Policy Solutions Challenge USA is pleased to announce that the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service will be the site of the Southwest Region of the Challenge on February 28 – March 2, 2014.
Policy Solutions Challenge USA offers an annual policy analysis competition for U.S. schools of public policy, public service, public affairs, and public administration. Every year, teams of five students from each participating school will be asked to use their policy analysis skills to propose innovative and feasible solutions to one of the more difficult problems affecting the United States at the national level. Results from the Challenge will be transmitted to key executive branch and congressional decision makers, and promoted online to encourage new thinking and legislative activity based on the analysis and ideas produced by the student teams.
For the 2014 Challenge, the topic will be policy solutions to improving employment and earnings outcomes for younger workers. Governments around the world have struggled to improve employment and earnings outcomes for younger workers. In the United States, and especially since the 2008 start of the, “Great Recession,” workers ages 18-25 have found it increasingly difficult to find quality employment. There have been numerous reports in the news of significant levels of unemployment and underemployment among new college graduates. Organizations such as the American Institute for Innovative Apprenticeship advocate for a new emphasis on training high school graduates for skilled employment outside of the “college track.” Others point to such trends as the drop out rate from college and the relatively low interest of U.S. students in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). Amidst reporting on widening income inequality in the U.S. is evidence that younger workers are falling behind older generations in terms of their lifetime earnings potential.
The first phase of the Challenge will be regional competitions hosted at five sites including the Clinton School. At each site, a distinguished panel of professional policy analysts will receive presentations from each team entered in that region, offer the teams a chance to revise proposals based on feedback onsite, and then make a final presentation to the panel. The panel will select first- and second-place teams for that region.
Teams awarded first place in the regional competitions will be invited to participate in the National Challenge to be held March 21-22, 2014, in Washington, DC. At the National Challenge, a distinguished panel of professional policy analysts will receive initial presentations, provide feedback, and judge the final presentations. At the end of the national competition, the panel will select a national champion, first runner-up and second runner-up.
In addition to making presentations, each participating team will prepare brief reports on their analyses. The presentations and reports will be available to the public through the Challenge website at the conclusion of the national Challenge.
Founded in 2004, the Clinton School of Public Service is the first such school in the nation to offer a Master of Public Service (MPS) degree. The MPS gives students the knowledge and experience to further their careers in the areas of nonprofit, governmental, volunteer or private sector service. While learning valuable lessons in the classroom, Clinton School students also complete “hands-on” public service projects, ranging from local work in Arkansas communities, to international projects on all of the world’s six inhabited continents.
A two-year graduate program with a “real world” curriculum, the Clinton School is located on the grounds of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Ark. The school embodies former President Clinton’s vision of building leadership in civic engagement and enhancing people’s capacity to work across disciplinary, racial, ethnic and geographical boundaries.
For more information, contact Erik Devereux at Policy Solutions Challenge USA (contact@policychallenge-usa.org or (855) 744-0008) or Susan Hoffpauir at the Clinton School of Public Service (sahoffpauir@clintonschool.uasys.edu or (501) 658-3724).
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