“The economists don’t know what they’re talking about.” Granted, this may seem like an odd opening for a piece by two economists, but the guy who said this — a member of a focus group probing Americans’ experiences in the current economy — has a point. Policy-makers are waxing ever more enthusiastic about how great […]
Education in America
Posted inEducation in America
Stopping Aid
This was supposed to be a milestone year in the fight against AIDS. In 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that it intended to intensify its prevention programs in order to cut new HIV infections in half by 2005. Instead, the number has held steady at 40,000 a year since 1998. […]
Posted inEducation in America
A Liberal’s Education
Dear Senator Santorum, Until I picked up your bookIt Takes A Family, I had never really recognized what it means to be a liberal. It turns out I’ve been going about things all wrong. I hadn’t realized that I was supposed to be opposed to everything good, right, or true in America. I also hadn’t […]
Posted inEducation in America
A Candlelight Election Dinner
By Ezra Nick’s post below on Bush’s declining support among white men with a high school education or less is important stuff. This is the demographic that kicked John Kerry in the teeth. In 2000, Gore won the non-high school educated by 20%, Kerry took them by 1%. In 2000, Gore lost the high-school educated […]
Posted inEducation in America
Prison Nation
The number of inmates in America’s prisons is growing by 900 people each week. The total number, according to the Department of Justice, has reached 2.1 million, or one out of every 138 U.S. residents. A newly established 21-person commission is now studying issues of safety and abuse in America’s prisons. Funded by the Vera […]
Posted inEducation in America
The Killed Fields
SIEM REAP, Cambodia — Nearly all visitors to Cambodia come to see the ancient temples of Angkor — the tree-strangled Ta Prohm, the exquisite Banteay Srei, and the majestic symmetry of Angkor Wat itself, among countless others. But not far from the ruins lies a memorial to a less glorious part of Cambodia’s past: the […]
Posted inEducation in America
Poverty-Reduction
And this is why effective sex education and widespread access to birth control are overriding moral issue: Nationally, the teenage birth rate fell 30 percent from 1991 to 2002, the most recent year for which such statistics are available. If the rate had not dropped during the decade, 1.2 million more children would have been […]
Posted inEducation in America
Ballad of the Beast-Starvers
In early 2005, the Bush administration released its budget for fiscal year 2006 (which goes from October 2005 to September 2006). And, for the first time, the Bush administration serves up big spending cuts. So it’s worth checking out for whom the axe falls. In addition, the longer-term priorities of the administration and its backers […]
Posted inEducation in America
Failing Grade
During the second presidential debate last year, George W. Bush ventured that “the No Child Left Behind Act is really a jobs act when you think about it.” Democrats mocked President Bush, but education has always been critical for a president who asks voters to “sense my heart.” It is the only major issue on […]
Posted inEducation in America
Attention, Bloggers
Big secret! And remember: You heard it here first. Democrats need a win in Washington. The need something, anything, to get the bad taste of the last four years out of the mouth and to reassure themselves that they actually have a purpose beyond their recent role as GOP fodder. Ironically, as President George W. […]