Dreams from Our Founders: Inauguration 2009
Barack Obama took the oath of office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in view of the Lincoln Memorial, a shrine to the "Great Emancipator" and the location of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. He will place his hand on the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used, a testament to both the powerful continuity and exceptional promise of American democracy. On Election Night, after his historic victory, Obama said, "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer." His speech that night echoed his masterful autobiography, Dreams from My Father, in which he offered his thoughts on the meaning of the still revolutionary words of the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. Obama wrote, "I hear the spirit of Douglass and Delany, as well as Jefferson and Lincoln; the struggles of Martin and Malcolm and the unheralded marchers to bring those words to life." The inauguration of our first African-American president offers a unique opportunity for celebration of our many achievements and a chance to pause and reflect on the way forward, toward a more perfect union. AEI congratulates President Obama on this historic day.
Transition Trauma
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| John C. Fortier and Norman J. Ornstein | |
The 111th Congress is now in town, and the Senate will soon begin the process of confirming President-elect Obama's cabinet choices. To facilitate the presidential transition, President Bush created the Transition Coordinating Council, to which Norman J. Ornstein was brought in by the White House to provide advice. The Council was established to reduce the disruptions often associated with transitions and to ensure continuity, and there is every indication that the process is working well. John C. Fortier reminds us that "America is unique in the world in the scale and complexity of its transitions of power." In Washington-based positions alone, he says, "more than three thousand political appointees will be brought into a new administration to run departments and agencies. More than six hundred of them will require Senate confirmation. It is a major undertaking to find, vet and confirm these nominees." Cabinet-level appointees are usually confirmed quickly, but subcabinet posts often take weeks and months, a delay the nation can ill afford when the country is at war and our economy is facing serious problems. Ornstein and Fortier have suggested ways to streamline the confirmation process.
President George W. Bush Visits AEI
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| President George W. Bush and outgoing AEI president Christopher DeMuth. Photo by Peter Holden Photography. | |
On December 18, 2008, one month before he is to leave office, President George W. Bush visited AEI for a candid, informal conversation about the institution of the presidency with a special focus on his domestic policy initiatives. The subjects ranged from judicial appointees to education reform and from prescription drugs to immigration.
- Click here to read President Bush's extemporaneous remarks and responses to questions moderated by outgoing AEI president Christopher DeMuth.
- Click here to view the president's address on C-SPAN.
Arne Duncan Moves to the Head of the Class
The education community has been abuzz about who will serve as the next secretary of education. Today, president-elect Barack Obama tapped Arne Duncan, CEO of the Chicago school system, for the post. Throughout the campaign, Obama positioned himself carefully, managing to please both the reform and the union-supported traditional wings of the education community. His selection of Duncan indicates that he will continue to seek middle ground in the contentious debates over accountability, school choice, and No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at AEI, had this to say about Duncan's selection: "There has been fierce debate about where the Obama administration will head on education. Duncan's appointment is a promising sign for those who champion charter schooling, rewarding teachers for excellence, and educational entrepreneurship, but we should withhold judgment until we see the fuller slate of appointments and the administration's budget proposal."
Give and Give Thanks
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| John Schutler after George Henry Durrie, "Home to Thanksgiving" (1867). National Gallery of Art, Washington. | |
Three hundred eighty-seven years ago, the Pilgrims celebrated the first "thanksgiving" feast in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This week, as millions of us pause to give thanks with our friends and families, we are reminded about the spirit of giving that is distinctly American. We are a nation of givers, as Arthur C. Brooks explains.
In this time of economic uncertainty, as more and more people are losing jobs and homes, it is even more important to give charitably--and to give thanks for the blessings we enjoy. When we gather around our tables on Thanksgiving Day, we should remember the important role charitable giving plays in our nation's success, our well-being, and in the lives of the less fortunate.
