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The Abstract
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> By Stephanie DiCapua Getman, Arnold Ventures
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Jan. 6 was a day of contradictions: On the same day that democracy prevailed in Georgia, with the historic elections of the state’s first Black senator, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, and its first Jewish senator, Jon Ossoff, its fragility was laid bare with a violent uprising of Trump supporters whose actions terrorized lawmakers, public servants, and journalists for hours at our nation’s Capitol. (Bravo to the quick-thinking aide who grabbed the Electoral College certificates while fleeing.) The Atlantic called it not just an assault on democracy, but “an attack on multiracial democracy, which is younger than most members of the Senate.” Perhaps the most glaring contradiction to come out of the day’s events is the double standard seen in law enforcement’s reaction to the attackers, finally highlighting for many how differently white and Black bodies are policed in this country. (Here’s a side-by-side comparison with the Black Lives Matters protests in D.C. last year.) So many peaceful protests for racial justice in the summer of 2020 were met with an inordinate police presence and brute force, yet law enforcement was unprepared for an event being planned in plain sight. My colleague Walter Katz, who oversees policing at AV, put it best: “Today, once again, the question of implicit bias in policing is glaringly apparent. Acknowledging ‘how to police’ as being largely dependent upon ‘who is policed’ cannot be casually swept aside as reformist rhetoric.” He calls for a quick and public accounting “that can serve as an example for policing everywhere.”
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By Adrienne Faraci, Communications Manager
LaKesha Howard-Williams was excited to enroll at the Illinois Institute of Art in 2017. But she quickly had doubts about the education the for-profit school was providing. She was disappointed in the quality of the coursework and instruction, as well as the drop-out rate of other students in the first few terms. Then, in the summer of 2018, the school lost its accreditation — and failed to let its students know.
What’s Happening: In theory, students like Howard-Williams are protected from such deceptions under the Higher Education Act. But in recent years — and even in 2020 as the coronavirus devastated the U.S. economy — Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has systematically propped up low-quality schools and rejected relief requests from large groups of defrauded students. Those whose applications were accepted often received little compensation. That is where groups like Student Defense and Project on Predatory Student Lending stepped in, litigating against the Department and schools themselves on behalf of student borrowers in order to halt these abuses and make students whole.
The best part, they won.
What’s Next: The Biden administration has much groundwork to make up in reinstituting protections and protocols that will help, not harm, students defrauded by predatory institutions. Advocates like Seth Frotman of The Student Borrower Protection Center are hopeful: "For the first time in a long time, I think there's a sense of optimism about the ability to use litigation to help borrowers who have been ripped off by the student loan industry. And not only to help those borrowers, but to drive larger systemic change.”
Read the story >
Related: An Urban Institute analysis of how forgiving student debt would impact the federal budget.
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Meanwhile, Here Are 5 Ways...
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… the Biden Administration can put our higher education system on the right course. This past year, many people have questioned the value of higher education. But the data is clear: For most people, higher education pays off. People with four-year degrees have the lowest rates of unemployment, the best health outcomes, and are the most stable financially.
Bottom line: These good outcomes depend on students getting a quality education from a reputable school — and that kind of accountability is where our public policy falls short. We offer five actionable ways that the next administration can ensure students and taxpayers are getting the value they deserve, our students and veterans are protected from predatory schools, and colleges and universities are held accountable for their students’ success.
This is the first in a series on how the Biden Administration can impact reform in the areas where we work.
Read the story >
Related: With the Department of Education in ruins, the next Secretary of Education must focus on protecting students from predatory schools and increase oversight of for-profit colleges, writes The New York Times.
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When Houstonian Stephen Douglas, who has bipolar disorder, was dealing with a crisis, he reached out to a friend for help. That friend called 911. When officers arrived, they didn’t take Douglas to the Harris County Jail like they had times before. Instead, he was taken to a county-run diversion center aimed at helping people struggling with mental illness. It was there he learned of Open Door Mission, which helps men overcome addiction and homelessness and provides resources to better their lives. “Without Harris County’s diversion program and Open Door Mission,” he said, “I would have just gotten out of jail and done the same thing until I got caught — again and again and again.”
What’s Happening: Douglas’s outcome is a stark change from the tough-on-crime mindset of decades past. As local governments battle cash-strapped budgets, crowded jails, and community calls for change, some leaders are taking more creative approaches to better allocate tax dollars, reduce jail populations, and provide needed resources to assist with mental health, addiction, or homelessness.
