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This week's TTR has the goods on college affordability, transportation priorities in the stimulus, building the Afghan government, and why we're (still) capitalists.
- College (un)affordability. Facing rising college tuition rates and less accessible financial aid, students need help. Demos reports that grant aid in the U.S. has become increasingly diffuse, and the average award today covers only one-fifth of college expenses, compared to three-fourths in the 1970s. The problem largely results from the rise of merit-based aid in the mid-1990s, which disproportionately advantaged middle-to-upper income students who could already afford the costs of a 4-year institution. While need-based aid did increase by 95 percent from 1994-2004, merit-based scholarships exploded by nearly four times as much. This effectively favored families earning more than $100,000 annually over those making under $20,000 by a 4:1 ratio. Unsurprisingly, enrollment rates were similarly affected -- as Demos phrases it, "The least bright wealthy kids attend college at the same rate as the smartest poor kids." Demos proposes an alternative "contract" that distributes need-based aid progressively. However, reciprocity is also a key ingredient. Students receiving grants would be required to work 15 hours a week, 25 percent of which would come in the form of public service. Loans would be available based upon remaining college costs and would be subsidized for families earning under $100,000. These policies would expand higher education opportunities while significantly reducing the chance for burdensome student debt. -- JL
- Guiding a transportation revolution. Smart Growth America put out a report last week to guide state transportation officials spending the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's federal largess. The recommendations correspond roughly to SGA partner Transportation for America's platform: make needed repairs to existing infrastructure, beef up public transportation, improve streets to better accommodate cyclists and pedestrians, streamline congestion management, and enhance quality of life by better linking transportation with land-use planning and diversifying neighborhoods. Many state Departments of Transportation are unused to planning much beyond new roads and lanes. Now, they will be responsible for divvying up their share of the $27.5 billion surface transportation pot to achieve long-term goals of sustainable mobility, create jobs and eliminate inefficiencies in the current system. Let's hope this advice won't fall on deaf ears. -- MK
- "Building an Afghan state through Afghan means." Though the debate over what the United States' strategic goals should be in Afghanistan is far from settled, almost all observers agree that a key component of any U.S. action will be measures to strengthen the Afghan government and improve its relations with regular citizens. The Center for a New American Security brings the heat on this front with a new paper on the National Solidarity Program (NSP), a Afghan initiative designed to increase rural development and connect Afghan citizens to the central government. This includes building schools, water pumps, and irrigation networks; the World Bank has estimated that the return on these investments is as high as 20 percent. The folks at CNAS argue that the program is especially effective because it is an Afghan "owned" initiative, not run by foreign aid workers. Ultimately, NSP requires more funding; last year, Congress spent only $65 million on the program, leading to shortfalls; the report proposes an increase to $300 million annually. -- TF
- ”Why The U.S. Is Still A Capitalist Country." No one should have to waste time writing an essay proving that the U.S. is still a capitalist country. That the Brookings Institute feels the need to publish an essay on the subject shows just how pervasive irrational conservative accusations of socialism, Marxism, and even Soviet Communism have become. "Temporary state control of private institutions during emergencies does not transform a capitalist economy into something else,” the Brookings report sighs. The essay’s implicit argument is that the Obama administration could nationalize the banks without breaking into a fevered rendition of the Internationale. “Even if all of Barack’s [sic] Obama's proposals were adopted, the United States would remain a capitalist country,” no matter how much National Review may insist otherwise. -- JB
-- TAP Staff