Barack Obama and America's Historic Moment
AEI congratulates president-elect Barack Obama and vice president-elect Joe Biden on their historic victory at the end of this lengthy and arduous campaign. The election of the first African-American president is an occasion for national pride, and the impending political transition presents many opportunities for fresh beginnings in the capital. We wish Obama well as he prepares to assume office alongside strengthened Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. Just as the Institute's scholars have informed government policy for sixty-five years, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, they will continue during the new administration to conduct vital research on the importance of reforming financial regulation, restoring U.S. economic growth and competitiveness, extending liberal trade policies, keeping American defenses strong at home and abroad, nurturing relationships with our allies, making health care better and more accessible, and restoring responsible government here in Washington.
- On November 6, 2008, AEI's political analysts examined the election results and addressed how Obama and the new Congress will face the challenges ahead.
Beyond November
While the presidential election, less than a week away, has raised America's political temperature, it has shunted serious policy matters aside for the time being. But after November 4, major policy questions will return to the forefront. So, too, will the issue of getting the next president's senior advisers in place. Congress and the executive branch will still be dealing with the financial crisis and working through the unprecedented interventions of recent weeks, as well as wrapping up the budget process for the next fiscal year. Even greater will be the policy challenges faced by the next Congress and president. In coming weeks, AEI will host bipartisan panel discussions on the future outlook for economic policy, climate change, international trade and economic integration, Middle East policy, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and more.
- Reuel Marc Gerecht, Danielle Pletka, Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Martin Indyk of the Brookings Institution, and Senate foreign policy adviser Vance Serchuk discussed U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East on October 21.
- On October 23, Philip I. Levy, Claude Barfield, Bruce Stokes of National Journal, and other top analysts considered the future of trade policy after the election.
- Charles W. Calomiris, Andrew G. Biggs, Kevin A. Hassett, and Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute discussed the next administration's economic policy on October 28, covering financial regulation, tax policy, climate change, and entitlement reform.
- Norman J. Ornstein has been consulting with both campaigns and the White House on efforts to smooth the transition process to get senior appointees in place early. The new White House executive order establishing a Presidential Transition Coordinating Council is a welcome development.
Who Needs College?
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| Billie Hara | Creative Commons | |
Barack Obama mentioned college four separate times in his nomination acceptance speech on August 29, each time suggesting that going to college is a default expectation for young Americans. But should most young people be focusing so much on college? In his newest book, Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality, contrarian social scientist Charles Murray argues that "by making a college degree something that everyone is supposed to want, we are punishing the majority of young people who do not get one." If taking on the notion of "college for everyone" is not enough, Murray goes on to argue that America's higher education system should focus on providing an advanced education for the gifted--those who will be our future leaders. But, he argues, his proposal to transform our expectations of college is more humane than the current system, since it affords all students a liberal education at the K-12 level and allows young people to excel according to their own aspirations and abilities.
- Murray presented his controversial thesis at the first Bradley Lecture of the 2008-2009 series on September 8, 2008.
- An article on higher education by Murray, an essay on the future of school choice by Frederick M. Hess, and public opinion analysis of college students by Karlyn Bowman are included in the September/October 2008 issue of The American.
AEI's "Conventional Wisdom"
This year's political conventions are taking place unusually late. The Democratic convention will be the party's forty-fifth convention, and the Republicans', the party's thirty ninth. The GOP's assemblage will be the latest convention ever held. AEI's July/August 
Political Report opened by noting that in the last open contest in 2000, nearly 60 percent said they made up their minds during or after the conventions. That year, 10 percent said they made up their minds during the conventions. Fourteen percent gave that response in 2004. The report also looked at which candidate led in the polls around Labor Day and how that candidate fared on Election Day.
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National party conventions have a long history, dating to 1832 for the Democratic Party and 1856 for the Republican Party. AEI scholars have examined the history of the conventions and their relevance to today. In April, Michael Barone wrote that the Democratic nominating contest would almost certainly not go to the convention and argued that old-style conventions operated as a communications medium at a time when other communications media were unavailable. Norman J. Ornstein noted that from 1872 to 1952, contested conventions were the norm, but since 1952, not one has gone to a second ballot. More recently, David Frum suggested transforming national conventions from coronations to occasions to introduce the party to the next generation of political talent.
