Public Policy Center Research Articles

Did Fact Checking Matter in the 2012 Presidential Campaign?

The new media environment raises two questions: Will campaign deceptions have traveled around the web before journalism has the fact-checking in place to ensnare them? And if diligent checking of claims does exist, will it fall on an audience too enmeshed in its own biases to see past them? This essay draws on evidence from the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s 2012 Institutions of Democracy Political Knowledge Survey to argue that long-form political fact-checking can increase the accuracy of voters’ perceptions of both candidate stands on issues and the background facts of the presidential race.

Exploring the promise of mandatory random student drug testing by comparing it to other school drug prevention strategies

Exploring the promise of mandatory random student drug testing by comparing it to other school drug prevention strategies

A Decision Analysis to Assess the Value of Prostate Cancer Screening: A Shift in Focus From Prostate Cancer-specific Mortality to Distant Metastasis-free Survival

A Decision Analysis to Assess the Value of Prostate Cancer Screening: A Shift in Focus From Prostate Cancer-specific Mortality to Distant Metastasis-free Survival A.P. Dosoretz, N.H. Lester-Coll, and J.B. Yu; Yale-New Haven Hospital, Department of Therapeutic Radiology, New Haven, CT, University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, Yale Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy, and Effectiveness Research Center (COPPER), New Haven, CT

Generational and Gender Perspectives on Career Flexibility: Ensuring the Faculty Workforce of the Future

Generational and Gender Perspectives on Career Flexibility: Ensuring the Faculty Workforce of the Future

Still Not on the Radar: Adolescent Risk and Gambling, Revisited

Still Not on the Radar: Adolescent Risk and Gambling, Revisited

Postmortems On The Affordable Care ActInside National Health Reform by McDonough John E. Berkeley (CA) : University of California Press , 2011 330 pp.; $34.95Why ObamaCare Is Wrong For America: How The New Health Care Law Drives Up Costs, Puts Government In Charge Of Your Decisions, And Threatens Your Constitutional Rights by Turner Grace-Marie Capretta James C. Miller Thomas P.

Postmortems On The Affordable Care ActInside National Health Reform by McDonough John E. Berkeley (CA) : University of California Press , 2011 330 pp.; $34.95Why ObamaCare Is Wrong For America: How The New Health Care Law Drives Up Costs, Puts Government In Charge Of Your Decisions, And Threatens Your Constitutional Rights by Turner Grace-Marie Capretta James C. Miller Thomas P.

Financing Municipalities in New England: Revisiting the State-Local Relationship

On December 5, 2007, the New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston held its third annual policy symposium, “Financing Municipalities in New England: Revisiting the State-Local Relationship.” Through presentations and a panel discussion, the conference brought together legislators, business leaders, researchers, and policy advisors to examine the long-term fiscal challenges facing the region’s municipalities, and to discuss potential revenue solutions. This report provides an overview of the conference’s major themes.

Book Reviews

David Colander of Middlebury College reviews “Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element” by John D. Mueller. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Considers a neo-Scholastic view on economics that restores the Scholastic elements of consumption and final distribution to the field after their elimination in Adam Smith's theory of economics. Discusses Smithology and its discontents; scholastic economics, c. 1250-1776; classical economics, 1776-1871; neoclassical economics, 1871-c. 2000; neo-Scholastic economics, c. 2000 and beyond; the “mother's problem” and St. Augustine's solution; the success and failure of neoclassical economics; an empirical test--fatherhood and homicide; the moral implications of scarcity--the good Samaritan paradigm; marriage, the “first natural bond of human society”; why parents give children “existence, rearing, and instruction”; how neo-Scholastic economics explains our life earnings and spending; saving America's infant industry; the theory of American public choice; injustice in exchange--unemployment; injustice in exchange--inflation; and the three worldviews. Mueller is Director of the Economics and Ethics Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and President of LBMC LLC. Index.”

New legal model suggested for DNA samples given to biobanks

New legal model suggested for DNA samples given to biobanks

How Will Personalized Medicine Impact the Practice of Gastroenterology?

