Agenda-Setting and Policy Innovation: An Examination of College Student Aid Programs

Agenda-Setting and Policy Innovation: An Examination of College Student Aid Programs

I investigate the decisions of American states to initiate state-level student financial aid programs for disadvantaged college and university students. Such decisions are termed policy innovations in the public policy literature. I argue that two missing but critical factors must be incorporated into explanations of state policy innovations in addition to the broad political factors previously examined by scholars. First, agenda-setting processes must be considered to understand why such innovations occur. Second, we must consider the potentially powerful role of the federal government in precipitating state policy innovations. My analysis focuses on two states-California and Nevada-while also considering what occurred in the other American states and in the federal government. I find that agenda-setting processes as well as broad political factors playa role in policy innovation. I also find an important role for the federal government in precipitating policy change in the states.