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The Abstract
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> By Stephanie DiCapua Getman, Arnold Ventures
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This will be our final newsletter of 2021, and to close it out, I’m turning this space over to Arnold Ventures President & CEO Kelli Rhee, who reflects on how AV turned challenges into opportunities during a very difficult year:
From the beginning, Arnold Ventures has approached philanthropy with a distinct philosophy: catalyze evidence and research that improves policy to maximize opportunity and minimize injustice.
Anchored in this mission, our focus areas have inevitably intersected with the most intractable problems plaguing the United States: A criminal justice system that’s anything but just. Health care that is neither affordable nor accessible. Higher education institutions that prey on the vulnerable. Democracy that’s grown fragile and strained.
As these systemic fissures became more pronounced in recent years, our work assumed new urgency. Amid the challenges of a pandemic, record-breaking natural disasters and man-made tragedies, a national reckoning on racial justice, and deepening polarization that culminated in the Jan. 6 insurrection, we not only stayed the course — we doubled down.
In partnership with our more than 540 active grantees, we sought to leverage the challenges of 2020 and 2021 into opportunities to drive evidence-based reform and policy change. The results speak for themselves.
Health care affordability is now a rallying cry. Come Jan. 1, health care providers will be barred from surprise billing patients, and the Build Back Better agenda — awaiting Senate approval — contains provisions that would drive down prescription drug prices and boost home- and community-based services.
In criminal justice reform, community-led and evidence-based violence interventions have gained support from the White House, gun violence research has achieved unprecedented investment, and there’s noteworthy momentum to end fines and fees.
In higher education, the Build Back Better agenda contains support for the College Completion Fund, which would invest in evidence-based programs to improve college completion rates.
To protect our democracy, the U.S. doubled the number of ranked-choice voting (RCV) elections — and New York City successfully administered the largest RCV election in U.S. history, yielding the most diverse city council in the city's 350-year history and the second African-American to hold the mayor's office.
This is just a small snapshot of the myriad ways we are making a difference. AV and its grantees and partners have emerged as an engine of change whose work is creating a more fair, equitable, and productive society for everyone.
The prospects for 2022 are limitless. We have big plans in the new year — more to come on that soon — and we will continue to do what we’ve always done — flood the zone with data and research, advocate for evidence-based change, and fight for what’s right.
However, the first thing on our agenda is to take a break for the next few weeks to be with family and loved ones and to enjoy the holiday. And we hope you will do the same.
Thank you for a being a loyal reader to The Abstract. Thanks for your interest in Arnold Ventures. And here’s to wishing you and your families a joyous holiday and peaceful New Year.
— Kelli Rhee,
President & CEO
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We’ve taken a look back at the past year to round up some of the biggest wins in the areas where we work, the most notable moments on Twitter, and the stories of change we covered in 2021 — all of which should help you end the year on a more hopeful note.
5 Big Wins in Criminal Justice
From policing to fines and fees, states made headway on some of the biggest issues plaguing our country's criminal justice system. Read the story >
5 Big Wins in Health Care
The year saw progress on surprise medical billing, drug prices, Medicare reforms, and improving care for patients with complex needs. Read the story >
5 Big Wins Elsewhere
AV is well known for its work in criminal justice and health care, but they are not the only areas where we aim to minimize injustice and maximize opportunity. Major wins can be counted in higher education, democracy, climate, contraceptives, and evidence-based policy. Read the story >
21 Stories of Change We Covered in 2021
The year saw many bright spots for reform, with advocates working tirelessly to secure wider access to contraception, help defrauded students, improve our public defense system, invest in gun violence research, and curb opioid deaths. Read the story >
21 Notable Tweets From 2021
AV weighed in on some of the most newsworthy moments of the year. Here's a look back at some of our reactions, reflections and hot takes on 2021. Read the story >
Read the full 2021 Year in Review >
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Straight A's in Student Success
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By Torie Ludwin, communications manager
We believe that meaningful policy change begins with evidence and research, and the past two years have yielded remarkable results from randomized controlled trials used to identify solutions to the pernicious problem of poor college completion rates.
