| Four Lessons from New York's Test Results
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Gordon MacInnes,
The Century Foundation,
8/11/2010
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On July 28, New York State chancellor Meryl Tisch and commissioner of education Joseph Steiner released state test results and in doing so exposed that a majority of states have been lowering proficiency standards as a part of the No Child Left Behind game. Tisch and Steiner’s effort to align New York’s tests to what students need to know in order to be college-ready sets an example for every state as well as for federal education officials. In a new issue brief, Four Lessons from New York’s Test Results, Century Foundation fellow Gordon MacInnes writes that, “The sensible honesty of the New York leadership deserves national attention, particularly from advocates of ‘transformational reform.’”
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| The Impact of Housing and Investment Market Declines On the Wealth of Baby Boomers
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Millie Parekh,
Greg Anrig,
The Century Foundation,
8/4/2010
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The bursting of the housing bubble in 2007, the financial meltdown in 2008, and the most severe recession since the Great Depression have destabilized the economic security of the baby boom generation of Americans—those born between 1946 and 1964—just at the time when they are approaching retirement. Savings plans, 401(k)s, Individual Retirement Accounts, and other investments have become depleted not only because of the market’s decline, but also because individuals withdrew funds during the crisis, often incurring penalties in the process. Even more significant for most baby boomers, the housing equity that they expected would be their major asset in retirement has plummeted in value and remains far lower than it was just a couple of years ago. Download the brief.
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| False Impression:How A Widely Cited Study Vastly Overstates The Benefits Of Charter Schools
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Marco Basile,
Economic Policy Institute,
The Century Foundation,
8/1/2010
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One significant change in American education in recent years has been the proliferation of charter schools
throughout the country. Although charters are publicly funded, they are allowed to operate independently
from traditional public school systems while abiding by rules that vary from state to state. Advocates of
charters argue that their independence enables them to innovate and be more flexible in serving their
students. Many charter supporters also believe that, by relying on teachers who in most cases are not
unionized, better results will arise, in part because it is easier to fire ineffective non-unionized instructors
unprotected by tenure and due process dismissal rules.
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| How to Reduce Deficits and Improve the Tax System Without Hurting Most Families
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Bernard Wasow,
The Century Foundation,
7/19/2010
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Even though unemployment remains well above 9 percent, and the federal government could be doing much more to strengthen the economy, attention in Washington has turned to how best to reduce long-term federal deficits. In “How to Reduce the Deficit and Improve the Tax System without Hurting Most Families,” a new issue brief from The Century Foundation, economist and senior fellow Bernard Wasow weighs in with a solution to a significant part of the long-term deficit challenge that would be relatively pain free for low- and middle-income citizens: reform the income tax system to fix the problems with tax breaks. Download the brief.
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| A Turn in the Road? Rerouting Federal School Reform
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Gordon MacInnes,
The Century Foundation,
7/15/2010
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Since July 1, three developments suggest that the first-year victories of the Obama-Duncan “transformational reform” effort may be in jeopardy. First, the House of Representatives adopted a supplemental appropriations bill that includes an emergency infusion of $10 billion for saving teachers’ jobs, $800 million of which is financed by modest reductions in Race to the Top, the Teacher Incentive Fund, and one other embryonic administration program. The White House threatens a veto. Download the Issue Brief.
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| The Feds Move to Protect Students against the For-Profit Educational Industry
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Gordon MacInnes,
The Century Foundation,
6/24/2010
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On June 16th the Obama administration filed a reversal of policy with proposed rules that would ensure protection to students enrolled in for-profit schools. In a new issue brief, Century Foundation fellow Gordon MacInnes explains how for the past thirty years Congress and federal regulators have jiggered the rules to favor aggressive proprietary schools at the expense of poor, vulnerable students. MacInnes discusses how the Department of Education’s new proposal, if passed, will protect the hundreds of thousands of low-income students who seek financial aid to pursue higher education.
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| Negotiating with the Taliban: Issues and Prospects
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Antonio Giustozzi,
The Century Foundation,
6/21/2010
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The resilience of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan over the past half-dozen years has dispelled illusions of a military “victory” excluding them, and an end to the thirty years’ war in Afghanistan seems certain to involve their reintegration in some form into Afghan politics. In considering possible negotiations with the Taliban, one particular concern is how united, or disunited, the Taliban really are: Is the control exercised by the leadership of the Taliban sufficiently strong to deliver on any negotiated settlement? Or is the control weak enough to allow for easily co-opting or buying off individual commanders, avoiding the pursuit of a settlement with the political leadership? This report by Antonio Giustozzi, written as part of The Century Foundation Project on Afghanistan in Its Regional and Multilateral Dimensions, lays out how the Taliban are structured and organized, with an eye to assessing the impact of their organization and modus operandi on their willingness to negotiate and honor a political settlement.Download the report here.
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| Rewarding Strivers
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Richard D. Kahlenberg,
Century Foundation Press,
6/17/2010
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Today, higher education is a major force in promoting social mobility, yet colleges and universities seem more concerned with prestige than finding ways to make higher learning more accessible. Rewarding Strivers outlines two high-profile models that colleges and universities can follow in making the American Dream a realistic one for all students.
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| The Role of Infrastructure Investment in Economic Growth
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Francisco Rodríguez,
The Century Foundation,
5/14/2010
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The idea that infrastructure investment should have a positive effect on
economic
growth is intuitively appealing. Roads, electricity provision, and
communications
appear to be necessary for the basic functioning of an economy. It is
not hard
to write an economic model linking infrastructure and productivity, and
indeed
several such models have been written. Thus, one would expect the
existence of a
link between infrastructure and development to have been long established. However, the discussion of the link between infrastructure and economic growth is far from settled. A number of prominent authors have argued
that this
link is weak or nonexistent, and the question as to whether
infrastructure should be
given preference in public investment decisions is a controversial one.
This report
intends to serve as a guide to literature on this link that clarifies
the grounds for
disagreement between different authors and the implications of existing
empirical
results.
Download the report. See more from the Building a Stronger America series.
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| The Greenspan Commission: What Really Happened
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Robert M. Ball,
Century Foundation Press,
4/28/2010
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The National Commission on Social Security Reform—better
known as the Greenspan Commission—is widely credited with having
successfully addressed the financing crisis that the nation’s most
successful social insurance program faced in the 1980s. Today, the
Greenspan Commission is routinely cited as a model with which to resolve
divisive political challenges, most recently inspiring the appointment
of a bipartisan commission to address the federal deficit. But did the
Greenspan Commission /really/ succeed—or did one key member find a way
to work around its failure?
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Taking Note
