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June 23, 2025

Boston’s Backward Housing Policy: More Demand Will Only Exacerbate the Supply Crisis

Boston’s housing policies keep treating symptoms while ignoring the disease. Last month, the city proudly unveiled its Co-Purchasing Housing Pilot Program, offering $50,000 in zero-interest, deferred-payment loans to help lower-income households cover down payments and closing costs on multi-family homes. The idea is to allow multiple individuals to pool resources and purchase homes together. It sounds…

June 20, 2025

Senate Embraces “Do No Harm” for Higher Education

The Hippocratic Oath is coming for higher education. Last week, Senate Republicans released a package of higher education reforms that includes a “do no harm” standard for colleges: Degree programs would be ineligible for federal student loans if their former students’ earnings are too low. If enacted, the proposal would improve on the status quo, as the…

June 12, 2025

The Senate’s Higher Education Reforms Are Strong (But Could Be Stronger)

Senate Republicans recently unveiled their suite of higher education reform proposals, part of a broader tax-and-spending bill making its way through Congress. The package is strong: it would impose commonsense limits on federal student loans and create a saner loan repayment system. However, it forgoes obvious changes that would save taxpayers more money and would better hold…

June 10, 2025

The Surprising Epilogue to an Infamous Conn Job

In government scandals, some surnames are especially memorable, even decades later. A fugitive financier named Marc Rich (and his partner Pinky Green) were famously pardoned by Bill Clinton in what “reeked of payoff” for contributions to the Clinton Library. Then there’s former Rep. Pat Swindall (R-GA), who was indicted for perjury. The puns write themselves. But nothing…

June 5, 2025

More Evidence of How Housing Regulation Is Bad for Housing

The American Dream’s geographic escape hatch is slamming shut. New research reveals that once-affordable sunbelt cities like Phoenix, Dallas, and Miami now mirror the restrictive housing markets of San Francisco and New York. The implications for economic dynamism are profound and worrisome. For decades, America’s housing market operated on a simple safety valve principle: When…

May 29, 2025

How Non-disabled Medicaid Recipients Without Children Spend Their Time

The reconciliation bill passed by the United States House of Representatives imposes community engagement requirements for childless non-disabled Medicaid recipients age 19–64, starting in 2027. The requirement can be met by spending 80 hours in at least some months either working, going to school, participating in a work program, or doing community service. In a…

May 28, 2025

An Evaluation of Approaches to Cut and Reform SNAP

House Republicans narrowly passed their version of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last week, and the legislation contains major changes to SNAP, including expanded work requirements, reduced federal and state exemptions and shifting more of the costs to states. Changes are likely as the Senate takes up the bill, and Kevin Corinth, senior fellow and deputy…

May 13, 2025

Common-Sense SNAP Reforms Included in House Agriculture Reconciliation Proposal

The House Agriculture committee released budget reconciliation text this week and scheduled a full committee markup. As part of the budget framework passed earlier this year, the Agriculture Committee was tasked with identifying cuts of $230 billion over 10 years. Nutrition programs account for the bulk of spending under the committee’s jurisdiction, with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)…

May 12, 2025

To Improve Student Outcomes, Focus On Classroom Practice, Not Policy

Last week, I had the privilege of delivering keynote remarks at Marquette University Law School’s Lubar Center for a conference focused on redirecting K-12 education reform toward classroom teaching. Inspired by my recent Marquette Today piece, the event—hosted in collaboration with the College of Education—brought together educators, researchers, and policymakers to discuss how improving classroom practice…

May 7, 2025

Colleges Must Help Return Student Borrowers to Repayment

The four-year pause on student loan payments has left behind an alarming fallout: Millions of student borrowers, having disengaged from the student loan system, are not making payments on their debts. Now, the Education Department is asking for help from colleges to get borrowers paying their loans again. On Monday, the Department issued a Dear Colleague Letter to…