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Education Policy

Raising the Bar: Fair Compensation for Teachers and Support Staff in Education Bridging the Pay Gap for a Stronger and More Equitable Texas Education System

By: Steven Santoyo, Ed.M Picture a Texas where our K-12 education system proudly ranks as the best in the nation. Can you visualize it? What would that world look like? How would we compensate our teachers? How would we invest in the preparation of educators? These questions have never been more critical, as the nationwide […]

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Health & Social Policy

The “Wicked” Problem

An Excerpt from Building Effective Collaborative Governance in Juvenile Justice: A Framework for Success in Social Policy Reform By Rylee Pluta and Tracy Johnson In 1973, theorists Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber revolutionized public management through the introduction and analysis of a new term, “wicked” problem, that highlights the complexities of public policy problems. According […]

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Uncategorized

Coding Standards: How education and policymakers can prevent coming tech catastrophes

By Alejandro Hernandez & Anna Krolikowsk In 1846, the rate of women who died shortly after giving birth in a hospital in Vienna was higher in the physician’s clinic than in the midwives’ ward. Doctors attributed the deaths to random cases of childbed fever. That was until Ignaz Semmelweis, assistant professor at John Hopkins School […]

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Uncategorized

The Case for Public Digital Infrastructure

By David Freid What do the lockout of Russian civilians from using their Visa and MasterCard credit cards tied to the SWIFT system, the massive outflow of users from one of the world’s most crucial mass communication platforms due to its hostile takeover by a new controversial owner and the ongoing 4th amendment concerns related […]

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Health & Social Policy

A Golden Opportunity

By Afnaan Qayyum A hundred companies in the UK recently announced four-day workweeks without pay cuts. Meanwhile, there is an emerging debate in the U.S. over labor rights and workplace wellness. “Better late than never,” they said about the world’s richest economy.  The business motivation for introducing employee wellness programs lies in increased productivity, reduced […]

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Global Op-Ed

How the United Nations Can Rebuild Trust with the People

By Alejandro Hernandez Amidst the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the Ukrainian counter-offensive in September, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 77th session went mostly under the radar. Citizens around the world usually ignore these sessions, even though the UN is the largest international organization in the world working on the most important challenges […]

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Labor Rights Politics and Governance

The Federal Reserve is hurting workers

By Ardian Shaholli Amid the inflation rate reaching a 40-year high, there is an understandable impetus for the Federal Reserve to take action. It has raised interest rates four times during the first seven months of this year, including two 0.75% rate hikes, the highest increase since 1994. Back in May of this year, Federal […]

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Civil Rights

Why we must stand up for Uyghurs: An interview with activist Julie Millsap

By Abdullah Dowaihy With the hopes of erasing their religious and cultural identity, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is inflicting indoctrination, sterilization, and sexual abuse on more than one million Muslim Uyghurs in the concentration camps of Xinjiang. For example, Tursunay Ziawudun, one of the Uyghurs that fled the camps in Xinjiang, described how the […]

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Politics and Governance

The Unknown Political Power of New Texans

By Sabrina Page You can learn a lot about population change in Texas simply by entering the parking lot of your local HEB. When I moved to Austin from Seattle last fall, I started noticing the high out-of-state representation by playing a game called “How many different license plates can I spot today?”: Illinois, Massachusetts, […]

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Climate Change Energy & Environmental Policy Global

No Requiem for Earth… Yet

By Kathleen Hillery Human-accelerated climate change is the most urgent crisis of our time. Each successive iteration of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change hammers home the increasingly desperate environmental come-back necessary to prevent cascading disruption to ocean currents, biodiversity, and humanity’s way of life.  Scientists have published robust studies confirming human activity has caused […]