What's Happening: Nearly one in seven adults between the ages of 25 and 64 have taken college courses but not completed a degree. We rounded up the top five RCTs that identified programs that produce demonstrable positive effects on student success, college completion, and/or workforce outcomes like earnings and employment — programs like Project QUEST, which helped Chelsie Perreira, above, become the first in her family to graduate college.
Why It Matters: More than one-third of students who sought a bachelor’s degree at a four-year institution in 2013 did not complete that degree at the same institution within six years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. “The reality is, if four-year institutions were high schools, according to federal law, then they would be considered dropout factories,” said Kelly McManus, AV’s director of Higher Education.
What’s Next: The data is in — policy change is next. The Build Back Better Act contains funding specifically for evidence-based college completion programs. While the legislation is still stuck in the Senate as of this writing, the inclusion in a major Congressional package demonstrates the power of evidence and research to drive meaningful reform.
Read the story > |
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Protecting Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence
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By Evan Mintz, communications manager
Researchers with the University of Central Florida and Arizona State University are working on a project to increase safety for survivors of intimate partner violence. The two universities are conducting a study to create a pretrial safety assessment guide that will grant judges better insight when considering pretrial release for people charged with intimate partner violence.
Why It Matters: Nearly a third of women in the United States are physically abused by an intimate partner in their lifetime. One in four report severe abuse, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. When this abuse results in criminal charges, the pretrial stage can continue to be a dangerous time for survivors of intimate partner violence. Harassment can continue without escalating to behavior punishable by criminal law. Violence can erupt quickly and unexpectedly.
“Women are dying in this period,” said Bethany Backes with the University of Central Florida, co-lead investigator for the study. “When survivors separate or become estranged from their partner, it’s a time of heightened intensity, and the probability of homicide increases.”
What's Next: As part of the study, survivors will complete weekly assessments that focus on the types of abuse they experience during the pretrial period. Those assessments, along with other criminal justice data, will allow researchers to provide safety-based recommendations for judges who will ultimately make pretrial decisions for people charged with intimate partner violence.
It is important to find ways to improve safety during the pretrial period, especially because many survivors don't want to resort to calling police on their partners.
“Maybe that person might be the father of their children, or somebody who brings home a paycheck, or it might be that their childcare is dependent on their partner’s family,” said Jill Messing of Arizona State University. “So there are all of these considerations in terms of how do we make these decisions for intimate partner violence survivors during the pretrial period.”
Read the story > |
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Conservatives Call for Bail Reform After Waukesha Tragedy
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By Evan Mintz, communications manager
Conservatives from across the country are calling for pretrial reform after a man released on cash bail killed six and injured scores more when he drove an SUV through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wis. From local columnists to former prosecutors, the tragic November attack has become a key piece of evidence in the right-of-center argument against a cash-bail status quo.
What's Happening: The core of the argument is that wealth-based detention undermines both community safety and individual liberty.
“The reality [...] is that the cash bail system — the process by which defendants are released from jail in exchange for paying money — is broken,” wrote Lisel Petis, a former prosecutor and resident senior fellow at the R Street Institute, a conservative think tank. “Calling the system ‘broken’ does not mean violent offenders should be released out on the street to walk free, but rather the opposite.”
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy also weighed in with an opinion piece for the Fox News website about how wealth-based detention is ineffective and outdated, and that states need to look to an alternative.
What Else: Experienced prosecutors weren’t the only ones calling for bail reform. In the Detroit News, conservative editorial page editor Nolan Finley wrote about how his home state of Michigan had been working after Waukesha to change a cash bail system that “unleashes dangerous criminals on the public while keeping locked up those who present little risk to their communities.” As Finely points out, Wisconsin had not implemented reforms “like the ones proposed for Michigan” that would have replaced ad hoc decisions with better systemic processes.
“The biggest obstacle are prosecutors and judges who screw up, as they did in Waukesha,” Finley wrote.