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At an AEI-Brookings conference in February, demographers and sociologists reviewed the demographic changes that are likely to effect the electoral landscape in 2008 and beyond. Both parties have chosen a convention site in a state--Colorado for the Democrats, Minnesota for the Republicans--they hope to win this fall. In the past forty years, Colorado has voted only once for a Democratic candidate for president (Bill Clinton in 1992). Minnesota has the longest streak of any state of voting Democratic for president of any state, having voted for the Democratic candidate in every election since 1972. Changing population patterns explain both parties' hopes. The proportion of Hispanics in Colorado is growing, and Hispanics lean toward the Democrats. Minnesota is an older state, and the GOP hopes to bring significant numbers of older voters to McCain this fall. AEI scholars are reflecting regularly on the candidates' strengths and weaknesses, on the issues driving the race, and also on new demographics of the electorate.
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Labor Day Declarations
The nation's GDP grew at a surprising 3.3 percent rate in the second quarter, up from 0.9 in the first quarter. That is welcome news for the nation's 154 million strong labor force on this Labor Day holiday. The Census Bureau reported this week that, in 2007, real median household income rose for the third straight year, a point Douglas J. Besharov made at an AEI conference this week. Although most Americans are uneasy about the nation's economy, they remain optimistic about their personal prospects. In a recent HarrisInteractive poll, only 18 percent said the country was on the right track; 76 percent felt that way about their personal lives. A new AEI Public Opinion Study finds that 90 percent of workers are satisfied with their jobs, a figure which Gallup describes as the high end of job satisfaction in the nineteen-year trend. They are also highly satisfied with the amount of work required of them, the flexibility of their hours, and their coworkers. Most workers don’t fear losing their jobs, but the proportion reporting that their company has laid people off has risen since last year. Last year, the only large group that experienced an increase in poverty was Hispanics, largely immigrants and those in the construction sector.
Sports, Integrity, and Human Achievement
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| Luis Rubio | Creative Commons | |
As nearly one-third of the Earth's population--slightly more than 2 billion people--tuned in to the 2008 Olympic opening ceremonies, we were reminded of the important place athletics holds in our country and others. Yet, despite this global fascination, which
Michael Novak called in his 1994 book
The Joy of Sports "a religion," some question the morals and ethics of professional athletics. Scandals involving performance-enhancing drugs have arisen not only at the Olympics but throughout the sports world‑-from the Tour de France to Major League Baseball--continuing the discussion about what should be done to maintain the integrity of the competitions. "The fan who comes to see genuine excellence in honorable competition is at the mercy of the integrity--or the lack of integrity--of the athletes and the game,"
Leon R. Kass and Eric Cohen
wrote in
The New Republic. One danger of biotechnical enhancement is "that the young will come to assume that everything fine is really fake; that human excellence is always compromised; that the greatest performances are always an illusion; that the curtain will inevitably be lifted to reveal the chemist lurking in the shadows." If we are to live up to Olympic ideals, we must--as Kass and Cohen write--revive "the athletic ideal," the love of the game and the amateur spirit, "seen as a manifestation of the mysterious powers that make us human."
Attorney General Mukasey at AEI
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| Peter Holden Photography / AEI | |
With the words, "We will proceed to trial. This military commission will come to order in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan," a military judge at Guantanamo Bay last Monday began the proceedings of the first American war crimes trial since World War II. The same morning,
in a speech at AEI, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey called on Congress to step up to the plate to address many significant open questions after the Supreme Court's
Boumediene v. Bush decision that granted detainees the right to contest their detentions in federal court. Until
Boumediene,
says AEI's
John Yoo, "the Supreme Court had never allowed an alien who was captured fighting against the U.S. to use our courts to challenge his detention." At AEI, Mukasey asked Congress for clarification of the government's authority to detain combatants and a set of clear rules for the appeals process. He also proposed that a single court deal with the more than two hundred pending cases involving terrorism suspects.
