In the Future of Governing: Four Emerging Model, Peters (1996) discussed the future of public administration. Although his primary emphasis was on the future structure and focus of the practice of public administration, Peters (1996) also noted that public administration education programs generally were not preparing graduates for the demands of public administration in the future.
Three issues identified as important areas where public administration education is not as effective as is desirable in preparing graduates for future responsibilities in public administration provided the foci for an examination of the effectiveness of public administration education. These issues examined were as follows:
The need to focus public administration education on specific levels of government (Vogelsang-Coombs & Miller, 1999).
The need to improve education in ethics and values (Bowman & Menzel, 1998).
The need to better integrate theory and practice in public administration education (McSwite, 2001).
Focusing Public Administration Education on Specific Levels of Government
Vogelsang-Coombs and Miller (1999) observed that local-level public administrators require special knowledge and leadership skills compatible with democratic political systems because of the complicated character of public administration at the local level of government. Most public administrators at the local-level of government do not develop the necessary skills and knowledge because municipal and county governments do not require it and because most public administration educational programs do not emphasize the development of knowledge and skills targeted at the local-level of government (Vogelsang-Coombs & Miller, 1999).
The University of Kansas offers a program in public administration education named the Competencies-Based Management Development System. The central objective of this program is the development of local government managers at ...