This is another data point for the fact that the Biden admin is committed to reduce administrative burdens, and doing so makes dysfunctional programs actually achieve their promise. 1/ businessinsider.com/biden-educatio…
This is not a new policy. It was passed in 2010 as part of a broader student loan forgiveness package, allowing those with total and permanent disability (TPD) to seek loan forgiveness. But less than 3 out of 10 eligible claimed this valuable benefit. 2/ npr.org/2019/12/04/776…
Programs cannot be successful if they do not reach their target audience. Why were so many people leaving money on the table? Administrative burdens.
Biden will drop a requirement to document eligibility.
How big of a deal are the documentation requirements? A GAO report found that 98% of those incorrectly kicked off the program even though they were eligible were removed for not satisfying the documentation requirement. In other words, its s big deal. 4/ gao.gov/assets/gao-17-…
Same GAO report pointed out that the administrative burdens in the program were undermining its success. This was published in 2016! 5/
So we know administrative burdens are a big problem for these loans forgiveness programs. How about using federal data to shift some burdens onto the state? Trump does this - but only for veterans with TPD. 6/ https:// forbes.com/sites/zackfrie…
This change won't solve every problem with the program but it will help a lot of people with low income and is worthy of praise. It shows the potential policy impact of taking on administrative burdens. businessinsider.com/biden-educatio…
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A new journalist wrote a story about how the Capitol insurrectionists are raising money online, which seems like a newsworthy topic. She was already being attacked even before Glenn decides to weigh in.
How members of the far right use technology to support their goals is a legitimate story. Even if you don’t like the framing, it’s insane to go on a threaded rant about how this story is all that is wrong with journalism.
There is growing appreciation of the importance of frictions, esp. in public services. But academics use different terms.
In a new paper in @journal_pa we sort out the overlap and differences btw red tape, sludge, administrative burden and ordeal mechanisms approaches.
For people who want to study the topic of frictions, it is understandably confusing as to whether there are real differences in approaches. So we thought it would be useful to pull together basic information like definitions in one place.
In practice, competing scholarly approaches to frictions vary in terms of basic assumptions about sources of burdens, how to measure frictions, the relationship with inequality, and whether frictions are intentional.
Black churches used Sundays to organize their congregants, and the wider community, to vote in response to a history of discrimination and concerns about lack of safety when voting. npr.org/2021/03/22/977…
When North Carolina eliminated Sunday voting as part of a broader voter suppression package, courts noted the clear intention to target Black voters (via @Eugene_Scott) npr.org/2021/03/22/977…
One more time: the greatest threat to free speech on campus comes not from students, but from public officials using state power to censor ideas they disagree with.
I continue to tweet about this stuff because the dominant narrative continues to be that students/faculty are destroying speech even amidst a pretty straightforward wave of state censorship in the US (thread):
Anti-free speech governments in other countries have picked on the language of US conversations about "social justice", "wokeness" and "cancel culture" to go on their own wave of suppressing campus speech (thread)
If you ever wondered what it was like to live through a period of systemic attacks on democracy, now you know nytimes.com/2021/03/23/us/…
After the 2012 loss the Republican National Committee undertook a post-election review that emphasized the need to broaden the GOP tent by reaching out to minorities.
After the 2020 loss they formed a committee to make it harder for those people to vote.
Every corporate and individual donor to ALEC and the Heritage Foundation are funding an attack on democracy.
This Arkansas law does not just criminalize poverty, it targets the most vulnerable groups: "62% of cases in 2012 were filed against Black women (who make up about 20% of the city’s population)." arknews.org/index.php/2021…
15 of 35 Arkansas Senators are landlords. Not only does the legislature criminalize non-payment of rent, it has blocked any laws that require homes to be habitable.