, decreasing/disappearing social welfare programs, price rise and declining personal safety. It is a common knowledge that rural areas are widely afflicted with poverty and misery. But urban poverty is becoming equally cruel too. In the United States, for example, poor neighborhoods are located in core city and surrounding areas because of institutional barriers to opportunities such as employment, transportation, education, and housing. The public policies of balkanized local governments prevent the integration of minorities and the poor into the wealthier, opportunity-laden suburbs. This "concentrated poverty" is also compounded by unfavorable public opinion about the victims, hate crimes and support for a stringent realignment of national priorities such as "welfare reform." Governmental resolutions often insist on personal solutions to the increasingly metropolitan-wide, structural problems. It is important to understand that the segregated societal arrangement isolates the poor and insulates the better-off from the realities of concentrated poverty. Such isolation/insulation prevents people from seeing the complicated social dynamics of concentrated poverty that are the result of insular policy-making and socioeconomic isolation. So in this course, we will try to understand poverty in general, poverty in the context of globalization and urban poverty that afflicts the South and the North in various ways.

Environmental Public Policy: The Personal, The Local, & The Global
Humans are becoming increasingly aware of the ways that our political, economic, and cultural activities interact with the environment. In this course, scholars will analyze how individuals, groups, cultures, and institutions define and address environmental problems. It will focus on conflicts on local, state, national, and international levels by identifying the participants, their stakes in decision-making processes and problems arising when groups are excluded from these processes. The course will be divided into four main sections, including: local environmental issues, state and national environmental issues, global environmental issues, and a concluding section will integrate approaches to the environmental challenges around us. Students will analyze the historical, philosophical, and political strategies associated with the Civil Rights movement in both New Jersey and the United States. Students will come to understand the political dimensions associated with Civil Rights and the current status of the movement.

Justice and the Family
Across the ideological spectrum, many Americans consider discussions of justice and the family inappropriate - or even dangerous. Whether it's a liberal objection to "family values" legislation, or a conservative hostility to state-sanctioning of "alternative" (one-parent or same-sex parent) families, there seems to be a general suspicion of attempts to regulate family life in terms of justice. But since ancient times, political philosophers have reminded us that the ties between private and public life are inextricable. The family continues to be shaped by, and shape in turn, the broader political world. Most Americans do recognize - given, for instance, the almost total national support for domestic violence legislation - that law cannot stop at the threshold of the home. So how does one balance the often competing claims of family and justice? And how can we better conceive of the relationship between private and public life? In this course, we will consider the inextricable binds between justice and the family, with a particular focus on cases in present-day New Jersey. The reading list span everything from Plato's Euthyphro and Aristotle's Politics, to Maggie Gallaher's The Abolition of Marriage and David Popenoe's Life Without Father, to legislative bills and court cases on the present docket. Students will decide, in large part, which particular policy issues we discuss in class.

Civil Rights Policy
Students will analyze the historical, philosophical, and political strategies associated with the Civil Rights movement in both New Jersey and the United States. Students will come to understand the political dimensions associated with Civil Rights and the current status of the movement.

Coping with Conflict in a Diverse New Jersey
We are confronted daily by the specter of conflict and violence in our society. Youth violence, as it is frequently reported in school settings, is a particularly distressing phenomenon. The purpose of this course is to assist students in a diverse society to understand and apply core interpersonal and inter-group strategies that develop positive attitudes toward conflict resolution and strengthen communication skills. The course will be conducted as a "community of inquiry," that is, a democratic forum for problem identification and solution.

Media & Public Policy
Media impact how we develop as children and who we become as adults. In "Psychological Lens" we will explore specific examples of the way in which the media affects our thoughts, behaviors, and identity. The class will focus on the media as art, a socialization tool, and an agent of social change.