- John Yoo's article on the Boumediene decision is available here.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Exceptional America  | |
| Photo credit: James Bologna | |
On July 4, 1776, the Founders adopted the Declaration of Independence, guaranteeing equality for all men and proclaiming certain truths and ideals to be self-evident. They declared that every person is endowed by divine will with a set of unalienable rights--"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." AEI's Arthur C. Brooks writes in his new book, Gross National Happiness, that "no other government in the world had proclaimed that all of its people--not just people of noble birth or special privilege--had an equal right to chase after happiness as they defined it." And as Charles Murray explains in his 1988 book In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government, the Founders carefully chose to include happiness "because it was obvious to them that the pursuit of happiness is at the center of man's existence, and that to permit man to pursue happiness is the central justification of government." Two hundred thirty-two years ago today, those same American visionaries who defied the tyranny of the crown established a nation on these principles, which still stand as pillars of our twenty-first-century society.
A Nation (Still) at Risk
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| AEI's Frederick M. Hess visits with students during a book forum at the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy in Washington, D.C. | |
This month marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the National Commission on Excellence in Education's seminal report A Nation at Risk. Then-secretary of education Terrel H. Bell established the commission to address public concerns about the nation's education system and to make recommendations for its improvement. The results of the report were grim: "For the first time in the history of our country, the educational skills of one generation will not surpass, will not equal, will not even approach, those of their parents." Not only were American students failing to keep pace with the educational achievements of the previous generation, they were also falling behind students in other industrialized nations. On the silver anniversary of this report, AEI's Frederick M. Hess says the nation is still at risk. A new Education Outlook authored by Hess shows that students soon to graduate high school have, at best, an uncertain grasp of key historical and literary facts.
Pope Benedict XVI's First Visit to the United States
The first visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States will focus attention not only on Roman Catholicism but also on broader questions about the future of religion in the United States. AEI scholars have been active in various aspects of this discussion. In anticipation of the Pope's visit, Michael Novak examined the personality of the Pope and the challenges facing the church. "American Catholicism may be one of the two or three most vital national Catholic Churches in the world," he says, but it has lost considerable vigor since the 1960s. The latest issue of AEI's Political Report looks at membership in the Catholic Church and the importance of Hispanic immigration in filling its ranks. One of the papers from the February AEI-Brookings conference on election demographics examined larger religious trends, arguing that the United States is becoming both more evangelical and more secular. An important new book from the AEI Press, Religion and the American Future, edited by Christopher DeMuth and Yuval Levin, includes essays from a distinguished group of scholars on the future of religion and the relationship of religion to secular realms of politics, science, art, and law.
The 2008 State of the Union
In his final State of the Union address, President Bush listed the accomplishments of the surge in Iraq, noting that "few of us could have imagined just one year ago," the progress that has been made. He acknowledged the nation's economic unease. "Wages are up," he said, "but so are prices for food and gas. Exports are rising, but the housing market has declined." The president reminded the nation that there was much unfinished business before us and closed by saying: "So tonight, with confidence in freedom's power, and trust in the people, let us set forth to do their business." AEI scholars are reviewing the president's plans for the coming year and working on policies to increase the nation's prosperity and strengthen our security. Several AEI scholars addressed these topics and the outlook for action in a panel discussion on Monday morning.
The Election Begins
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| John C. Fortier and Norman J. Ornstein at an Election Watch panel | |
Voters in Iowa began the process of electing the forty-fourth president of the United States on January 3 with solid victories by Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee in their respective caucuses. Amidst the celebrations, we hear the familiar complaints that the campaign is too long, too expensive, and too negative. But as the tragic events in Pakistan in the week after Christmas remind us, peaceful transfers of power such as we have experienced for more than two centuries are rare. Two thousand and eight will be the fifty-sixth time, going back all the way to George Washington, that Americans will freely choose their president. The record of American democratic elections is something of which we can be extremely proud. Let the campaign begin!
