New Blog Posts

  • A Woman’s Work: Policy Solutions for the Emotional Labor Gap

    David Meni, MPP, Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives, with contributions from Sophie Krensky, Vital Voices Global Partnership When much of the national media dialogue surrounding the gender pay gap is devoted to overt discrimination in the workplace (or squabbling about how large that gap exactly is), a substantial element of the conversation remains missing –…

  • Opinion: Paying College Athletes Isn’t as Easy as Writing a Check

    Chelsea Lenhart*, MPA, Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives Tickets are already on sale for the 2016 March Madness tournament, with prices ranging from $15 for a single game to more than $200 for the Final Four showdown. In 2014, the NCAA earned nearly $900 million in revenue from March Madness alone. Fans often bet high…

  • Spanish Dual Language Programs Could be the Answer for DC English Language Learners

    Ashlynn Profit, MPA, Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives Although K-12 student test scores are on the rise in the District of Columbia across subgroups (e.g. racial ethnic groups, homeless students, students enrolled in special education), achievement gaps still exist throughout the nation’s capital. One group that’s falling behind is English Language Learners (ELLs). In 2014,…

  • Obama’s Failed Pivot to Asia

    Jerry Wei, MPP President Obama’s vaunted “Pivot to Asia,” announced in 2011, was supposed to help counter Chinese aggression, complementing and building on our existing military, economic, and diplomatic commitments in the region.  In the past, China’s leaders have relied on a strategy of national agitprop and aggressive international action to district their disillusioned and…

  • Spratly Islands: China’s Artificial Expansion and Why it Matters

    Andre Avanessians, MPP, Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives In the summer of 2014, news sources reported China’s plan to expand its international influence by creating an artificial island within the Spratly Islands, a disputed archipelago of reefs, atolls, and islands located in the South China Sea. The Spratleys, although largely unexplored, are situated within a…