Site Neutral Shoots Forward

By Evan Mintz, communications director 

A bipartisan reauthorization in the Senate could open the door to more and better research-driven policy in higher education.

What’s Happening: Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) worked together this week to introduce and mark up a bipartisan reauthorization bill of the Education Sciences Reform Act, which presents an opportunity to bolster policies aimed at improving student outcomes and expanding the use of evidence-based student success practices. The newly introduced bill is called the Advancing Research in Education Act (AREA). 

Why It Matters: More than two-thirds of two-year colleges don’t graduate most of their students, and more than a quarter of bachelor’s degree programs leave students with a negative return on investment. Evidence-based programs create an opportunity for more students to graduate – and rigorous, federally funded research can help to build that evidence base. 

What’s Next: If AREA becomes law, it would help improve access to education data and put high-quality evidence into the hands of practitioners across the country – paving the way to more and better evidence-based and data-driven student success policies.  
 

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By Evan Mintz, communications director
 

Take a look at our roundup of the 23 best stories of the year where Arnold Ventures helped maximize opportunity and minimize injustice across criminal justice, health care, public finance, higher education, and other portfolios.

Read our roundup>

Criminal Justice

• In an op-ed for The Hill, Arnold Ventures’ Vice President of Criminal Justice Advocacy Kevin Ring writes about how the First Step Act demonstrates that commonsense reforms are the best way to fix our broken criminal justice system.
   
• The New Yorker reports on the controversial legal doctrine of felony murder and how it has been used to incarcerate thousands of people not directly responsible for killing anyone.
   
• The Prosecutor and Law Enforcement Advisory Council at the American Conservative Union Foundation’s Nolan Center for Justice has released a list of “Conservative Principles of Prosecution,” which aims to "bring more clarity to the Nation’s prosecutorial corps and to the public, whom they protect." 
   
• In a story published by KFF Health News, Arnold Ventures’ Director of Criminal Justice Marc Krupanski discusses how the discredited theory of "excited delirium" encouraged police officers to use greater force rather than call medical personnel when experiencing people in aggressive states, contributing to more deaths.
   
• The New York Times reports on how some firearms being surrendered in gun buyback programs are being resold by private companies on secondary arms markets rather than being destroyed. (free link)
   
• A new report from the Council of State Governments Justice Center details how the "States Supporting Familiar Faces Project" has been working with Georgia and New Mexico to improve outcomes for individuals with high rates of justice involvement and health service usage.

• Polling released from United States of Care shows strong public support for policymakers to ban or restrict “facility fees” (74%), with 75% of voters identifying the cost of health care as fair or poor.
   
• The Century Foundation’s new report on how states can leverage cost-growth benchmark programs to improve health equity and health care affordability, including policy recommendations to better promote equity in design, implementation and execution.
   
• The National Partnership for Women & Families’ case study on CMMI’s new Making Care Primary (MCP) model, highlights how population-based payment reform can be used to advance health equity and better sustain primary care.
   
• Eighty-one percent of small businesses participating in a national survey from Small Business for America’s Future said the cost of health care impacts their businesses and constrains their ability to grow and hire, in addition to causing them to raise prices for goods and services.  

• George Will describes the nation’s fiscal challenges and what realistic solutions might look like in his Washington Post column. (free link)
   
• Angélica Serrano-Román unpacks the latest developments for Puerto Rico’s tax plan in Bloomberg.
   
• Andrew Leahey discusses the merits of reforming the estate tax rather than enacting a new wealth tax for Bloomberg.

• The Washington Post covered a new report published by AV grantees the Century Foundation, EducationCounsel and American Enterprise Institute on ways to reform the system for financing graduate student education. (free link)
   
• Student Defense has released a report on for-profit graduate programs, which explains how for-profit graduate schools, on average, leave students worse-off than public and private non-profit institutions.
   
• Want to know what’s going on in the world of higher education accountability? Check out AV grantee Jason Delisle’s primer on recent accountability proposals and challenges to the reform efforts.
   
• Third Way released a blog post on how the Department of Education can improve accreditation through negotiated rulemaking.
   
• Last week, the Department of Education announced more than $40 million in Postsecondary Student Success Program grants for nine institutions, which will use the funds to implement evidence-based strategies to improve completion rates for their underserved students. 

• Want a quick download on the state of solar energy? Check out the latest fact sheet from the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie.
   
• The New York Times explores the recent spike in pedestrian deaths and asks why so many people are dying at night. (free link)

• It's a bit like Punch Buggy but for the holiday season: #Whamageddon. I'm still in.
   
• Daniel Kish pioneered the use of echolocation to help people who are blind navigate their world. He now teaches it to others. This short documentary delves into Kish's work with students and attempts to recreate what he perceives.