Legal Scholarship That Serves the Public Interest
In September 2007, the National Legal Center for the Public Interest (NLCPI) was merged into AEI to form the AEI Legal Center for the Public Interest. In an article on The American's website, Legal Center director Ted Frank reflects on the organization's storied history:
The NLCPI traces its roots back to Reagan's governorship. One of the Gipper's great policy achievements was the 1971 California Welfare Reform Act, but special interests fought against it every step of the way. The most frustrating attacks were lawsuits brought by left-wing legal organizations bearing the moniker "public interest," none of which seemed to care about values that actually were in the public interest, such as free enterprise and private property rights. In 1971, future Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell wrote a memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce expressing concern that the American free enterprise system was under attack and that the business community was shirking its duties. "The overriding first need is for businessmen to recognize that the ultimate issue may be survival--survival of what we call the free enterprise system, and all that this means for the strength and prosperity of America and the freedom of our people," Powell said. "It is time for American business to apply their great talents vigorously to the preservation of the system itself."
To meet that need, the NLCPI was born as an educational organization promoting legal scholarship of the highest order and in the true public interest. Its flagship event has been the Gauer Distinguished Lecture in Law and Public Policy, whose speakers have included Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, and four Supreme Court Justices. The AEI Legal Center continued the Gauer tradition with the December 5 lecture by Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox on the rise of sovereign business.
The Bounty of America
America's statistical collection agencies are admired around the globe. Their collective self-portrait makes important contributions to the workings of our democracy and provides insights into the extraordinary productivity of our free enterprise system. A new census compilation on the fare that will fill America's tables on Thanksgiving is a testament to the impressive performance of America's agriculture sector. The Census Bureau reports that U.S. farmers will raise 272 million turkeys this year, with North Carolina as the top producer. They will produce 690 million pounds of cranberries this year, 1.6 billion pounds of sweet potatoes, and 1 billion pounds of pumpkins. And the cost of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year for ten people? The American Farm Bureau Federation puts it at a very affordable $42.26. According to the federation, the real cost of Thanksgiving dinner has declined 9 percent in the past twenty years. And as policymakers in Washington debate reauthorization of the farm bill, it is worth noting that none of these traditional Thanksgiving foods receives a government subsidy. Enjoy.
Keeping Our Promises to Veterans
With nearly 1.5 million military personnel having served thus far in Iraq and Afghanistan, veterans' health remains a top issue for U.S. policymakers. Sally Satel, a psychiatrist who worked with disabled Vietnam veterans early in her career, applies the lessons learned from the psychiatric care of Vietnam veterans and combatants in earlier wars to the new generations of soldiers returning from service. She monitors the marked increase in post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses among veterans and the performance of the Department of Veterans Affairs in response. Stress on veterans--especially on those called up for additional tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan--underscores the chronic personnel shortages that Gary J. Schmitt and Thomas Donnelly address in Of Men and Materiel: The Crisis in Military Resources (AEI Press, 2007). In the end, as Norman J. Ornstein writes, policymakers need to "show real, not just rhetorical, support for our troops."
American (Un)Happiness and Economic Security
On November 1, 2007, USA Today's front page reported that according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll, 72 percent of Americans are "dissatisfied" with the state of the nation. "One year before Election Day 2008, most Americans are dismayed by the country's direction, pessimistic about the Iraq war and anxious about the economy. . . . Not since April have even one-third of Americans been happy with the country's course, the longest national funk in 15 years." Public opinion data compiled by Karlyn Bowman shows that the picture is more mixed. According to a just-updated study of economic insecurity, most Americans feel secure in their personal finances, although they worry about being able to afford health care. Few Americans are anxious about losing their jobs, and most say they are able to pay their bills on time. The USA Today/Gallup poll reports that poorer Americans tend to be unhappier with the direction of the country. But research by Arthur C. Brooks shows that the United States has very little "happiness inequality," because happiness derives not from material well-being but from having opportunity and economic mobility.
The Supreme Court: Back in Business
All eyes are on the Supreme Court as the justices reconvene to take up a new caseload with no shortage of important and controversial cases. In his latest Federalist Outlook, Michael S. Greve provides an original and compelling analysis of how the Court approached business issues in its last term and what we might expect in the future. Arguing that simply calling the court "pro-business" is simplistic and incomplete, Greve posits that the justices "may at last have hit upon an urgent and genuinely judicial program--the reconstruction, after decades of neglect, of a workable legal and constitutional infrastructure." In one of the most important business cases of the year, the justices will hear arguments on third-party liability in Stoneridge v. Scientific Atlanta on October 9, a case that split the administration, with the solicitor general and the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission on opposite sides. On September 28, the new AEI Legal Center for the Public Interest held a briefing on the Court's docket. On October 5, a session will be held at AEI on Stoneridge.
