In this article, I position federal policy as a shaper of familial life capable of capacitating new forms of relationality. I review three key child and family provisions in the "Build Back Better" social policy package proposed by the Biden administration: the expanded child tax credit, universal pre-K, and the expansion of federal…

In Fall 2022, the U.S. Education Department unveiled a drastic overhaul of federal student loan policies. The new rules serve as a key vehicle to advance the Biden administration's higher education agenda. However, some of the final regulations look quite different from the policy proposals initially outlined in President Joe Biden's campaign…

Student parents face significant challenges that can limit their ability to enter, persist in, and graduate from college. Innovative partnerships between Head Start and the higher education system is a promising strategy to bring together essential supports to meet the needs of student parents and set them up for long-term success. This briefing…

Grantmakers for Education's "Trends in Education Philanthropy: Benchmarking 2018-19" report offers insights on the current and evolving priorities of the education funding community. It can help funders to understand their role in supporting education innovation and identify future priorities that hold the greatest promise for benefiting…

All states value their distinct approaches to policy and to life and the U.S. Constitution embeds the idea of state rights and responsibilities as a core principle in the federal system. California arguably takes this further than most. This paper provides a new way to think about how national policies might complicate or augment the next state…

Research universities are critical contributors to our national research enterprise. They are the principal source of a world-class labor force and fundamental discoveries that enhance our lives and the lives of others around the world. These institutions help to create an educated citizenry capable of making informed and crucial choices as…

This document records testimony from a hearing before the Committee on Education and Labor to examine the policies and priorities of the United States Department of Education. Member statements were presented by: (1) Honorable Robert C. Scott, Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor; and (2) Honorable Virginia Foxx, Ranking Member, Committee on…

Over the past decade, the federal government has made substantial efforts to simplify the college-going process and help students to evaluate college choices. These low-cost strategies aimed at improving college access and success by helping students to make informed decisions about college warrant assessment. This study examines the impact of a…

Internet search histories reveal much about the collective concerns and interests of the population. Researchers have demonstrated that searches for terms such as "flu symptoms" predict the onset and prevalence of flu in given geographical areas. Can such an analysis be applied fruitfully to data on searches related to higher education issues? One…

This article examines how the history of land-grant universities in America shaped the views of higher educators, public officials, and foundations on the role of urban universities in addressing the problems of American cities. Higher education leaders urged the federal government to provide funds that would enable urban universities to do for…

Large numbers of schools across the country are low performing and have been for years. This longstanding and widespread problem painfully reveals that individual schools are not the only ones responsible for their performance. The public school system as a whole is unable, and sometimes unwilling, to address the root causes of dysfunction.…

Of the numerous public policy debates currently taking place throughout the United States, perhaps no issue receives more attention than the persistence of "chronically" low-performing public schools. As of 2009, approximately 5,000 schools--5% of the nation's total--qualified as chronically low performing (Duncan, 2009d). Certainly,…

The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country. The causes for the large number of prisoners can be traced, in part, to a politicized war on crime that resulted in harsh sentencing and high recidivism rates. Prisoner education provides the potential for slowing the revolving door of prison by helping to create engaged…

States and localities issue debt to finance projects undertaken by government and, in some cases, by the private sector (bonds issued by states and localities to finance either government operations or certain private-sector activities are known as municipal bonds). The federal government subsidizes the issuance of municipal bonds by offering tax…

This May 2006 issue of "Federal Literacy Facts" contains the following sections: (1) Canadian Council on Learning Releases Learning Index; (2) Learning Index Highlights Adult Literacy as Key Challenge; (3) Literacy Doesn't Make the Federal Budget's Priority List; (4) Community Still Waiting for Federal Call for Literacy Proposals; (5) AG…