January 19, 2024
The Case for Curriculum
Since A Nation at Risk, Education Reform Efforts Have Mostly Stopped at the Classroom Door Executive Summary Decades of education reform have left policymakers, educators, and students alike fatigued and unimpressed. From standardized testing to accountability measures and smaller classroom sizes, almost every idea under the sun has been tried and tried again, except for one:…
January 19, 2024
Ninety Percent Student Attendance Won’t Solve Chronic Absenteeism
One day after Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona presented the Biden administration’s “Improving Student Achievement Agenda,” which appropriately focused on the unprecedented chronic absenteeism rates in US public schools, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released data under the headline, “Public School Leaders Report 90 Percent Average Daily Student Attendance Rate in November 2023.”…
January 19, 2024
The Work Incentive and Employment Effects of Eliminating the Child Tax Credit’s Annual Income Requirement
Abstract Senior House and Senate tax committee leaders agreed to a framework for modifying the Child Tax Credit on January 16, 2024. The most consequential reform would eliminate the Child Tax Credit’s annual income requirement by allowing individuals to calculate their eligibility using their current or prior year’s income, whichever year maximizes the family’s benefit….
January 18, 2024
Evidence Mounts That Pre-K Harms Kids
You know you’re making progress in an education policy debate when education professors and journalists start printing what used to be a conservative counter-argument as an unfortunate and perplexing fact. Last week, Education Week published an article titled: “Preschool Studies Show Lagging Result. Why?” The lede notes that although studies from the 1960s and 1970s showed strong positive…
January 17, 2024
Achieving Housing Abundance Through State and Local Land Use and Zoning Reform
Chair Heinrich and Vice Chair Schweikert, and distinguished Members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Executive Summary: Housing affordability issues are real for many Americans. As home prices and more recently mortgage rates have risen dramatically, many people can no longer afford to buy a home and have no choice…
January 17, 2024
A Midwest State of Mind
This is an excerpt of a piece original published in American Purpose here. Although many now worry that it is endangered, American civil society has long been an important element of what has made the United States an “exceptional nation.” Historian Jon K. Lauck argues that in 19th century America, the surprising epicenter of that civil…
January 17, 2024
Tax Extenders Package Would Cut the Child Tax Credit’s Annual Work Requirement in Half
One of the bills Congress punted to the new year is a package of “tax extenders” normally considered at year’s end when temporary tax laws are about to expire. But the agreement announced yesterday by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) is notable for far more than its timing. On the plus side, and to the negotiators’ credit, it’s a…
January 17, 2024
Congress, Don’t Legislate a Takeover of the Nation’s Rental Housing Market
It is an election year and Congress will soon consider two bipartisan bills to address high rental costs for many renters. The first is the Workforce Housing Tax Credit (WFHTC) and the second would be an expansion of the existing Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). The WFHTC would extend eligibility for subsidized units tenants earning below the area median….
January 16, 2024
Dry January Should Be Drug Free
There is nothing at all objectionable about the Dry (or semi-dry) January idea. The National Institute on Alcoholism reports that there were some 13,000 drunk-driving-related deaths in 2021—and that, overall, some 140,000 annual deaths can be linked to excessive drinking. For those who drink too much, drinking less is an obvious benefit. What makes the movement notable,…
January 15, 2024
The Economy Is Good. Why Do Consumers Feel So Bad?
As we approach another federal election cycle, there will be a lot of talk about the state of the economy. Are Americans better off, economically speaking, than they were when President Biden took office three years ago? Despite our having lived through a pandemic and the resulting unprecedented economic shocks, it still should be a…