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Voices in Public Policy Lecture Series

ABSTRACT: Public Education is a foundational element of modern state-building. Over the last forty years, there have been a set of significant policy changes in Canada and other developed countries that have increased choice both inside the public school system and between public and independent alternatives. This talk will outline the policy and institutional changes over time in Education and present some gaps in our knowledge of how citizens have responded to these institutional changes in in Canada. It will then draw on the specific case of education to a broader research agenda about the boundaries of the contemporary state and state capacity in contemporary policy delivery.

DR. JIM FARNEY is Professor and University of Regina Director at Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. Prior to this, he served as the head of the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University. He’s author of Social Conservatism and Party Politics in Canada and the United States, co-editor of Conservatism in Canada and Open Federalism Revisited, as well as a number of scholarly articles on Canadian political development, provincial politics, political parties, and education policy.His most recent book (with Clark Banack) is Faith, Rights, and Choice: The Politics of Religious Schools in Canada, which received an honourable mention for the Seymour Martin Lipset Book Award of the American Political Science Association 2023. A co-investigator in the SSHRC funded Comparative Education Policy Network, he is currently PI on a SSHRC Insight grant investigating the fiscal, governance, and public opinion impacts of school/parental choice. He served as Senior Social Saskatchewan Scientist on the Elections Saskatchewan Review for the 2024 election cycle and is a frequent media commentator.