News from October 2013
Oh, SNAP: The Real Costs of Food Stamp Cuts
On October 16, Congress ended the government shutdown, bringing to a close a two-week distraction from critical issues facing the country. During this period of partisan politicking, some may have forgotten about the House Republicans’ plan to gut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often referred to as food stamps, by $39 million over the next 10 years. The four million Americans who are set to lose their benefits certainly didn’t forget and neither should we. On top of congressional…
Here Comes the Neighborhood
Suburbia beckons many poor and working-class families with the promise of better schools, access to non-dead-end jobs and sanctuary from the looming threat of urban violence. But many suburbanites balk at the prospect of affordable housing in their midst. They fear that when poor people move next door crime, drugs, blight, bad public schools and higher taxes inevitably follow. They worry that the value of their homes will fall and the image of their town will suffer. It does not…
Graduate Peer Advising Now Available
The Goldman School of Public Policy and Students of Color in Public Policy (SCIPP) are dedicated to increasing diversity within the program. As part of our mission, a group of graduate students in SCIPP is offering assistance to all prospective students in the application process.
Alumni: Stuart Cohen
You co-founded Transform in 1997. What was your initial vision for starting the organization? As a cyclist, I had come to understand how 60 years of subdivisions, strip malls and highway-exit corporate parks were devastating our country. Planning for all this sprawl meant public transportation was being bled dry while highway projects got the green light. Huge numbers of people — especially low-income families, youth and many seniors — were cut off from opportunity. I’d always wanted to reverse these…
A Jobs Race to the Top
Washington has been the incubator of bad practices lately, from gridlock to shutdown to utter inaction on the country's crucial needs. The most pressing of those needs is a strategy to create good-paying middle class jobs in America - when we are competing for those jobs globally. We need to be creative and daring. And we need to think less top-down and more bottom-up. We need a jobs moon shot - a Jobs Race to the Top.…
Setting the PACE
Start by asking yourself a question: would you have a cell phone if you had to buy 20 years’ worth of minutes up front? The answer for most people is no. Similarly, we should not be surprised that it has been difficult to convince homeowners to make extensive energy efficiency home improvements.The energy and financial savings may be real, but such improvements require a lot of money up front — and…