Back to School 2007
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| AEI's Frederick M. Hess visits with students during a book forum at the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C. | |
No Child Left Behind (NCLB), "the most ambitious federal education statute ever," according to AEI's
Frederick M. Hess, is scheduled for reauthorization this fall. The historic act established nationwide accountability standards and incentives for schools to improve, effectively rewriting the rules of the education game in an effort to boost academic achievement nationwide. How has it fared? AEI scholars have been writing vigorously on the topic, offering constructive criticism about reforming NCLB. There is clearly much room for improvement. The Institute has also been at the forefront of discussions of higher education, which, like NCLB, is under consideration by Congress this fall.
Richard Vedder, a member of the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education, has written about
why college costs so much and what can be done about it.
Unconventional Wisdom about American Workers
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| AEI staff and their families enjoy a Labor Day-style cookout. | |
One hundred and twenty years ago, Oregon became the first state to enact a yearly holiday to celebrate the contributions and achievements of American workers. The federal government extended the holiday in 1894, and Labor Day is now celebrated nationally on the first Monday in September. As workers kick back and enjoy the long weekend, it is worth reflecting on the state of the American worker. Americans work more than their counterparts in many developed countries. They take less vacation time, and they appear to be happy about it. AEI's Arthur C. Brooks says, "For most Americans, work is a rock-solid source of life happiness." Karlyn Bowman reports that in Gallup's latest data, 43 percent of employed people were completely satisfied with their jobs, and another 47 percent were somewhat satisfied. Fifty-four percent were completely satisfied and 27 percent somewhat satisfied with vacation time. Solid majorities were satisfied with the amount of work required of them, and separately, their on the job stress and the flexibility of their hours. Steven J. Davis has been examining the factors that explain U.S.-European differences, including taxes and government spending, unionization rates, the stringency of employment protection laws, and other labor market regulations that affect work time and productivity.
Congress Is Back
As Congress returns from its July 4 recess, a number of thorny issues will be at the top of the agenda. Members will face a series of votes on Iraq policy as part of the annual defense authorization bill. Less than a month ago, the surge in Iraq reached full strength. At a July 9 AEI event, Frederick W. Kagan, General Jack Keane, and James Miller discussed the progress that has been made and the distance to go. Kagan argues that the changes that have been made should be given more time to work.
Separately, hearings will be held in the Senate Finance Committee on raising taxes on private equity firms and hedge funds and the people who operate them. The administration has signaled its opposition, with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson arguing that singling out a particular industry does not make sense. The House will also consider sweeping changes to the way the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does business, including new post-marketing oversight after drugs win initial FDA approval.
Independence Day: The Idea and Practice of Freedom
"Devotion to a principle requires an understanding of its terms, and especially in the case of an abstract philosophical principle, that understanding cannot be taken for granted," wrote Walter Berns in Making Patriots. "Most people can enjoy liberty, but not everyone understands its foundation in principle." The Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4, 1776, is a statement of "abstract philosophical principle"--a declaration of ideas and truths about human nature, community life, and good government. It is a testament to the Founders' insight that they so ably understood and applied the principle of ordered liberty under law to the enumerated offenses of King George III and concluded that independence was necessary and right.
AEI strives to follow the Founders in combining their understanding of principle with clear-headed, practical policies, adhering to and elaborating on the fundamental principles of liberty, justice, and independence that our nation celebrates this week.
