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Begin New Search Topic Education Political Geography United States of America Content Type Working Paper Publication Year within 5 Years Publication Year within 25 Years

1. Mass Incarceration Retards Racial Integration

Author:
Peter Temin
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:
President Nixon replaced President Johnson’s War on Poverty with his War on Drugs in 1971. This new drug war was expanded by President Reagan and others to create mass incarceration. The United States currently has a higher percentage of its citizens incarcerated than any other industrial country. Although Blacks are only 13 percent of the population, they are 40 percent of the incarcerated. The literatures on the causes and effects of mass incarceration are largely distinct, and I combine them to show the effects of mass incarceration on racial integration. Racial prejudice produced mass incarceration, and mass incarceration now retards racial integration.
Topic:
Education, War on Drugs, Mass Incarceration, Integration, and Racism
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

2. How Milton Friedman Exploited White Supremacy to Privatize Education

Author:
Nancy MacLean
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:
This paper traces the origins of today’s campaigns for school vouchers and other modes of public funding for private education to efforts by Milton Friedman beginning in 1955. It reveals that the endgame of the “school choice” enterprise for libertarians was not then— and is not now--to enhance education for all children; it was a strategy, ultimately, to offload the full cost of schooling onto parents as part of a larger quest to privatize public services and resources. Based on extensive original archival research, this paper shows how Friedman’s case for vouchers to promote “educational freedom” buttressed the case of Southern advocates of the policy of massive resistance to Brown v. Board of Education. His approach—supported by many other Mont Pelerin Society members and leading libertarians of the day --taught white supremacists a more sophisticated, and for more than a decade, court-proof way to preserve Jim Crow. All they had to do was cease overt focus on race and instead deploy a neoliberal language of personal liberty, government failure and the need for market competition in the provision of public education.
Topic:
Economics, Education, Supreme Court, White Supremacy, Segregation, Private Schools, School Choice, and Public Schools
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

3. The US–China trade war and phase one agreement

Author:
Chad P. Bown
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
The Trump administration changed US trade policy toward China in ways that will take years for researchers to sort out. This paper makes four specific contributions to that research agenda. First, it carefully marks the timing, definitions, and scale of the products subject to the tariff changes affecting US-China trade from January 20, 2017 through January 20, 2021. One result is that each country increased its average duty on imports from the other to rates of roughly 20 percent, with the new tariffs and counter-tariffs covering more than 50 percent of bilateral trade. Second, the paper highlights two additional channels through which bilateral tariffs changed during this period: product exclusions from tariffs and trade remedy policies of antidumping and countervailing duties. These two channels have received less research attention. Third, it explores why China fell more than 40 percent short of meeting the goods purchase commitments set out for 2020, the first year of the phase one agreement. Finally, the paper considers additional trade policy actions—involving forced labor, export controls for reasons of national security or human rights, and reclassification of trade with Hong Kong—likely to affect US-China trade beyond the Trump administration.
Topic:
Education, Trade Wars, Trade Policy, and Protectionism
Political Geography:
China, Asia, North America, and United States of America

4. Expanding Opportunity for Lower-Income Students: Three Years of the American Talent Initiative

Author:
Aspen Institute
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
This is the second annual report for the American Talent Initiative, highlighting it has achieved more than 40 percent of the progress needed to realize its goal to enroll 50,000 additional lower-income students at high-graduation rate institutions across the country. This report also centers on the impact that an equity-focused, comprehensive strategy can have on institutions’ ability to enroll and graduate more of these talented students.
Topic:
Education, Inequality, Income Inequality, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

5. Making the Case: Solving the Student Debt Crisis

Author:
Tim Shaw and Kiese Hansen
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
For people across the United States, student loan debt is a growing portion of the household balance sheet. More than 40 million Americans have outstanding student loan balances. In 2019, the total amount of student debt owed surpassed $1.5 trillion, now the largest source of non-mortgage debt.
Topic:
Debt, Education, Students, and Student Loans
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

6. Recovery and Renewal: Principles for Advancing Public Education Post-Crisis

Author:
Education and Society Program
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The coronavirus pandemic has upended the school year for 50 million American students, and revealed the best and worst of public education: the best in terms of the heroic response by so many educators, support staff, students, and parents; the worst in terms of the intense light shone upon inequities that plague our system. As policymakers and education leaders plan to re-open buildings for school year 2020-21, they face important questions about how to capitalize on our strengths and finally deal with our weaknesses. We must be clear-eyed that inequity outside of school — like food insecurity, the digital divide, and the uneven experience of stress and trauma — is replicated and exacerbated by pervasive inequity inside of school. Going back to the status quo ante would leave many students and communities without what they need educationally. Therefore, the nation’s response to the pandemic must re-open schools and renew the promise of public education as an engine of opportunity. In this paper, the Institute’s Education & Society Program proposes five principles to guide recovery and renewal
Topic:
Education, Recovery, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