I exchange for a drop of saliva and as little as $299, consumers can access predictions about their future health ased on DNA sequence variations occurring throughout their enome. Tantalizing. But is this the personalized medicine that ealth care providers and patients envision as the future pracice of medicine? Personalized medicine uses information about an individul’s genes, proteins, and environment to inform health care ecisions that could improve clinical outcome. This notion of ersonalized medicine appears attainable with the recent seuencing of the entire human genome (Human Genome Projct), the publication of HapMap (a catalogue of common single ucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs] linked to traits and disorers), and technological advances conferring the ability to rapdly analyze an individual’s genome. Genomic sequencing proides the most comprehensive genetic information about an ndividual because it detects all types of genetic variations and utations, but currently is impractical in clinical care because omplete genome sequencing and analysis could cost as much s $68,500, at least according to one company (it cost $350,000 n 2007).1 Most direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing companies instead use state-of-the-art microarray technology to rapidly identify SNPs that generate a less complete snapshot of an individual’s genetic variations. Although specific SNPs themselves generally are not believed to be responsible for causing a trait or disorder, their presence may be used to predict a genetic predisposition to certain traits. After analyzing an individual’s DNA, a DTC company can provide the consumer with a list of predictions (or relative risks) of specific disorders, based on more than 1000 DNA variants already linked to specific diseases or traits in the published literature. For-profit companies claim they can make predictions about the likelihood of developing a multitude of disorders or traits, ranging from esophageal cancer to baldness. The Genetics and Public Policy Center has compiled a list of the companies and the traits and disorders each claims to detect.2 One company maintains it can identify the “inherited and endowed inborn talents of a child from the genetic makeup of his/her DNA” (Map My Gene, Singapore; www.mapmygene.

Classifying the Colleges of the Forgotten Americans: A Geographically-Based Classification of Public Master's Colleges and Universities

In his first address to a Joint Session of Congress in February 2009, President Barack Obama committed the nation to dramatically expanding adult baccalaureate degree attainment among US adults, which had fallen from first to eighth among developed nations around the world: That is why, at the start of my administration I set a goal for America: by 2020, this nation will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world….Today, I am announcing the most significant down payment yet on reaching this goal in the next ten years. It’s called the American Graduation Initiative. It will reform and strengthen community colleges from coast to coast so that they get the resources students and schools need—and the results workers and businesses demand. Through this plan, we seek to help an additional five million Americans earn degrees and certificates in the next decade. The task of dramatically increasing adult baccalaureate degree attainment requires a substantially greater policy focus on what National Center for Public Policy Center and Higher Education President Pat Callan termed the most understudied sector of US higher education, the nation’s public regional universities (2009 unpublished remarks to the Council for the Public Policy of ASHE).

National Evaluation of Mileage-Based Charges for Drivers

This paper presents initial results and conclusions from the National Evaluation of a Mileage-Based Road User Charge, a 2-year field study conducted by the University of Iowa Public Policy Center. The study, which evaluates technical feasibility and user acceptance of mileage-based charging as a potential replacement for the current motor fuel tax, was authorized by the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, which reauthorized federal transportation funding. This study is the first to examine road user charges on a national and multijurisdictional scale. Approximately 2,650 volunteers from 12 areas throughout the country participated in the study, which concluded in July 2010. The system mileage charges were totaled and apportioned to the federal, state, and local levels with the use of onboard computers installed in participants' vehicles. The onboard computers contained Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers with an associated geographic database to identify the taxing jurisdictions in which the vehicles traveled. The average participant drove approximately 9,000 mi during the study (the study totaled more than 21 million miles). Approximately 92.5% of all driven miles were successfully measured by both the GPS and the onboard diagnostics system (OBD-II). Of the miles driven without GPS, 6.9% could be reliably assigned to jurisdictions by using straightforward interpolation techniques. Approximately 0.6% of total miles driven could not be reliably assigned to a state or local jurisdiction. Participant attitudes regarding the system and the overall concept of mileage-based charging were assessed. At the end of the study, 71% had a highly or somewhat positive view, and 17% held a highly or somewhat negative view. Participants consistently (but to varying degrees) preferred audit ability, which consisted of receiving detailed monthly invoices, over maximum privacy protection.

