Five days after President Obama laid out his jobs ideas in a speech before Congress, the Republican response is beginning to take shape. And that response, more than any of the specific proposals in the president’s plan, could be the key factor in determining the fate of the economy. In recent days, Republicans have made
Continue reading …Is it too much to ask that a memorial dedicated to the victims of the worst ever attack on American soil should spell those victims’ names correctly? Apparently so. Jeffrey Schreier was killed on 9/11 while working at Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial firm based in the World Trade Center that was nearly wiped out in
Continue reading …A popular idea in President Obama’s new jobs bill could represent a step toward fundamentally transforming the existing system of federal jobless benefits. Some critics say that such a move is long overdue–but others worry that a major overhaul could threaten a program that since the Depression has been a core component of the social
Continue reading …More than a fifth of Americans under the age of 18 lived in poverty last year, new U.S. Census figures show. The poverty rate for children rose from 20.7 percent in 2009 to 22 percent last year, making kids more likely than any other age group to be poor. For children under the age of
Continue reading …America appears to be losing an important edge in the global knowledge economy, with its share of college-educated workers falling relative to rival economic powers, according to a new study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. At present, the study found, one in four of the 255 million people worldwide with a bachelor’s
Continue reading …America appears to be losing an important edge in the global knowledge economy, with its share of college-educated workers falling relative to rival economic powers, according to a new study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. At present, the study found, one in four of the 255 million people worldwide with a bachelor’s
Continue reading …Last week, we appealed to the educators in the Lookout audience to tell us how they were planning on teaching the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Several teachers told The Lookout that they strove to find creative ways to teach an event to kids who were toddlers or not even born when the
Continue reading …Kids who attend middle-class schools find themselves in more crowded classrooms, led by teachers drawing smaller salaries, compared to the school systems based in poor or wealthy districts. Per-pupil spending in middle-class schools is also significantly lower than in other schools, a new report by the nonprofit group Third Way finds. The report argues that
Continue reading …Last Thursday, President Obama called for $25 billion to modernize 35,000 of the country’s aging school buildings as part of his $450 billion American Jobs Act plan. And regardless of the prospects for the passage of Obama’s plan, it’s worth asking: Does attending a run-down school affect students’ achievement levels? The average K-12 building in
Continue reading …As President Obama prepares to send his jobs bill to Congress today, there’s still disagreement on how much bang for the buck, in terms of job growth, it carries. The Wall Street Journal hosted an informal debate between two leading economists, one from the right and one from the left, to probe that question. Doug
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