7. Supporting Students to be Independent Learners: State and District Actions for the Pandemic Era

Author:
Education and Society Program
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
In May 2020, the Aspen Institute Education & Society Program shared ten recommended state actions for Fostering Connectedness in the Pandemic Era that were developed with a diverse group of education leaders. The pandemic and resulting closure of school buildings have revealed the deep inequities that already existed in many schools, and connectedness is one of those gaps. Data from school climate surveys demonstrates that students of color, English-learners, and students from low-income families do not feel safe at school, in part because they do not have the kind of caring, trusted relationships that create belonging – and in part because they do not feel challenged with meaningful, rigorous work. With this in mind, and as a complement to the initial recommendations to advance social, emotional, and academic development, we turned to another diverse set of leaders for actionable insights focused on culturally and linguistically responsive education.
Topic:
Development, Education, Public Health, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

8. The short- and long-term costs to the United States of the Trump administration’s attempt to deport foreign students

Author:
Sherman Robinson, Marcus Noland, Egor Gornostay, and Soyoung Han
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
On July 6, 2020, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced modifications to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program eliminating temporary exemptions for nonimmigrant students taking all classes online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in the fall 2020 semester. Foreign students violating the rule would be subject to deportation. Under public pressure, the Trump administration rescinded the order on July 14. Had the policy been implemented, more than 1 million foreign students studying in the United States could have been deported. The authors use an economywide simulation model to estimate the economic impact on the United States if the policy had been implemented. They find that the policy would have cost the US economy up to 752,000 jobs and $68 billion in lost GDP in the short run. Their estimates are larger than those reported in other studies because they consider both direct and indirect effects of the policy. In the long run, the move would have reduced the research productivity of American universities and adversely affected research, innovation, and entrepreneurship across the economy, in both the private and public sectors.
Topic:
Education, Migration, Labor Issues, Donald Trump, COVID-19, and Protectionism
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

9. Reverse Student Mobility from South Korea to the United States

Author:
Stephanie Kim
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
Abstract:
Commentators have pointed to the “Trump Effect” for falling international student enrollment in the U.S. higher education sector. When taking a closer look at student mobility trends from South Korea, however, the facts and figures tell a different story. For the past two decades, South Korea has been consistently the third largest sender of international students to the United States. But the number of South Korean students who study in U.S. higher education had been steadily falling well before the more recent general declines in international student enrollment. What are the underlying causes of this concerning trend? And what are the implications for the United States when such a major contributor of international students wanes? This paper shows how internationalization efforts in the South Korean higher education sector have resulted in the reversal of domestic student outflow from South Korea to the United States that has major implications for bilateral relations between the two countries.
Topic:
Education, Bilateral Relations, Domestic Politics, and Freedom of Movement
Political Geography:
Asia, South Korea, North America, and United States of America

10. Theories of Democratic Change Phase III: Transitions from Conflict

Author:
Jennifer R. Dresden, Thomas E. Flores, and Irfan Nooruddin
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of International Education (IIE)
Abstract:
The notion that robust democracy and violent conflict are linked is commonplace. Many observers of international politics attribute violent conflict in contexts as diverse as Myanmar and Syria to failures of democracy. Conversely, most agree that continuing political violence undermines any effort to build strong democratic institutions in Libya or South Sudan. As a matter of policy, democratization has often been promoted not only as an end in itself but as a means toward building peace in societies scarred by violence. Development professionals tackle these challenges daily, confronting vicious cycles of political violence and weak democratic institutions. At the same time, scholars have dedicated intense scrutiny to these questions, often finding that the interrelationships between conflict and democracy belie easy categorization. This report, the third in a series on democratic theories of change, critically engages with this literature to ask three questions: Under what circumstances do democratic practice or movement toward democracy quell (or exacerbate) the risk of different kinds of violent conflict? Under what circumstances do the risk and experience of violent conflict undermine democratic practice? How can external interventions mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities inherent in transitions to democracy and peace? To answer these questions, a research team at George Mason University and Georgetown University spent eight months compiling, organizing, and evaluating the academic literature connecting democratic practice and violent conflict, which spans the fields of political science, economics, peace studies, anthropology, sociology, and psychology. This work was funded by USAID’s Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (the DRG Center), under the Institute of International Education’s (IIE’s) Democracy Fellows and Grants Program. Beginning in May 2018, the authors organized a team of three research assistants, who read and summarized more than 600 journal articles, books, reports, and newspaper articles. The resulting White Paper was the subject of an August 2018 workshop with representatives from USAID and an interdisciplinary group of eight scholars with expertise in conflict and democracy. Based on their feedback, the authors developed a new Theories of Change Matrix and White Paper in October 2018. This draft received further written feedback from USAID and another three scholars. The core team then revised the report again to produce this final draft. This report’s approach to the literature differs from past phases of the Theories of Democratic Change project. While past reports detailed the hypothesized causes of democratic backsliding (Phase I) and democratic transitions (Phase II), this report focuses on the reciprocal relationship between democratic practice and conflict. The report therefore organizes hypotheses into two questions and then sub-categories within each question.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, Education, Democracy, Conflict, Political Science, and USAID
Political Geography:
Libya, Syria, North America, Myanmar, South Sudan, Global Focus, and United States of America