Protecting Political Speech
On June 25, the Supreme Court announced its decisions in two key free speech cases. In Morse v. Frederick, it ruled that a school may discipline a student for untoward speech (in this case a banner thought to promote drug use with the words "Bong Hits 4 Jesus"). In the other instance, Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, a pro-life advocacy organization sought to run issue advertisements during the time period in advance of an election in which such ads are banned by campaign finance laws. The Court held that the ban on such ads is unconstitutional: "the First Amendment requires us to err on the side of protecting political speech rather than suppressing it." The Court's latest opinions reflect the thinking of AEI constitutional scholar Walter Berns, who points out in Democracy and the Constitution that "the First Amendment protects not freedom of expression, but freedom of speech." Berns argues that political speech is primarily what the Founders intended to protect with the First Amendment, since political speech is necessary to select leaders for and participate in democratic, representative republican government. "[E]ach member of society registers his consent by debating, organizing, and then choosing his representatives," he writes. "Freedom of speech plays an essential part in this process." Other forms of expression--whether flag-burning or "Bong Hits 4 Jesus"--do not warrant the protection of the First Amendment. Resident scholar Norman J. Ornstein, who has been active in the campaign finance debate, offered a counterpoint on the Court's decisions in a recent article.
Paying for College: New Trends, New Questions
The recent wave of scandals in the $85 billion for-profit student loan industry has rippled through the education sector. Some private-sector lenders have been accused of offering kickbacks to college aid officers in exchange for coveted placements on "preferred lender" lists. Many college and government officials have been caught in conflicts of interest. In late May 2007, Sallie Mae--the former government-sponsored enterprise turned largest private lender--settled an investigation by New York's attorney general and agreed to promote "responsible" student borrowing. Private-sector student loans have become a growth area as the sticker price of a college education continues to outpace inflation and federal student aid continues to lag behind. As ever more students enter college, and as more jobs require the knowledge or technical skills afforded by colleges degrees, paying for higher education will become a higher priority. AEI's scholars have been studying the student loan sector, Sallie Mae, the rising costs of college, and the purpose of college in the current economy.
The Challenges Ahead Abroad and at Home
President George W. Bush met with Democratic House members at their retreat in Williamsburg last weekend, and this week Congress is considering several nonbinding resolutions on the president's plan to boost troop levels in Iraq. AEI scholars continue to analyze international and domestic challenges facing the United States and to consider the president's plans for U.S. economic and tax policy, the environment, and health-care spending.
Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq--Phase I Report, by Frederick W. Kagan
AEI study, January 5, 2007
Related event featuring Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman
Related article by John C. Fortier on the Congressional debates about Iraq
"The Fiscal Policy Agenda of the New Congress," by Alan D. Viard
Tax Policy Outlook, no. 1, November 2006
Related article by Veronique de Rugy on the president's FY2008 budget
"A New Direction for Bush Administration Climate Policy," by Samuel Thernstrom and
Lee Lane
Environmental Policy Outlook, no. 1, January 2007
Related book by Lee Lane
Related Environmental Policy Outlooks by Kenneth P. Green and Steven F. Hayward
"Good Medicine for the Tax Code," by Joseph Antos
Article on American.com, January 25, 2007
"Medicare Part D and Prescription Drug Prices," by Mark B. McClellan, Thomas P. Miller, Robert B. Helms, Joseph Antos, et al.
Policy fact sheet in Galen Reports, January 5, 2007
Related event
"Congress Must Engage in Serious Debates over Iraq, Budget," by Norman J. Ornstein
Article in Roll Call, February 7, 2007
Related article by Ornstein on Democrats' reactions to the 2007 State of the Union
Related AEI conference
[More on social and political studies at AEI . . . ]
NCLB Report Card
On the fifth anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), AEI’s Frederick M. Hess and Chester E. Finn Jr. of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation will present a comprehensive assessment of the implementation of NCLB’s remedy provisions intended to force schools to improve and to provide new options for students. Education scholars and analysts at this daylong conference will consider progress under NCLB and what further measures should be taken to improve the quality of education.
"Fixing Failing Schools: Is the NCLB Toolkit Working?"
Conference, Thursday, November 30, 2006, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Speakers include: Alan Bersin, Jay P. Greene, Michael J. Petrilli, and John Winn
Related book by Hess and Petrilli
"The Wrong Kind of Bipartisanship?" by Frederick M. Hess
Article on the Teachers College Record, November 10, 2006
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Sunday, November 22, 2009
