* The Energy Crisis * Access to Higher Education * Working Families *
The Roosevelt Institution
* The Energy Crisis * Access to Higher Education * Working Families *
The Roosevelt Institution is excited to announce the first annual Roosevelt Challenges, selected from student proposals by participants in last summer's Policy Expo and Hyde Park leadership retreat. The Roosevelt Challenges will channel the passion, knowledge, and creativity of college students across the country into a concerted effort to impact policy debates and outcomes today on the following issues:
For the academic year 2006-2007, using public policy as their vehicle, the Roosevelt Institution challenges students to . . .
| National steering committees are currently working to coordinate student efforts on these issues. Please click one of the challenges links to read more about the challenge and join the group. |
The way America uses fossil fuels interferes with every other progressive goal. Our environment is being not only threatened by global climate change, but by extraction efforts that invade pristine wildernesses and level whole mountains in the greedy quest for oil and coal. Huge economic resources are being poured into the ground when they could be used to create jobs for Americans in sustainable energy and conservation. Internationally, our oil use enriches oppressive dictatorships and theocracies, undermines our democratization efforts, props up and funds terrorist groups, and provides a powerful diplomatic weapon for rivals to use against us and our allies. The Roosevelt Institution is committed to developing practical ways to reduce our fossil fuel use through reduced energy consumption and moves to other sources of energy.
Historically, work was the pillar upon which family life rested. In recent years, however, with more single parent or two breadwinner households, longer hours, and declining minimum wages, work has become a tougher impediment to family life. Family-friendly fringe benefits -- health insurance, company retirement plans -- have been cut back and job security has eroded. And even as volatility has increased there are attempts to reduce social insurance, as the household is being asked to bear a larger share of the risks in our economy. The point of the American economy is to support the American family, but instead we find our families being sacrificed to our economy -- a squeeze in which jobs demand more of a family's resources and provide fewer of a family's needs. The Roosevelt Institution is committed to advancing policies that will make the economy once again support working families.
Higher education shapes so many things about our society -- it is a credential that gives access to more and better job opportunities, it creates social networks and is a center of cultural production and definition, and it provides resources and time for personal growth and reflection. Yet our system of allocating access to higher education does not reflect our values as a society. The public K-12 education system does not offer every student the chance to prepare for college; not everyone who has the possibility to succeed is given the information and tools they need to prepare a competitive application; when applications are judged, they often take into account only a limited set of data about the individual; and once everyone arrives at college, not enough is done to make sure that everyone, regardless of their background, is given what they need to succeed. Unequal access to higher education is un-American. It restricts the life choices, productivity, and creative output of our children simply because of the neighborhood, family, or economic circumstance they were born into. And by excluding some qualified people from our higher education system, it impoverishes the experience for all students. The Roosevelt Institution is committed to broadening access to higher education, ensuring that we provide a place for every student who works hard and wants to attend.
About the challenges and why and how we pick them.