May 2, 2025
SNAP is About Nutrition: My Response to Zycher
In a recent blog post, my AEI colleague Benjamin Zycher took issue with a letter to the editor I published in the Wall Street Journal, in which I agreed with columnist Allysia Finley’s argument to place further restrictions on what Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) dollars can be used to purchase. My point was simple:…
April 24, 2025
Not Local Enough: The Montgomery County Public Schools Case
The Supreme Court heard arguments this week in Mahmoud v. Taylor, in which parents from Montgomery County, Maryland, challenged the public school system for the right to opt their young children out from exposure to books on LGBT themes. The case appears, on the surface, to reverse long-standing views of the role of local government. Randi Weingarten, president of the…
April 8, 2025
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Supporting Employment
Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Craig, and members of the Agriculture Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this important issue. My name is Angela Rachidiand I am a Senior Fellow in poverty and opportunity studies at the American Enterprise Institute. I have spent much of the past 20 years researching and analyzing federal…
March 26, 2025
The Surprising Benefits of “Cooperative” AI
The Impact of AI on Work Quality and Collaboration: Insights from a Harvard Business School Study One of the great promises of the artificial intelligence era is the potential of the technology to democratize skill. Just as the internet and personal digital technology made it possible for us to instantly access the sum of all human knowledge, AI is creating…
March 17, 2025
Trump Should Put an End to Rent Control
We are in a time when what would have seemed to be unimaginable domestic policy changes — from the abolition of the Department of Education to cutoffs of federal support for universities — are on the table. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is involved in this creative destruction — having pulled back a Biden-era program called Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, which tied federal assistance for…
March 3, 2025
It’s Time for Time Limits on Public Housing
Like other Cabinet agencies, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is moving quickly to undo long-standing progressive policies. New HUD Secretary Scott Turner has asserted that the agency is now “DEI-free.” Perhaps even more significantly, the agency is considering implementing time limits and work requirements for tenants of public and subsidized housing. Although we should expect howls of protest from tenant…
December 14, 2024
Why the Riskiest Situation NYC Foster Kids Can Face Is Visiting Their Birth Parents
Between 2020 and 2023, there were 2,154 cases of substantiated abuse and/or neglect of foster children in New York City. When New Yorkers read that statistic — taken from a recent City Comptroller’s audit of the Administration for Children’s Services — they might be shocked. Indeed, it might confirm their prior assumptions about how terrible foster care…
December 9, 2024
Helping Parents to Help Kids: How to Reduce Addiction Among Families in the Child Welfare System
Event Summary On December 9, AEI hosted an event exploring innovative treatments for parental addiction, particularly within the child welfare system. Allegheny County Department of Human Services’ Alex Jutca presented on child welfare practice regarding parents with substance use disorder (SUD) in Allegheny County, where the majority of investigations and the eventual removal of children…
October 10, 2024
Do Liberal Arts Colleges Pay Off? What the Data Say
Going to a liberal arts college is usually an expensive way to get a bachelor’s degree. With students more mindful of high tuition, many liberal arts colleges are seeing enrollment drop—and some are closing altogether. The schools’ defenders argue that their small class sizes and well-rounded array of courses provide students with a strong foundation on…
October 8, 2024
House Committee on Ways and Means Hearing on Misuse of TANF Funds
Introduction: Chairman Smith (R-MO), Ranking Member Neal (D-MA), and members of the House Committee on Ways and Means, I appreciate the opportunity to submit testimony on the important topic of reforming the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to better target families in need, connect people to work, and improve accountability. My name is…