Category Domestic Policy
Not-So-Affordable Housing: Addressing Impacts on Low-Income Renters
Maya Pendleton, MPP Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives A growing body of research suggests that increasing housing costs uniquely impact renters, particularly low-income renters. Researchers have linked eviction to a lack of affordable housing; over one million renters are evicted each year. For comparison, over one million homes were foreclosed during the peak of America’s financial […]
Legalization of Medical Cannabis as a Policy Response to the Opioid Epidemic
Thomas J. Rachko Jr., MPA Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives An advertisement displayed on a bikeshare dock near GW’s campus proclaims “Choose Plants Over Pills.” The advertisement is part of an educational series created by the National Holistic Healing Center, a Washington, D.C. and Maryland-based medical cannabis dispensary. The dispensary aims to share “both the anecdotal […]
Understanding Linguistic Discrimination: Consequences and Policy Responses
Lena Nour, MPP Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives Could the sound of your voice be subject to discrimination? This year marks the 65th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), a landmark Supreme Court case which declared racial discrimination in public schools unconstitutional. However, many forms of racial discrimination remain prevalent today and some […]
The Promise of Free Community College and What States Deliver
Caitlyn Valadez, MPA Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives Mamie Voight of the Institute for Higher Education Policy once noted that ”free is a message that works.” The phrase “free community college” is often used to describe and promote scholarship programs that cover tuition costs for community college students. This policy approach to making college more […]
Safeguarding Voting Rights: Learning From the Past and Looking to the Future
Maya Pendleton, MPP Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives While the right to vote is fundamental to American democracy, it has needed the protection of the Constitution as well as legislation to be fully realized. The 15th and 19th Amendments extended voting rights to Black Americans and women, but organized violence and policies such as literacy tests […]
Protecting Bald Eagles from Lead Poisoning: State-Level Policy Solutions
Reeve Jacobus, MPP Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives Although the bald eagle was removed from the federal endangered species list in 2007, it is nevertheless illegal to hunt the national bird of the United States. Bald eagles are protected under the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, which imposes a $5,000 fine or one-year prison sentence for killing […]
Transgender and Incarcerated: Revised Bureau of Prisons Guidance Could Compromise Safety of Transgender Inmates
Kaid Ray-Tipton, MPA Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives In the last few days of the Obama administration, former Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Acting Director Thomas R. Kane released the Transgender Offender Manual which was developed to ensure that the BOP “properly identifies, tracks, and provides services to the transgender population.” Over a year later, this […]