It's Time for a Real Revolution

Teacher in Australia has been reviewed more than 40 times in the past four decades, yet its broad framework remains the same. However, there is now a real prospect of significant change. Australia began its education in 2008. The revolution is a series of reforms with an unprecedented partnership between the federal government and governments in the six states and two territories. While the term, education revolution, comes from former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose Labor Government came to power in late 2007, the reform agenda was driven by his then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education Julia Gillard. A revolution of another kind (some have called it an assassination) occurred in June when Gillard challenged Rudd for leadership of the Labor Party and won with such overwhelming support from her parliamentary colleagues that Rudd did not recontest the position. This is the first time in Australian history that a prime minister, after a single term, was deposed by his own party before an election. It's especially remarkable because Rudd enjoyed stratospheric levels of popularity less than 12 months ago. The reasons for Rudd's implosion are complex, but he lost the confidence of his colleagues, and public opinion polls showed the likely defeat of the Labor Party in elections due in late 2010. Gillard immediately restored the popularity of Labor and called an election in August, the result of which will be known at the time this column appears. Labor is likely to be returned because a first-term government has not been re-elected only once in Australia. Gillard has placed reform at the center of public policy, and this is likely to remain the case now that she is prime minister. The reform focused on creating a national curriculum, nationwide tests in literacy and numeracy, reporting schools' performance on the My School web site, ensuring that all senior secondary students have a computer (Digital Education Revolution, or DER), and building new facilities in most elementary and many secondary schools (Building the Education Revolution, or BER). The public and many professional educators approved the reforms, though the Australian Education Union almost boycotted the national tests because of concerns about publishing league tables of school performance. However, there is evidence of mismanagement of funds and questions about value for money in both DER and BER. Education on the Agenda While the policies of the major political parties had not been announced at the time of writing, it's clear that teacher is high on the agenda regardless of the election outcome. Designing a national frame-work is the responsibility of the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), whose board of directors consists mostly of representatives of the states and territories. Because of national partnership agreements between different levels of government, AITSL's recommendations are almost certain to be implemented. I am co-leading a review of teacher and school induction in Queensland, which has the longest experience of any state in the accreditation of teacher programs and the registration (certification) of teachers. …

Should Anesthesiologists be Equipped as Genetic Counselors?

Should Anesthesiologists be Equipped as Genetic Counselors?

Book review: Alex S Jones, Losing the News: The Future of the News that Feeds Democracy, Oxford University Press: New York, 2009; xix + 234 pp.: £13.99

This would be an interesting book (and some parts of it are definitely interesting) if it ultimately had something new to add to a very public debate in which academic analysis has somewhat lagged behind insider accounts. Part autobiography, part personal commentary, the text is engaging and lucid, but in the end unsatisfactory. A complement to a collection of scholarly essays on the press, and a volume in a series which is a collaboration between the university press and the Annenberg Foundation Trust, which also bears the imprint of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, it contains not a single footnote and only sparse in-text references. Practitioners—and not all of them are grumpy old journalists—may be at the forefront of examining the contemporary condition of journalism and the news media but endless repetition of the same old story hardly adds to our understanding.

Is there a better way to get consent for bloodspot use?

Is there a better way to get consent for bloodspot use?

Introduction: the future of news

staff by three hundred to four hundred, about 25 percent. More than one-quarter of the public now gets news from cell phones. Bankruptcies, buyouts, and bolting advertisers send one message: The sky, 1⁄2lled with pink slips for reporters, is falling on mainstream news media. Three magazines displayed next to each other at a bookstore blame different culprits for the mainstream news media’s plight. A New Yorker Nostradamus describes an entertain-or-die media world of nonstop news on the Web and high-decibel argument on cable tv.1 An Atlantic column points to the shift in readership from lengthy newspaper articles to Internet articles that “get to the point.”2 An Utne Reader article cites plummeting international coverage by U.S. media, down by about 40 percent in 2008.3 The authors of all three magazine pieces, whatever their differences, probably agree with the assumption that drives this issue of Daedalus about the future of news: A democracy depends on a citizenry informed by the free flow of serious news and an independent journalism that continuously casts a skeptical eye on the powerful and provides original, reliable reporting. This issue’s 1⁄2rst article–by Herbert J. Gans, the Robert S. Lynd Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Columbia University–calls for rethinking the theory of the press as a bulwark of democracy. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and Jeffrey A. Gottfried, senior researcher at the Center, follow with an article that credits news media with traditionally educating citizens about national issues. But the article questions whether, based on coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign, the media “still sift fact from fabrication.” Those who see informed citizens as key to a democracy worry, often apocalyptically, about the advertising-supported U.S. media that traditionally have provided news and credible journalism. Print newspapers are closing, commercial radio news is disappearing, and television news operations are slashing staff to survive. What business models will provide the income for news organizations to do the ambitious, expensive journalism that covers wars abroad and investigates corruption at home? Loren Ghiglione

When should pediatric biobanks share data?

