Best example of a Federal "public good" Policy that worked

Feb 10, 2019, 2:50 PM

Before AOC proposed the Green New Deal, she should have looked into the history of federalism, what worked, what didn't, and why.

My favorite examples are the Morrill Land Grant Act and The Hatch Act, both of which helped to establish a network of agricultural and mechanical arts colleges, including my alma mater. Our country was mostly built by engineers trained at these schools, and largely fed thanks to ag technologies and outreach provided by the colleges and their extension services.

https://www.tbp.org/pubs/Features/Sp09Williams.pdf

....the Morrill Act allowed significant innovation at the local level that enabled engineering to evolve into something similar to its final form by World War I. When federalism works best, it defines broad policy objectives and provides supporting funding. State and local governments must provide the bulk of the funding and oversight. The state of engineering education in the U.S. today can be attributed in no small measure to the successful application of federal principles of government displayed in the formation and implementation of the Morrill Act.

From the Wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrill_Land-Grant_Acts

The purpose of the land-grant colleges was:

without excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military tactic, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.[6]

Under the act, each eligible state received a total of 30,000 acres (120 km2) of federal land, either within or contiguous to its boundaries, for each member of congress the state had as of the census of 1860. This land, or the proceeds from its sale, was to be used toward establishing and funding the educational institutions described above. Under provision six of the Act, "No State while in a condition of rebellion or insurrection against the government of the United States shall be entitled to the benefit of this act," in reference to the recent secession of several Southern states and the contemporaneously raging American Civil War.

After the war, however, the 1862 Act was extended to the former Confederate states; it was eventually extended to every state and territory, including those created after 1862. If the federal land within a state was insufficient to meet that state's land grant, the state was issued scrip which authorized the state to select federal lands in other states to fund its institution.[7] For example, New York carefully selected valuable timber land in Wisconsin to fund Cornell University.[8]p. 9 The resulting management of this scrip by the university yielded one third of the total grant revenues generated by all the states, even though New York received only one-tenth of the 1862 land grant.[8]p. 10 Overall, the 1862 Morrill Act allocated 17,400,000 acres (70,000 km2) of land, which when sold yielded a collective endowment of $7.55 million.[8]p. 8

On September 12, 1862, the state of Iowa was the first to accept the terms of the Morrill Act which provided the funding boost needed for the fledgling State Agricultural College and Model Farm (eventually renamed Iowa State University of Science and Technology).[9] The first land-grant institution actually created under the Act was Kansas State University, which was established on February 16, 1863, and opened on September 2, 1863.[10]

Before the Civil War, American engineers were mostly educated at West Point. While the Congressional debate associated with the Morrill Act was largely focused on benefits to agriculture, the mechanic arts were specifically included. After the Civil War, as the German University model began to replace the English College, with the encouragement of the Morrill Act, the engineering discipline was gradually defined. Because the Morrill Act excluded spending on buildings, engineering specific infrastructure such as textbooks and laboratories were developed.[clarify] In 1866, there were around 300 American men with engineering degrees[clarify] and six reputable colleges granting them. By 1911 the United States was graduating 3000 engineers a year, and had a total of 38,000 degreed engineers. The Morrill Act coincided with the establishment of engineering in the American university.[11]

With a few exceptions (including Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), nearly all of the land-grant colleges are public. (Cornell University, while private, administers several state-supported contract colleges that fulfill its public land-grant mission to the state of New York.)

To maintain their status as land-grant colleges, a number of programs are required to be maintained by the college. These include programs in agriculture and engineering, as well as a Reserve Officers' Training Corps program.

Clemson also received federal funding through the WPA in the 1930's for Long Hall, Sirrine Hall, and the purchase of 29,625 acres of privately owned farmland.

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Best example of a Federal "public good" Policy that worked

The Smith-Mundt Act 1948

Here’s an article about that and the legislation was

Re: The Smith-Mundt Act 1948

The CCC that built a lot of state and national parks

In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives

Re: In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives

Investopedia isn’t a fan

Facist

I know it's slightly off of what you are looking for, but

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