The Conversation

How the Texas Top 10% Plan failed to attract more students to the state's flagship colleges

Written by Kalena E. Cortes, Associate Professor, The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University

The plan sought to broaden high schools sending students to public colleges in Texas.qingwa via iStock/Getty Images Plus

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

A 22-year-old Texas initiative – meant to broaden the pool of high schools whose graduates attend public universities after affirmative action...

Robert Owen, born 250 years ago, tried to use his wealth to perfect humanity in a radically equal society

Written by Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University

The utopian community modeled on the industrialist's principles lasted only two years.Corbis Historical/Getty Images

Do you have a work schedule that leaves you with enough time off the clock to rest up and handle your other responsibilities?

If so, you might owe something to Robert Owen, a wealthy industrialist who was born in Wales on May 14, 1771....

Putting a dollar value on nature will give governments and businesses more reasons to protect it

Written by Linda J. Bilmes, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Finance, Harvard Kennedy School

Sunrise over Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota.NPS/Flickr

President Joe Biden calls climate change “the existential crisis of our time” and has taken steps to curb it that match those words. They include returning the U.S. to the Paris Agreement; creating a new climate Cabinet position; introducing a plan to slash fossil...

Family farms are struggling with two hidden challenges: health insurance and child care

Written by Shoshanah Inwood, Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology, The Ohio State University

Kat Becker feeds hundreds of people with the vegetables she grows on her Wisconsin farm, and she wants to expand. But her ability to grow her business collides with her need for affordable health insurance and child care.

She has had to make difficult choices over the years: keep her farm income low enough so her children can qualify for the...

US parents pay nearly double the 'affordable' cost for child care and preschool

Written by Joya Misra, Professor of Sociology & Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Child care and preschool are a strain on family budgets.Matt Roth for The Washington Post via Getty Images

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President Joe Biden wants to make child care more affordable across the U.S.

Under his American Families Plan, proposed in April 2021, the federal government would subsidize the costs of child care to the tune of US$225 billion...

Doctors treating trans youth grapple with uncertainty, lack of training

Written by stef m. shuster, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Michigan State University

Randomized controlled trials of therapeutic interventions have yet to be conducted.Bet_Noire/Getty Images

Last month, the Arkansas Senate passed legislation prohibiting medical providers from offering gender-affirming hormones or surgeries to trans youth.

If you were to read the bill – titled the Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act &ndas...

Can schools require COVID-19 vaccines for students now that Pfizer's shot is authorized for kids 12 and up?

Written by Kristine Bowman, Professor of Law and Education Policy, Michigan State University

The Food and Drug Administration on May 10, 2021, granted the first emergency use authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents. FG Trade via Getty Images

With the first COVID-19 vaccine now authorized for adolescents, ages 12 and up, a big question looms: Will students be required to get the vaccine before returning to their classrooms in...

COVID-19 upended Americans' sense of individualism and invited us to embrace interconnectedness – an idea from Greek philosopher Epicurus

Written by Kristin Girten, Associate Professor of English, University of Nebraska Omaha

Nothing demonstrates our reliance on each other like a highly contagious disease.Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The ability to lift oneself up by their own bootstraps has long been celebrated in the United States. This admiration of self-reliance derives from the 17th-century English philosopher John Locke, who argued that individuals...

The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack and the SolarWinds hack were all but inevitable – why national cyber defense is a 'wicked' problem

Written by Terry Thompson, Adjunct Instructor in Cybersecurity, Johns Hopkins University

Military units like the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade shown here are just one component of U.S. national cyber defense.Fort George G. Meade Public Affairs Office/Flickr

Takeaways:

· There are no easy solutions to shoring up U.S. national cyber defenses.

· Software supply chains and private sector infrastructure companies are...

US support for waiving COVID-19 vaccine patent rights puts pressure on drugmakers – but what would a waiver actually look like?

Written by Dalindyebo Shabalala, Associate Professor, University of Dayton

A COVID-19 surge has pushed hospitals in India beyond their capacity. A stadium in New Delhi was being used as a makeshift ward on May 2, 2021.Getty Images

The U.S. and Europe are debating waiving patent rights for COVID-19 vaccines, a move that could allow more companies to produce the vaccine around the world. But it’s not as simple as it...