News List

THE PROBLEM: Any effort to provide students with a quality education must include parents. Parental involvement can help drive innovation, competition, and school improvement. However, current federal policies often ignore the important role parents play, and can stand in the way of state and local efforts to engage parents in their child’s education. For example, under current law, states and sc... Read more »

THE PROBLEM: Enacted under President George W. Bush's administration with the promise to focus on individual student achievement and overall school performance, No Child Left Behind was heralded as groundbreaking. But after a decade of the law, we can now clearly identify its weaknesses. The "Adequate Yearly Progress" measurement restricts states' and school districts' ability to effectively gaug... Read more »

“Speculation.” That’s how Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius described concerns about ObamaCare’s impact on workers and employers. According to the secretary, the law is still being implemented and there is nothing to fear until next year. Unfortunately, the secretary’s flawed theory stands in sharp contrast to the harsh reality reported across the country. A new survey is the l... Read more »

THE PROBLEM: Unions have long tried to organize small groups or “units” of employees as an incremental step toward organizing an entire workplace. A standard used for decades by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) required a different approach, one that promoted unity in workplaces by including in the proposed unit all employees that had a “community of interest.” The board considered basic... Read more »

THE PROBLEM: Under current federal labor law, workers choose whether or not to be represented by a union through a federally-supervised secret ballot election. However, workers can also organize through a ‘card check’ campaign, in which workers are asked to publicly declare their support for union representation by signing an authorization card. When a simple majority of workers sign a card – by ... Read more »

It wasn’t long ago the president supported a permanent solution to the student loan interest rate crisis. Here is how the administration described the president’s plan in April of this year: The Administration’s FY 2014 Budget proposes to change the structure of interest rates on Federal student and parent loans to provide market-based rates tied to the 10-year Treasury note with specified basis p... Read more »

THE PROBLEM: The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind, has been due for reauthorization since 2007. Despite its best intentions, there is widespread agreement that the current law is no longer effectively serving students. No Child Left Behind’s ‘Adequate Yearly Progress’ (AYP) metric proves one-size-fits-all federal accountability mandates hamper innova... Read more »

Today the Obama administration released a Statement of Administration Policy endorsing a Senate proposal to kick the can down the road on student loan interest rates. The approach now supported by the president would ensure millions of borrowers will face another interest rate cliff in two short years – exacerbating the confusion and uncertainty facing families and students. This is a sharp detour... Read more »

Tomorrow President Obama will hold an event at the White House to “call on Congress to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling on July 1st.” But wait a minute – the House has already taken action, approving legislation that mirrors the president’s own proposal to shift interest rates to a long-term, market-based solution. That’s right – the Smarter Solutions for Students Act is based on ... Read more »

THE PROBLEM: In recent years, the federal government has taken steps to improve data collection and transparency in the higher education system. Under Republican leadership, the 2008 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act included several provisions to provide students and families with the data needed to make informed decisions about their postsecondary opportunities. Despite these improvem... Read more »