Plus, U.S.-Russia arms control, how America’s teachers are doing, the threat of drone attacks on U.S. military bases, and more.
Policy Currents | [Web version]([link removed])
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The newsletter for policy people
June 10, 2025
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[ How to Help Surgeons Avoid Overprescribing Opioids]([link removed])
Surgeons prescribe opioids to help patients control pain after a procedure, but the number of pills prescribed often exceeds what patients need. Extra pills fuel the opioid epidemic by presenting opportunities for misuse and diversion.
Researchers from RAND, Sutter Health, and several universities find that simple email “nudges” reminding surgeons to prescribe in ways that more closely adhere to recommendations led to less overprescribing. And those reductions persisted for at least 12 months after the nudges stopped.
This simple intervention prevented about 42,000 opioid pills from entering the community. If scaled nationwide, it could stop millions of opioid pills from flowing into communities each year.
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[ Trump and Putin Could Make a New Nuclear Deal]([link removed])
The New START Treaty, which sets limits on U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear forces, will expire in February 2026. If New START lapses with nothing to replace it, then there would be no agreed-upon limits on the two largest nuclear powers, which hold more than 85 percent of the world's nuclear warheads between them. According to RAND's Samuel Charap and Kingston Reif, the United States and Russia “have a special obligation to reduce the existential threat posed by these weapons.” A key first step is agreeing to return to New START compliance and resume talks on strategic stability. This could lay the foundation for follow-on agreements, potentially those that also involve China.
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[ School's Out. How Are America's Teachers Doing?]([link removed])
As teachers across the country pack up their classrooms for summer break, RAND education researchers Elizabeth Steiner and Ashley Woo discussed the state of educator well-being on the Policy Minded podcast. They detail recent findings on teachers' stress, compensation, use of AI, and more. So, how are America's teachers doing? “They're facing a lot of challenges,” says Steiner. “Even though we've seen some policy progress … we still see these very stubborn numbers around burnout.”
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RAND Recommends
Most clicked last week: insights from [ a tabletop exercise on preparing for and mitigating drone attacks]([link removed]) against U.S. military bases. An updated RAND paper outlines [ 10 practical principles for policy and program analysis]([link removed]). “There usually is no 'best' answer,” writes author Alain Enthoven, “but you do not have to be able to define the best answer to identify and avoid bad ones.” Should the United States lean into [ short-term, nondegree workforce education and training]([link removed])? Yes, say RAND experts, but it should do so carefully.
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[ Policies to Support Veterans’ Needs at the State and Local Level]([link removed])
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