Julian Rovagnati/Shutterstock.com

Making Taxpayer Dollars Deliver

President Obama’s final budget puts a stake in the ground for his long-running agenda to inject the use of data and evidence into budget, policy, and operational decisions.

President Obama’s fiscal year 2017 budget proposal, released in early February, builds on bipartisan momentum at all levels of government to increase the use of data and evidence in making decisions so “government can do more of what works and less of what does not.” As such, the budget proposes to take “evidence-based approaches to scale,” strengthen the base of evidence available to future policymakers, and increase the analytical capacity of agencies to use evidence and data.

Early in the Obama Administration, momentum developed among staff in the Office of Management and Budget to promote the use of evidence-based approaches in government. This is also sometimes referred to as “moneyball government” or “investing in what works.” In general, it focuses on social policy initiatives, but it could also apply to public infrastructure, environmental programs, energy or national security.

The guiding principle behind this initiative is: “Where evidence is strong, we should act on it.  Where evidence is suggestive, we should consider it. Where evidence is weak, we should build the knowledge to support better decisions in the future.”

This is one of the few “good government” initiatives that has captured the imaginations of a range of foundations, nonprofits, and advocacy groups, so there is increased political momentum behind this movement, described in a series of blog posts in 2013.

The fiscal 2017 budget shows some real traction and forward momentum.  Following are examples that give a flavor of the scale and scope of this movement at the federal level.

Acting on Evidence to Get Better Results

The budget includes a rich array of examples of programs where research and strong evidence have led to proposals to restructure or scale up several initiatives, such as:

Ending homelessness among families by 2020. Lessons learned and rigorous research shows that families using housing vouchers (versus other forms of assistance): “had fewer instances of homelessness, child separations, intimate partner violence and school moves, less food insecurity, and generally less economic stress.” As a result, the budget proposes $11 billion for housing vouchers and rapid re-housing over the next decade.

Expanding access to quality child care for working families. The budget proposes $82 billion in additional funding over the next decade to expand childcare for 1.1 million additional children under age four by 2026. Research shows that quality child care during this critical stage of development yields long-lasting benefits for low-income children when starting school, and also helps parents succeed in the workforce.

Expanding apprenticeship programs. Rigorous quasi-experimental analyses found that apprenticeship program participants have substantially higher employment and earnings than similar non-participants. The budget provides an additional $2 billion to scale up these programs.

Reducing global poverty. The Millennial Challenge Corporation’s evidence-based approach to economic development aims to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty. The administration wants to expand the organization’s efforts with a budget increase of $99 million.

Building Evidence About What Works

The budget supports increases in evaluation efforts that provide the evidence to determine what works, so programs can be scaled-up, revised, or shut down. Following are examples of evaluation investments and incentives to use evidence in decisions:

Funding early education research and evaluation. The Department of Education’s Early Learning Research Network is mapping out the key factors associated with children’s school readiness as they move from preschool to elementary school.

Testing innovative child care models. The Department of Health and Human Services proposes $40 million in competitive pilots to help states and localities develop models for the kind of care low-income families need most.

Piloting ways to help disabled workers remain in the workforce. The Social Security Administration, as part of an interagency effort, will test innovative strategies via a suite of demonstration projects, aimed at helping people with disabilities remain in the workforce.  Early interventions, such as supportive services, incentives for employers, and incentives for states to better coordinate services, are being tested to see if they can improve employment and quality of life for individuals, as well as reduce long-term costs to the government. About $200 million in funding is proposed for these demonstration efforts.

Expanding evidence-based grantmaking. The budget nearly doubles, to $700 million, the amount of grant funding based on “tiered-evidence” programs – programs where smaller investments are made for “proof of concept” models, that lead to the “validation” tier, that in turn lead to the “scale up” tier. This incremental approach increases the chances that funds will be targeted to programs that work.

Expanding pilots of outcome-focused grant designs. Outcome-focused programs give states and localities more “flexibility to innovate and adapt programs to local needs, in exchange for greater accountability” by combining funding from different federal grant programs and agencies. The budget includes pilots to test promising approaches to help families achieve self-sufficiency and improve child health outcomes. It would also expand a set of existing pilots to help disconnected youth.

Investing in Evidence-Based Capacity 

The evidence initiative doesn’t just focus on programs and data.  The budget notes: “it is essential that Federal agencies develop the capacity to credibly build and use evidence.” To develop this capacity, the budget recommends a variety of investments in people and analytic tools, such as:

Making education information more readily available. The Department of Education’s College Scorecard initiative resulted in a number of lessons learned for how to make information available and actionable. The department plans to apply these lessons to other initiatives in early childhood and adult education, pulling together diverse arrays of data and studies on targeted topics.

Conducting impact evaluations of public diplomacy efforts. The State Department has launched an initiative where its public diplomacy practitioners report data on their diplomacy programs and conduct impact evaluations to assess their effectiveness at furthering U.S. foreign policy objectives. The goal of this effort will be to determine best practices as well as to set milestones to measure short-term successes for longer-term initiatives.

Integrating human services program data. The budget proposes a Statewide Human Services Data System grant program to enable states to “develop data systems from a family-centered – rather than program-specific – perspective.”  This would allow states to better use existing data to learn what works, but it would also improve program participant experience and reduce red tape.

Developing analytics to improve training programs and consumer choice. The budget also proposes a $500 million Workforce Data Science and Innovation Fund in the Department of Labor. This would help states “find new ways to use technology and data analytics to improve training programs and consumer choice.”

Expanding access to administrative data. The budget also includes proposals to make additional federal administrative data available for policy development, program evaluation, performance measurement, and transparency efforts, by tweaking or revising existing legal and administrative requirements. This would be done within a framework for privacy and security.

How many of these initiatives will survive the budget process is unknown, but the breadth and scale of the proposals certainly lays down a foundation for what a future president might build upon.

(Image via Julian Rovagnati/Shutterstock.com)

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.