Read the story >
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What Gun Safety Laws
Actually Work?
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By Evan Mintz, communications manager
In an op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle, AV’s Director of Criminal Justice Asheley Van Ness called out politicians and pundits who rely more on gut instinct than data and evidence when talking about ways to keep communities safe while respecting the Second Amendment.
For example, when he ran for president in 2020, Beto O’Rourke responded to a mass shooting by a white supremacist by calling for gun buybacks.
“I can’t speak to the politics of advocating for gun buybacks in Texas, but as someone who has spent years steeped in the granular details of research, data collection and implementation of policies intended to reduce gun violence while respecting the Second Amendment, I do know the research,” Van Ness wrote. “And there is little research showing that traditional gun buybacks will have any positive impact.”
Why It Matters: At a time of spiking homicide rates, it is critical that politicians put their efforts into proven solutions rather than mere talking points.
“Elected officials have limited political capital to expend on firearm policy, an issue often driven by personal feelings towards guns, not data about who owns them and why,” Van Ness wrote. “When they can, politicians should focus their efforts promoting measures that are backed by robust evidence.”
RAND’s Gun Policy In America Project has identified several policies that are backed by robust evidence or have a growing body of support, such as child-access prevention laws, background checks, waiting periods, minimum age requirements, and gun prohibitions associated with domestic violence charges.
What’s Next: A major challenge to promoting evidence-based gun safety policy is that data is simply hard to come by. For more than two decades, the federal government failed to support research and data infrastructure about preventing firearm injuries and deaths. This support restarted under the Trump administration and has expanded under Biden, but more work is needed to build out an evidence base that can help pass effective policies.
“Good research allows policymakers to operate from a shared set of facts and cut through the partisan barrier that has defined the gun debate for too long,” Van Ness wrote. “It is absolutely possible to craft laws that prevent gun deaths and injuries while upholding the Second Amendment. We just have to follow the data.”
Related: On the ninth anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting, President Biden urged Congress to take action on gun violence and said he is calling for doubling funding to gun violence prevention research, The Washington Post reports. (gift link) |
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Criminal Justice
- Prosecutors are among the most powerful actors in the criminal justice system. They should have the ability to resentence people who no longer need to be in prison and reunite more families, writes Hillary Blout, a former prosecutor and founder of AV grantee For The People, in The Washington Post. (gift link)
Dive Deeper: Read an interview with Blout about For the People and its work passing first-of-its kind legislation that allows district attorneys in California to reconsider sentences that are “no longer in the interest of justice.”
- Vera Institute of Justice has updated its incarceration trends website — a trove of data, visualizations, and analytical tools on local jail and state prison populations and demographics.
- The Marshall Project continues its “Sentenced for Life” series with the haunting story of two parents given life without parole in a case some have questioned. The bigger picture: Louisiana sentences people to life without parole at one of the highest rates in the nation.
- Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation paving the way for $250 million in state funding to community groups that are working to reduce gun violence, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
- “A father of three, including a newborn, Nash has been stirred by the shooting spike to open up about his story. He’s using social media to cultivate a community of gunshot survivors who talk openly about post-traumatic stress and violence prevention. His survival, he says, is a second try at life and a mandate to be a mentor.” Explore a Philadelphia Inquirer photo essay on gun violence survival.
- Keechant Sewell will be the first woman to lead the New York Police Department as police commissioner, The New York Times reports. (gift link)
- Only police reform will save the city from paying millions more for misconduct, argues the Chicago Sun-Times.
- The trial of former Brooklyn Center, Minn., officer Kim Potter in the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright highlights the problems with minor traffic stops, which can escalate into a deadly situation, reports ABC News.
Health
- A decade after the U.S. approved a drug to prevent HIV, tens of thousands can’t access the medicine, in part because of its high price, expensive lab tests, excessive requirements for free services, and limited availability. Dr. Joshua Sharfstein and a team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have crafted a policy proposal to lower costs and improve access.