When should pediatric biobanks share data?

Leszek Kolakowski (1927–2009)

Leszek Kolakowski (1927–2009) Nadia Diuk, Richard Pipes, George Weigel, Abbas Milani, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jerzy Szacki, and Carl Gershman The eminent Polish philosopher, Leszek Kolakowski, who had a major influence on the development of the Polish democratic opposition, died on 17 July 2009. A memorial symposium entitled "Democracy, Totalitarianism, and the Culture of Freedom" was held in his honor at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C., on October 15. Kolakowski had been a founding member of the Journal of Democracy's Editorial Board and had spoken at several major NED conferences. His thinking influenced the Endowment's strategy in Central and Eastern Europe. The event was introduced by NED president Carl Gershman and moderated by former U.S. national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Other speakers included NED vice-president Nadia Diuk, longtime director of NED programs in Central Europe and Eurasia; Richard Pipes, Baird Professor Emeritus of History at Harvard University; George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center; and Abbas Milani, Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University. A second memorial symposium was held on October 24 at the University of Warsaw, organized by the Stefan Batory Foundation. Moderated by Aleksander Smolar, it featured as speakers Jerzy Szacki, professor emeritus of the University of Warsaw; philosophy professor Jan Andrzej Kłoczowski, O.P.; and Jerzy Jedlicki, professor at the Historical Institute at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the former prime minister of Poland (1989–91), sent an audio message. At the conclusion, Carl Gershman presented NED's Democracy Service Medal to Kolakowski's widow, Tamara Kolakowska, and read a tribute that accompanied it. A video of the NED symposium is available at www.ned.org/events/kolakowski.html, and an audio recording of the Warsaw symposium is available at www.batory.org.pl/debaty/Kolakowski.htm. Selected excerpts from speeches at these two events appear below: Nadia Diuk: In an article entitled "In Stalin's Countries: Theses on Hope and Despair," Kolakowski dissected the operations of what he called alternately the communist social system, bureaucratic socialism, socialist despotism, or monopolistic power. Even though he was referring to the Soviet model of socialism, his analysis of the way a totalitarian regime seeks to exercise power relates to all kinds of despotisms and thus is decidedly [End Page 184] relevant today. "The natural need of despotism," he wrote, "is to terrify individuals while depriving them of the means of organized resistance." He elaborated further, applying his well-honed skills in dialectical reasoning: "If this concentration of power is a source of strength, it also conceals weaknesses." This was his main thesis: the paradox that the more a regime tries to assert control over political and social life, the weaker it becomes, "deprived of plasticity and self-regulatory devices," as he put it. He had thus turned Marxist dialectics on its head. . . . By poking holes in the totalitarian monolith and highlighting weaknesses in the system, Kolakowski identified areas where opponents of the system could work and how society could organize in its own self-defense. These ideas were elaborated further by Jacek Kuroń, who added the idea of "self-organization" by society, and Adam Michnik, who took this analysis further in his essay "The New Evolutionism." The notion was gradually being accepted that engaged citizens could reclaim the public space monopolized by the regime and that social and cultural activities could take place outside of the officially sanctioned realm, bypassing the "leading role" of the Communist Party and other state-controlled instruments. . . . Even after martial law was imposed at the end of 1981, the Polish opposition continued its newly adopted strategy of building parallel structures underground, by establishing a thriving underground press, a flying university, and many publishing houses, and gaining the moral authority that had been lost by the ruling elite, all in accordance with Kolakowski's original thesis. Kolakowski wrote many other pieces about the Polish opposition, and also on the unique role of the Polish nation and its intellectuals, and in later years he warned, "The victory of democracy is by no means assured—there are various noncommunist forms of tyranny." But his analysis of the...

New England Public Policy Center

New England Public Policy Center