Many organizations
provide packages of education, research, or policy analysis related to
public issues of specific concern to Kansans. Ad Astra Institute is one
of them. However, as far as we know, no other Kansas organization addresses
the particular niche which AAI addresses.
In particular, most
public policy groups address a relatively narrow industry, subject matter,
or topic. AAI will not be limited by topic. Among groups that do not
limit their focus to a particular topic, we have identified two types:
- Policy research
groups that describe themselves as "conservative" or "free
market-oriented." These groups represent a single, relatively
unified ideology based on market fundamentalism, to which AAI does
not subscribe.
- Academic-affiliated
policy research groups. These groups generally support varied academic
research by individual researchers, and do not formulate coherent
positions on issues from the point of the agency as a whole. AAI will
seek to hold coherent positions.
Unlike market-fundamentalist
groups, the Ad Astra Institute addresses public problems from a pragmatic
framework. While market solutions often work well, in many cases a "public
problem" means a problem which both profit-driven markets and voluntary
agencies have repeatedly failed to solve. In those cases, AAI studies
methods for effective government intervention. Sometimes a public problem
stems from government failures. Then, AAI studies methods to repair
government or work around it through the profit-making and voluntary
sectors.
Unlike academic
policy research agencies, AAI seeks to formulate coherent organizational
positions on public policy. However, those positions do not reflect
rigid ideological solutions or formulas, but rather a flexible general
approach. In particular, AAI does not specifically endorse particular
research papers or findings or proposals. All research products of AAI
have named authors and will reflect the views of those authors and not
the views of AAI. The particular contribution of AAI consists in assembling
and supporting and disseminating a body of work that has a coherent
general approach to policy analysis, a "brand name," even
though it does not constitute a rigid program.
Saying that AAI
takes a flexible approach is not the same as saying that AAI lacks core
values. Indeed, AAI believes that policy research, analysis, and education
make no sense unless they are rooted in strong values. AAI's important
values include beliefs that:
- Each Kansan
should be treated with equal respect and concern.
- Each Kansan
should have the means and opportunity to create and live an individualized
conception of the good life.
- Each Kansan
should have access to the natural world.
- Each Kansan
should have an opportunity to have input to any decision that affects
his or her life.
- Each Kansan
has a moral obligation to assist in the realization of these values
for all Kansans.
Many single-topic
policy analysis groups in Kansas take positions compatible with AAI's
general approach. AAI will not compete with them. AAI's intended role
is to address broader questions, such as:
- What policy
topics have "fallen through the cracks?" What policy research
needs doing that no one is doing?
- What are the
relationships across policy topics that no one is looking at?
- What do ordinary
Kansans think about priorities and relationships among topics?
- How can Kansans
come together to work cooperatively on multiple problems, to accomplish
together what they cannot accomplish separately? How can single-topic
policy groups work together? How can they frame their issues in
mutually supportive ways?
- What kind of
support infrastructures do single-topic policy groups need but do
not have? Can ways be found to provide them?
In many respects,
Kansas public policy has not been performing very well. The real wages
of ordinary working Kansans have not increased appreciably in 30 years,
while economic inequality has increased substantially. Kansas institutions
such as education, health care, and science have been falling behind
relatively to other industrialized countries. A majority of Kansas counties
have been consistently declining in population. The stock of water,
virgin prairie, and other natural resources has continued to decline.
Kansans have been
following the tactic of looking at particular problems in isolation,
but it is not working. AAI believes it is time to look at the big picture
from a point of view that focuses on core values.
Board of Directors
- David Burress, President
- Janet Parker, Secretary
- Creed Shepard, Outreach
- Dennis "Boog" Highberger
- Nate Carlson
- Bill Campsey
Council of Advisors
- Reverend Emanuel Cleaver, II, U.S. Congressman, Fifth District of Missouri
- Wes Jackson, President, The Land Institute
- Jim Lawing, Attorney and activist, Wichita
- Ramon Powers, Former Director, Kansas State Historical Society
- Anthony Romero, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union (National)
- Donald Worster, University of Kansas Distinguished Professor of American History
