In the context of Pres. Obama’s recent speech calling for an end to the ‘war on terror,’ may I suggest that we end another long-running war — and consider starting some others? A friend shared this article with a key quote: But federal research shows that the average sentence for a first time, non-violent drug…
My Proposals
How Should Government Promote Stable Families?
While the achievement of marriage equality will be a tremendous step, it comes at a time when an extended recession has drawn attention to the economic fragility of contemporary families. When two parents are required to support a child (or when only one is available), the consequences of unemployment or underemployment can be devastating for…
Fairness in Tax Policy
We’ve begun to discuss the specifics of tax policy in a few of the comment threads, so I thought I’d bring that discussion here. I’ll do my best to keep the explanation simple, but if you’re not into tax policy I understand. Jacob and I started with a discussion of what constitutes “fairness” in…
Structuring National Health Care in America
I’ll be honest in admitting that a part of me, from time to time, thinks that we should just adopt a single-payer, nationalized health care system like that of the UK. There are some wonderful arguments for equality and gains to be made through standardization. Believing that we’re ready to move basic health care from…
Extending the Promise of America to More Americans
In September of 2009, on the eve of a speech that President Obama gave before a joint session of Congress, I wrote my own version of what I hoped he’d argue. It still captures much of what I consider the best arguments for a federal health care system, based upon the logic of the Declaration…
National Health Care
This is a tricky series of posts to write because of our current partisan atmosphere. The fight over and passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010 (“Obamacare”) has severely divided the nation. In fact, it has transformed health care into perhaps the best example of the distorting effect of partisanship in…
Ignore the Rankings
Embracing the teaching-centered faculty model I explained in my last post would require a major shift in perspective for many colleges and universities. One of the things that would have to change is the constant eye toward national rankings. This has become, for private colleges and universities and too many state schools, the post-secondary equivalent…
Prioritize Teaching in Faculty Structure
As promised, here are a few of the ideas which I think should be adopted to raise the level of teaching while cutting costs: Eliminate Tenure I used to be a firm advocate for tenure, arguing that it was a perfectly reasonable compensation structure in an environment that privileged free expression. Dean Dad has long…
Increasing State Subsidies to Education
The Problem of Student-Funded Education As both Grant and David point out, over the last generation the cost of higher education has been substantially shifted from the public to the individual student. For a nation that prides itself on equality of opportunity, this is really a scandalous development, for reasons I articulated in a previous post. From a…
The Purpose of Education in a Democratic Society
I think it is fair to say that the educational system in the United States faces an existential crisis. From the university level on down it, the expense continues to increase without producing recognizably better outcomes. The United States continues to lag behind other nations in student performance while our system of higher education (once…