Petrilli nails ESEA reauthorization proposal
After finishing the last entry, I realized I should write something about Friday’s USDOE proposal on ESEA reauthorization. But procrastination is sometimes a serendipitous thing, thanks to the Fordham blog: Mike Petrilli’s analysis is correct, at least on first approximation. A narrative framework is not statutory language, Duncan’s proposal isn’t George Miller’s, and other Beelzebubs squatting in […]
Health care reform: how to save lives and money and maybe defuse debates about teaching
Another reason for the House to pass the Senate’s health-care bill and both houses to pass a tweak through reconciliation: it would expand existing comparative-effectiveness studies. Currently, massive advertising by pharmaceutics is feeding Americans’ existing tendency to ask for huge amounts of wasteful spending on imaging/testing, drugs, and surgery. While NPR has highlighted the cooptation […]
Health care and financial-aid reform as a package
Wednesday’s rumor has turned into Friday’s semi-confirmation: Democratic leaders in Congress are looking very seriously at packaging together the changes to the Senate health-care bill with the Student Aid and Financial Responsibility Act (SAFRA) through budget reconciliation. SAFRA would end federal subsidies for bankers that initiate loans for college students and return an estimated $67 […]
A health-care mandate for education
Over the next week I’ll be writing a few entries about health care. Today, it’s the benefit of an individual mandate for college completion. The individual mandate is the package deal that goes with universal coverage, to get healthy people into the insured pool, and it’s also important to help college students finish. Every year, […]
Kristof and the public purpose of feel-good years
Charlie Barone is right: Nicholas Kristof’s column yesterday comparing TFA and the Peace Corps shows the practical limits of TFA (as well as Kristof’s ignorance about VISTA, but that’s a different story). There’s something important about consistently reminding reporters and other naive folks that TFA is not scalable. Regardless of what you think of it, […]