“You Made the Country Safer”

By Thomas Hanna, communications manager

Arnold Ventures has released a new research RFP, which seeks to fund innovative casual research related to all aspects of community safety and the criminal justice system.

What's Happening: Arnold Ventures’ criminal justice program has released a major new request for proposals (RFP) titled “Causal Research on Community Safety and the Criminal Justice System.” The RFP seeks research proposals across all issues related to the criminal justice system and will remain open indefinitely. Submissions must meet certain criteria, including a strong causal research design. Priority will be given to younger scholars and those who have not received funding from AV before.

Why It Matters: Often, funders focus on either narrow parts of a problem or traditional policy solutions. However, community safety and criminal justice are complex and interconnected issues. This RFP is an attempt to think beyond traditional policy silos and potentially develop new and innovative solutions that aren’t yet on our radar. Additionally, the focus on causal research will help us to identify and scale effective solutions as quickly as possible.

What’s Next: Interested researchers are encouraged to submit a short letter of interest (LOI), which will then be reviewed internally and externally. Following this review process, certain applicants will be invited to submit full proposals.

Access the RFP>

Read an interview about the RFP>

By Evan Mintz, communications director

A lack of accountability in higher education means that far too many students are left with unaffordable debt, and taxpayers are left holding the bag for unscrupulous or low-value institutions and programs. AV’s new research agenda aims to find solutions to this problem at the state level.  
 
What’s Happening: States are beginning to use policies such as outcomes-based funding (OBF) to drive improvements in outcomes for students and taxpayers. While there’s a growing body of research around OBF, little is known about what else states and education systems are doing to increase return on investment, the opportunities that exist, and how best to drive improvements in outcomes for students and taxpayers.  
 
Why It Matters: About 40 percent of students don’t earn a degree within six years, and many end up in low-paying jobs with crippling debt. Properly structured and implemented policies can help improve the educational return on investment. 
 
What’s Next: By supporting studies on outcomes-based funding and exploratory policy research at the state and system level, Arnold Ventures hopes to grow the body of evidence that policymakers can use to improve the return on investment for students and taxpayers alike.  

 Learn more about our new state-level policy research agenda>

The number of accelerated approvals granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to date that have incomplete confirmatory trials.

Accelerated approval was created 30 years ago to speed to market drugs and biologics that treat serious conditions and fill an unmet need – but the system needs reform.

Unfortunately, far too many accelerated approval treatments have been allowed to stay on the market without timely completion of confirmatory trials. This lack of clinical evidence puts patient wellbeing at risk and can have taxpayers subsidizing medical treatments that don’t work.

The Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act (FDORA) of 2022 ushered in important first steps towards reforming the accelerated approval pathway, but further congressional and FDA action is still needed.

Learn more in our updated health policy brief on accelerated approval.

Criminal Justice

• A new study from the Collateral Consequences Resource Center (CCRC) shows that nearly half of all states still restrict people with a past drug felony from receiving public benefits.
   
• NOLA.com reports on how an AV-supported, state-commissioned report recommended adoption of standards to ensure safe and healthy living conditions for jail inmates and accountability for employees who engage in abuse. 
   
• The Guardian covers a new study showing that deaths of incarcerated people in the U.S. spiked 77% between 2019 and 2020, primarily due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
   
• In an op-ed for The New York Times, Jeff Asher, co-founder of AH Datalytics, writes about how police clearance rates (the rates of crimes leading to an arrest) have fallen in recent years and are now at their lowest levels in 60 years. (free link)

• A new op-ed in Townhall calls on Congress to pass bipartisan legislation that “rebukes hospitals’ price gouging with legislation to expand ‘site-neutral payments’ in the Medicare program.”
   
• Amassing lucrative patents to block competitors is one strategy used by brand-name drug companies employ to extend monopolistic pricing power. I-MAK’s new blueprint for policymakers outlines approaches to address 'patent thickets,' improve competition, and lower drug prices.
   
• AV’s Mark Miller joined AARP’s Leigh Purvis and University of California School of Law’s Robin Feldman for a conversation on Lowering Skyrocketing Prescription Drug Costs Crippling American Families as part of an AV sponsorship in POLITICO.

• NPR's Nina Totenberg covers the angles of the Supreme Court's Moore v. United States hearing this week, after conversations with Arnold Ventures' Executive Vice President of Public Finance George Callas.
   
• Kelly Phillips Erb, who live-tweeted the Moore v. United States hearing, also covered the case in Forbes. ("Roger that.")

• Curious about the stats on student loan defaults? Newly released data from the Department of Education shows that most defaulted student borrowers in September 2021 were Pell grant recipients, those who hadn’t completed their academic program, and were disproportionately over the age of 50.
   
• A new report from AV grantee Justin Ortagus found that enrolling in an exclusively online degree program – especially for-profit, four-year programs – has a negative influence on students’ likelihood of completion.
   
• A comprehensive report from the National Student Clearinghouse finds that the six-year college completion rates have held steady at 62.2 percent, essentially unchanged since 2015. 

• In Slow Boring, Matt Yglesias writes about how federal rules stand in the way of a manufactured housing boom.
   
• PBS covers how new California rules slashed the value of rooftop generated electricity and are crushing the solar industry.
   
• Meanwhile, AI-powered permitting is speeding up solar deployments in California, Canary Media reports.

• On "The Hearing: A Legal Podcast" from Thompson Reuters, host Lauren Sobel talks with Laura Arnold about what makes Arnold Ventures unique in the philanthropic world, including its structure and its evidence-based approach to philanthropy, as well as how the Arnolds began their journey as philanthropists.
   
• A new episode of the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL) "Across the Aisle" podcast focuses on the organization’s “Legislator Police Academy,” a yearlong project that brought a bipartisan group of legislators together to discuss and address issues related to policing and police accountability.

• The Prodigy and the Protégé: read the story of "Baby Jordan," Kari Miner, fame, family, and dreams.
   
• “When the Federal Reserve mentions you as the reason economic growth is up, that’s a big deal,” said Ed Tiryakian, a finance professor at Duke University. Time Magazine's Person of the Year might be a surprise to you (or possibly not!).
   
• The Houston Chronicle listed a familiar philanthropic duo on the list of local power couples. (free link)
   
• The late Norman Lear broke several barriers in television, using comedy as a way to bring social commentary to TV. He made some of the most popular shows of their era, and also one of the weirdest to ever air on prime time: "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman."