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Progress Report

News, events, and must-read analysis from the Progressive Policy Institute.

Public Schools are Languishing in a Political Dead Zone

By Will Marshall
Founder and President of the Progressive Policy Institute

for The Hill

Stumping for president a quarter-century ago, George W. Bush posed the immortal question, “Is our children learning?” Although his bad grammar elicited much condescending mirth, Bush at least seemed passionate about improving public schools.

Today’s national leaders, not so much.

Despite mounting evidence that our K-12 students are sliding backward, school reform barely registered in last year’s presidential election. Instead, Republicans fixated on ridding schools of “wokeness,” while Democrats lined up behind teachers’ unions defending the status quo.

Since the bipartisan coalition for school reform unraveled about a decade ago, the issue seems to have fallen into a political dead zone in Washington. Among our top leaders, there is no vision or leadership for setting higher standards for our schools and students.
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Monday, March 31: Women’s History Month Event & Panel
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New from the Experts

Tamar Jacoby, Director of PPI's New Ukraine Project: The Impossibility of Negotiating ‘Peace’ With Putin
The xxxxxx

Claire Ainsley, Director of the Project on Center-Left Renewal: After Biden: Lessons for Labour and the Global Centre-Left from the United States
The Political Quarterly 

Paul Weinstein Jr., Senior Fellow: The Cost And Benefits Of Privatizing Amtrak

Forbes

Claire Ainsley: What U.S. Democrats Can Learn from the German Election
Liberal Patriot

Jeremiah Johnson, Co-Founder of the Center for New Liberalism: Why Democrats Keep Losing: Policy—Not Messaging

The Dispatch

Peter Juul, Director of National Security: Waltz, Hegseth Should Resign Over Negligence
PPI Blog

What Happens to Antitrust Under Trump?
By Diana Moss

Director of Housing Policy and the American Identity Project
for Washington Monthly

 
While campaigning in the late summer of 2024, Donald Trump wooed voters with this declaration: “When I win, I will immediately bring [food] prices down, starting on Day One.” But even before Day One arrived, he was already backpedaling, declaring, “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”

Indeed, it is. In the best of circumstances, presidents don’t have the power to unilaterally reduce prices. Yet Trump is adopting policies that are overtly inflationary. Aggressive import tariffs, for example, will drive up prices for food and other essential commodities. And the U.S. agriculture and construction sectors are particularly dependent on the immigrant workers Trump promises to deport. All of this will increase working Americans’ already high cost of living.

Still, if Trump were serious about fulfilling his campaign pledge, there is a policy tool he could use to help drive down the prices that most hurt working-class Americans. Namely, he could actively enforce the U.S. antitrust laws. 
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Ed Gresser: The Trump administration is trying to find foreign eggs to lower prices, then immediately tax them to raise prices
PPI's Trade Fact of the Week

Ben Ritz & Alex Kilander: Trump Cuts to R&D Jeopardize Innovation

PPI’s Budget Breakdown
Staff Spotlight: Mary Guenther

Head of Space Policy
Mary Guenther is the Head of Space Policy at the Progressive Policy Institute. In this role, Mary focuses on evaluating and developing policy solutions that address how the United States government’s relationship with space actors should evolve and how to best harness the benefits of space for people here on Earth.

Prior to joining PPI, Mary served as the Vice President of Space Policy at the Commercial Space Federation (CSF). In that role, Mary drove consensus on space policy issues amongst roughly 90 member companies representing various facets of the commercial space economy and engaged with lawmakers, executive agencies, and the public to get those policy solutions implemented. 

Prior to CSF, Mary served as a Professional Staff Member at the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation focusing on space, science, emerging technology, cybersecurity, and manufacturing policy. In that role, she worked with colleagues to author and pass through the Senate the CHIPS and Science Act as well as a variety of smaller pieces of legislation.
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