Lynn Parramore

Top Priorities for an Education Makeover

As the school year kicks off, parents, students, employers, workers — just about everyone with a stake in education — can see that our system isn’t working as it should. Yet we all know that education is the key to the future. What, then, is the single most important priority for improvement? I looked for answers in the realms of policy-making, public education and universities. Here are a few ideas:

1. No Dollar Left Behind

What people are willing to pay for “education” is wildly out of sync with common sense.

The case is clearest with higher ed. Harvard, Princeton, Yale and similar…

Marshall Auerback’s Labor Day Advice: Create a Job Guarantee Program

Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Marshall Auerback talked to Bloomberg about fiscal policy that could enhance productive activity and deal with the scourge of long-term unemployment. Looking to the Fed, he says, is not the answer.  Auerback wants to see the government initiate a job guarantee program which could be administered at the local or municipal level. “Instead of having programs which effectively subsidize unemployment,” he says,  “we could have a government which actually stands ready to offer workers jobs and benefits — say a 35-hour week at a fixed level of benefits and income.”  He would like to create “a…

A Call for the New Possible

William Greider’s Come Home, America provides a blueprint for possibility.

There’s a lot of talk these days about something called the New Normal. Some of it is justified. Consumer spending, for example, will not be going back to pre-crash levels anytime soon. The heedless mass-consumption society looks to be behind us: don’t count on buying that new PlayStation for your kid this Christmas. Or the next one. It’s hard to argue that a profound adjustment in the way we think about spending, saving, and credit is happening whether we like it or not. This we must accept.

But sometimes talk of the New…

Only Imagine: Remembering Tony Judt

Our collective soul aches today. Tony Judt, historian, author, and one of our most robust progressive voices, will greet us from the pages of the New York Review of Books no more. Judt, born and educated in Britain, lived and taught in the US, where he pondered American culture and politics with the critical eye of an uncle whose affection was tempered by exasperation but buoyed by an undaunted belief in us. He understood what ails us — our materialism, our selfishness, our delusions of perpetual growth and free-wheeling markets — but he also gleaned our potential to regain our footing…

Rooseveltians React to Romer: “Sensible Thinking Will Be Missed”

The chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers has decided to bail on the administration. Romer, an economics prof at the University of California (Berkeley) prior to taking her post, was one of the key players in crafting the original stimulus bill. What does her exit say about who gets access to the President? Is this a sign that the iron grip of Summers will loosen? Just what did Romer mean to the administration’s economics vision? I asked Roosevelt Institute fellows and New Deal 2.0 contributors to share their views.

Rob Johnson, Senior Fellow and Director of the Roosevelt…

‘Selling Us Short: The Limits of Markets (and Governments)’, with Joe Stiglitz and Jim Chanos

Highlights from 100 Days and the Road Ahead panel

Did you miss yesterday’s 100 Days and the Road Ahead panel at the Regency Hotel in NYC? Don’t worry, you can view a full stream of the event here or check out the highlights of the event below.

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