Material hardship among American children has never been lower, but children born to the most disadvantaged parents today still struggle to achieve secure middle-class earnings. In a new AEI Press book, Doing Right by Kids: Leveraging Social Capital and Innovation to Increase Opportunity, Scott Winship, Yuval Levin, and Ryan Streeter offer a conservative policy agenda to increase opportunity for these children. The book features contributions from AEI scholars Michael Q. McShane, Beth Akers, Preston Cooper, Brad Wilcox, Angela Rachidi, and Matt Weidinger.
Employment is one of the most important drivers of economic opportunity for low-income Americans. Writing in the Wall Street Journal with House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, AEI scholar and former Sen. Phil Gramm explains how expanding work requirements in federal welfare policies would also tackle the biggest contributor to the federal deficit. Despite low expectations for Congress this year, rank-and-file House Republicans and Democrats came together to pass a TikTok ban into law. Philip Wallach shows how the success of this process can be a model for advancing other legislative priorities. TikTok divestment counters China’s domestic influence, but China continues to bid for influence in Central and Eastern Europe. In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Europe, Dalibor Rohac explains what Congress can do to strengthen our allies and thwart Chinese efforts in the region. More broadly, intensifying geopolitical competition demands that Congress increase defense spending. In a new working paper, Elaine McCusker and John G. Ferrari analyze the different priorities Senate appropriators and authorizers are pursuing in this year’s defense bills. Master’s degrees have gained a reputation as “the new bachelor’s degrees,” but are they worth the cost for students? An AEI report from new AEI education scholar Mark Schneider quantifies the varying return on investment of these programs. |
