The Baines Report
Introducing Community-Anchor Engagement By Ryan Cramer Much like the character arc of the T-800 from “Terminator 1” to “Terminator 2”, the mission of universities as anchor institutions has evolved over time for the better. While anchor institutions are traditionally universities and hospitals, that definition has expanded to include non-profit and for-profit institutions, which have a […]
By Brittany Head The ongoing partisan squeeze of the American Families Plan has pushed reform of the community college and public university system out of discussion in Congress. Democratic policy makers eliminated a provision to subsidize and support access to community college in the United States along with several other major policy proposals in the […]
The time to abolish the filibuster is long overdue. The filibuster is not in the U.S. Constitution. It is not codified law. It is simply a procedural mechanism adopted by the Senate at the suggestion of Vice President Aaron Burr in 1805. Burr thought the previous question motion, which only required a simple majority to […]
Perhaps spooked by how record voter turnout in the 2020 election allowed Democrats to narrow or close the gap with Republicans in some of Texas’s most competitive counties, Republicans have touted baseless claims of election fraud to promote a slew of bills that would make it much harder for Texans to vote in future elections. […]
During the Democratic primary, Joe Biden promised to veto Medicare for All legislation — two days before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. COVID-19 has exposed the inadequacies of private health insurance. Approximately 49 percent of Americans depend on their employer for health coverage. Amid historic unemployment, 12 million Americans have […]
After watching the recent democratic turmoil in the United States with a mix of alarm and familiarity, neighbors in Latin America will soon begin their own busy season of elections. 2020 saw major electoral upheavals across the region, bringing about a return to democracy in some countries, while political disenfranchisement increased in others. As voters […]
Election Night was a “dumpster fire” for Democrats: the nail-biting presidential race when it should have been a landslide; the statewide losses when they were sure they’d flip seats. How is it that in 2020, the year of the greatest public health crisis of our time and the collapse of our economy, Republicans have secured […]
As 2020 marks the first election cycle in which Latinos are the largest minority electorate, politicians and political pundits grapple with how and to what extent this voting block will impact the ballot box in November. On Sept. 15, the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and the Latino Studies Department at the University […]
Out of the 535 members of Congress, only 11 receive a majority of their campaign funds from small donors. Seattle’s 2017 Democracy Vouchers program reversed this trend, resulting in an election where 87 percent of all contributions were from small donors. Moving forward, democracy vouchers provide a promising template for future electoral reforms that look […]
On July 14, Mayor Steve Adler joined a virtual interview with Politico on the state of affairs in Austin, given the recent surge in Texas COVID-19 cases. Adler expressed his concern for the state and Austin in particular, singling out the difficulties that the city’s healthcare system is facing and the issues The University of Texas […]