{"id":14380,"date":"2012-05-07T09:16:22","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T14:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/?p=14380"},"modified":"2014-09-23T08:32:33","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T13:32:33","slug":"public-policy-leadership-students-help-city-explain-taxation-to-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/public-policy-leadership-students-help-city-explain-taxation-to-residents\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Policy Leadership Students Help City Explain Taxation to Residents"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

University of Mississippi senior Taylor McGraw (left) of Oxford consults with Kristina Ford about 'The Friendly Guide to Property Taxes.' UM photo by Robert Jordan.<\/p><\/div>\n

OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 Students in Kristina Ford\u2019s class have gotten a taste of real-world public policy this semester by helping the city of Oxford explain taxation to local residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this class, the premise is that it\u2019s really thrilling to come up with a public policy that you think is going to fix whatever problem there is in society,\u201d said Ford, a University of Mississippi visiting professor in public policy leadership and one of America\u2019s best-known urban planners, thinkers and writers. \u201cBut it isn\u2019t enough to create the public policy; you have to imagine how it\u2019s going to be implemented and to my mind, the real thrill is implementing your idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford met with Oxford Mayor Pat Patterson and the duo discussed how few people understand how property taxes are determined or what they fund.
\nSo Ford asked the 19 students in her PPL 498 Special Topics class to work with the city of Oxford to create a \u201cFriendly Guide to Property Taxes,\u201d which was designed to break down the complicated nature of property taxes and leave citizens with a better understanding of why they pay property taxes, how much they pay and other basic information.<\/p>\n

The project began by separating the class into groups. Each group assembled a rough draft of what they thought was the most important information, while keeping it simple and easy to read. The class then went through each group’s pamphlet and chose the best information to put into one final document.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Ford really pushed us to critically think about all the elements of city government, and then we were able apply them to a real situation and in our conversation with the mayor,\u201d said Meghan Litten, a senior public policy leadership and liberal studies major from Petal. \u201cI think a lot of the feedback was fresh and intriguing to the mayor because it was coming from college students who have been studying municipal governments and bureaucracies for the last four months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cFriendly Guide to Property Taxes\u201d was truly a group effort, and each person in the class contributed to the project, said Lyda Phillips, a public policy leadership and theatre major from Durango, Colo.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Ford has helped me immensely in better understanding the way government bureaucracy works and how challenging it can get when you are trying to make a change,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cIn this class, we are able to hear stories from the personal challenges she has had to overcome in working as a city planner in New Orleans after Katrina, but we also read about other bureaucratic obstacles, such as the Oakland Project, and how we can learn from these mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Oxford Mayor Pat Patterson looks over a copy of 'The Friendly Guide to Property Taxes,' prepared by students in Kristina Ford's public policy leadership class. UM photo by Robert Jordan.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ford said her aim is not to show the students how to avoid the pitfalls of a bureaucracy or how to fix people so that they don\u2019t do those things, but instead, to teach them about the particularities about certain events.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the students to know what being a public policy leader means, and in a way, it means agility \u2013 mental and professional agility,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI want them to understand details so that they understand what it takes to implement policy, so that is the academic part. I also want them to have read enough to do service learning, do something with the city and get in contact with the people they are just reading about in a book.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of April, the class presented the pamphlet to the mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresenting to Mayor Pat Patterson was quite exciting because it was the first time for him, as well as other city officials, to see the finalized copy in print form,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cMeeting with the city officials was very rewarding because they truly took an interest in what Ole Miss students were doing. It was great to see the city and the university coming together to help the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides helping the city, the students are learning to think on their feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about teaching is seeing the students use their imaginations and asking something that someone hasn\u2019t thought of before,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

Ford holds a doctorate in urban and regional planning from the University of Michigan and was, until her full-time entry into public service in 1983, associate professor in the Graduate School of Public Administration at New York University. She was director of city planning in New Orleans from 1992 to 2000.<\/p>\n

For more information on the Department of Public Policy Leadership, visit http:\/\/www.olemiss.edu\/depts\/leadership\/index.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 Students in Kristina Ford\u2019s class have gotten a taste of real-world public policy this semester by helping the city of Oxford explain taxation to local residents. \u201cIn this class, the premise is that it\u2019s really thrilling to come up with a public policy that you think is going to fix whatever problemRead the story …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,137,199],"tags":[392],"yoast_head":"\nPublic Policy Leadership Students Help City Explain Taxation to Residents - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/public-policy-leadership-students-help-city-explain-taxation-to-residents\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Public Policy Leadership Students Help City Explain Taxation to Residents - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 Students in Kristina Ford\u2019s class have gotten a taste of real-world public policy this semester by helping the city of Oxford explain taxation to local residents. \u201cIn this class, the premise is that it\u2019s really thrilling to come up with a public policy that you think is going to fix whatever problemRead the story …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/public-policy-leadership-students-help-city-explain-taxation-to-residents\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-23T13:32:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/RKJ_1752-B-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1150\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/\",\"name\":\"Ole Miss News\",\"description\":\"The official source for University of Mississippi news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/public-policy-leadership-students-help-city-explain-taxation-to-residents\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/RKJ_1752-B-1.jpg\",\"width\":\"2048\",\"height\":\"1150\",\"caption\":\"University of Mississippi senior Taylor McGraw (left) of Oxford consults with Kristina Ford about 'The Friendly Guide to Property Taxes.' 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