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Bringing accountability to higher ed prices

Plus: Quantifying inflation’s harms to the poor; nuclear energy in Ukraine; Medicaid’s wasteful spending on prescription drugs; and improving police data.
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Plus: Quantifying inflation’s harms to the poor; nuclear energy in Ukraine; Medicaid’s wasteful spending on prescription drugs; and improving police data.

FREOPP Conversation with Senior Fellow Preston Cooper: Preston is the author of our series of reports on the return on investment for more than 60,000 post-secondary degrees and certifications, including colleges, grad schools, and associate degrees. He rounded out the project in March with a comprehensive white paper describing seven key strategies for reform. Preston’s core idea is holding universities accountable for their graduates’ economic outcomes, relative to the prices they charge, by steering existing federal aid to the places with the best returns.

This month, he shared his findings live in a webinar with FREOPP supporters. The video of his remarks and answers to questions about everything from methodology to policy is now available for everyone on YouTube.

Bonus higher ed content: Check out Preston’s take on the Biden administration’s “fresh start” plan for borrowers in delinquency or default on their student loans.

Inflation’s compounding impact on the poor: Poll after poll indicates that inflation is Americans’ number one policy concern. One of the underappreciated reasons why is that inflation has a disproportionate impact on lower-income individuals. FREOPP’s latest research paper, from Visiting Fellows Jackson Mejia and Jon Hartley, digs into just how significant the harm is. For instance, from 2004 to 2020—a period of moderate inflation—Americans in the bottom 10% of earners lost nearly one full year of income on a compounded basis. For those at the top, it was barely a month. Their conclusion? Even 2% inflation may be too high of a target for the Federal Reserve. Read more takeaways and see all the data here.

Want more from FREOPP on inflation? Read FREOPP President Avik Roy’s piece on the role Bitcoin can play in protecting ordinary Americans, especially those earning an hourly wage or on fixed incomes.

We’re not going to have another Chernobyl: With prices soaring, Americans are re-thinking our nation’s approach to energy—including the affordable, abundant, and reliable energy we can get from nuclear power. But Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, including those near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, resurrected fears that more nuclear power means more risk of nuclear catastrophe. Fortunately, as FREOPP Visiting Fellow Grant Dever argues, modern nuclear power plants are uniquely resilient and designed to withstand both manmade threats and natural disasters.

Aduhelm decision exposes Medicaid to billion-dollar costs: Research Fellow Gregg Girvan discusses the April decision from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) clarifying Medicaid’s responsibilities in covering the controversial Alzheimer’s treatment Aduhelm. The key takeaway? Dumb government rules force taxpayers to subsidize drugs with little to no clinical value. Higher costs for Medicaid, in turn, will further undermine the financial stability of programs that tens of millions of Americans depend on.

The conspicuous lack of reliable crime and police data: Homicides have increased in many American cities over the past two years, prompting assertions of a “national crime wave” that requires a thoughtful public policy response. Unfortunately, as FREOPP Research Fellow Jonathan Blanks writes, “our ability to measure crime data depends on police department cooperation, and fewer police departments are contributing the necessary data to make that possible.” Learn more about the problem in his latest post on FREOPP’s OPPBlog.

Thanks for keeping up with FREOPP, and have a great weekend!


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