Bottom Line: “Policing in this modern era is on the frontlines of three very important issues. And that’s mental illness, addiction, and poverty,” says Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. “And we’re not going to incarcerate our way out of those issues. We need to make sure that we’re being smart with policy … that we are not using mass incarceration as our one and only response.”
Read the story> |
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News potentially buried by the week’s events: No charges will be filed against the Wisconsin officer who shot Jacob Blake.
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Why the outdated laws regulating donor-advised funds should be reformed to get charitable dollars where they are needed, via Barron’s. “The government shouldn’t be subsidizing putting money aside where it might or might not be spent for the benefit of society.”
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signing a package of criminal justice reform bills supported by REFORM Alliance that significantly reshape the state’s probation and parole system, via The Crime Report.
Related: A newly elected Michigan prosecutor will no longer seek cash bail, joining a growing list of prosecutors across the country, via The Appeal.
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A new law that stops the suspension of driver’s licenses for New Yorkers who fail to pay fines is welcome, but does not go far enough in ending the criminalization of poverty, via The Appeal.
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How even in a pandemic and economic slowdown, big pharma raised prices on drugs, further illustrating the industry's devotion to profits over patients, via Reuters.
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Hospital prices will be more transparent in 2021 — a good first step, “but the market power of the various players might matter more,” Kaiser Health News reports.
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A closer look from STAT at Biden’s historic appointment of adviser Marcella Nunez-Smith, whose focus will be on combating racism and racial disparities in health care.
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How one New York nonprofit hospital sued 2,500 patients for medical debt amid the pandemic — even while other private hospitals stopped, via The New York Times. “They hit teachers, construction workers, grocery store employees and others, including some who had lost work in the pandemic or gotten sick themselves.”
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The HBO documentary “40 Years a Prisoner,” a detailed and shocking history of events leading up to the controversial 1978 Philadelphia police raid of the back-to-nature group MOVE. The story follows Mike Africa Jr.’s decades-long fight to free his parents, who were incarcerated for the death of a police officer in the raid and whom he has only known behind prison bars. The themes of over-policing and racial bias are timely and familiar: “So many of our problems remain,” writes The Washington Post, “but ‘40 Years a Prisoner’ presents a valuable primer on what mistakes not to repeat. ‘You don’t do nothing,’ says one attorney about what might have been dangerous and unhealthy conditions at the MOVE house. ‘But you don’t do what the Philadelphia P.D. did.’”
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The finale episode of Louder Than A Riot, which explores the history behind Mississippi State Penitentiary, known as Parchman, its legacy of failed reforms, and a recent lawsuit against Mississippi's Department of Corrections for human rights abuses there. Rapper Yo Gotti was a catalyst for the legal action, enlisting the help of Jay-Z’s Team Roc and Van Jones. This episode looks at the role of hip-hop in reform as well as the broader movement to abolish prisons.
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This incredible story of a group of incarcerated men at California’s Soledad State Prison who raised $32,000 to help a high school student with tuition.
This crowdsourcing of poignant life lessons from 2020.
Take a peaceful retreat from the week’s events by listening to forests from around the world on Tree.fm.
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Dual-Eligibles Research: On Jan. 14 at 11 a.m. ET, researchers and policymakers will convene to discuss research on dual-eligible individuals, with a focus on home and community-based services. Register here for “Building the Research Pipeline: Home and Community-Based Services and the Dual-Eligible Population,” hosted by the Administration for Community Living, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Arnold Ventures.
Grant Proposals Webinar: On Jan. 21 at 2 p.m. ET, Arnold Ventures’ Evidence-Based Policy initiative will host a 60-minute webinar on preparing a successful grant proposal to conduct a randomized controlled trial of a U.S. social program through our RCT Opportunity request for proposals. The webinar aims to expand and diversify the pool of applicants, including those from groups historically underrepresented in the research and policy communities, and to clearly convey to applicants what our reviewers look for in RCT grant proposals. Register here.
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Have an evidence-based week,
– Stephanie
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Stephanie DiCapua Getman develops and executes Arnold Ventures' digital communications strategy with a focus on multimedia storytelling and audience engagement and oversees daily editorial operations and design.
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