- In an emotional plea, David Mitchell, a cancer patient and founder of Patients for Affordable Drugs Now, makes a strong case for why Congress has a moral obligation to lower drug prices.
- A new survey reveals that three out of every 10 Americans skipped care this summer because of cost — with high costs hitting people who can least afford it the hardest. Yet even among households making more than $120,000, one in 5 delayed care due to cost. We can't say it enough: High health care costs are the direct result of high health care prices.
Related: The Wall Street Journal illustrates the wild price differences at hospitals just three miles apart.
- As Congress continues to debate drug pricing reforms, states have pressed ahead, using model legislation from NASHP to make prescription drugs more affordable and accessible.
- Hospital mega-mergers drive up prices but do not demonstrate improvements in quality or efficiency, despite hospital chains' claims otherwise, according to a new analysis. We break it down in an explainer video.
- All signs of the Sackler family — which profited handsomely from the opioid crisis — have been erased from a wing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, thanks to an illustrious and outspoken group of artists.
- Guttmacher’s latest survey examines the impact of the pandemic on fertility preferences and access to reproductive care.
- Families USA offers critical insight into how to best tackle inequities in reproductive care — suggesting patient-centered care that supports access to all methods of contraception, removes barriers to care, and promotes equity.
- The New York Times looks at the relatively long process for two companies seeking FDA approval for over-the-counter birth control. Reporter Kate Kelly discussed the piece with CNBC, offering context not in the article about the review process and its impact.
Higher Education
- As 43 million student loan borrowers resume payments in February, Third Way examines the complexity and design of student loan servicing, noting areas for reform in servicer practices as well as in efficiency.
- Inside Higher Ed reviews the policy recommendations outlined in a new study on online program managers, noting that transparency is needed with these outsourcing organizations, especially regarding the roles they may or may not play in enrollment and instruction.
- Inside Higher Ed also reports on the conclusion of the first round of negotiated rulemaking (or NegReg, as you've read in previous Abstracts) with the Department of Education. The committee reached consensus on four issues: total and permanent disability discharge, interest capitalization, streamlining loan discharges, and regulations on Pell grant eligibility for incarcerated students.
Related: During the last week of NegReg, TICAS continued to advocate for gainful employment to hold career and technical programs accountable for low-performing degrees.
- Bloomberg’s editors speak in favor of college completion efforts in the Build Back Better Act. “Giving more college students the tools necessary to finish what they’ve started is a sensible investment in the country’s future.”
- The Brookings Institute points out why data alone is not enough to help students succeed in higher education; accountability measures can make a difference. “The federal government has the data needed to put in place an accountability system that would improve outcomes for students while also saving taxpayer dollars. Now, it needs to act.”
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“Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street” on HBO Max explores the radical origin story behind the beloved children’s television show, which critic James Poniewozik reminds us is and always has been political, whether those of us watching realized it or not. A quick history lesson: The program was created by TV executive Joan Ganz Cooney, “who was originally more interested in the civil rights movement than in education but came to see the connection between the two. ‘The people who control the system read,’ she once said, ‘and the people who make it in the system read.’ And she believed that the best way to get the kids of the 1960s to read, paradoxically, was through TV.” If you’re interested in the puppeteering magic of Jim Henson or the star cameos, there’s plenty of that, too. Some have called the documentary overly sweet, but I’m OK with that — it’s nice to revisit a world that brought so much comfort to so many.
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- I am heartbroken by the devastation in Kentucky, where it’s been confirmed that 74 people have died, including 12 children. But I've been buoyed by the inspirational stories emerging from the tragedy:
- The world lost a visionary writer and activist this week, but these quotes from bell hooks are everlasting and can help guide those seeking to create a more equitable world.
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Claudette Colvin, arrested for not giving up her seat for a white woman in 1955, has had her record expunged, CBS News reports. “My name was cleared. I'm no longer a juvenile delinquent at 82.”
- A mom recorded her son's reaction to being picked up from daycare every day for five years. The resulting video is precious.
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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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