Links, 3-28-12

Here's an overview of what the Supreme Court will hear about health care this week.  The hearings represent a "moment of truth" for health care reform.  Among other things, the court will decide what parts of the health care law, if any, can stand if the mandate is unconstitutional.  The federal government is arguing that they cannot require insurers to accept all applicants or cover pre-existing conditions without the mandate.  Here's an update on what's happened the past two days.


In other health news, hospitals and other medical providers charge different users and insurers vastly different amounts for the same procedures.

Romney may be the consensus Republican candidate now, but that doesn't mean everybody is okay with that.  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Romney needs to check his watch from time to time and realize "it is 2012, not the mid-1970s".  And Rick Santorum said that Romney was the "worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama" on the issue of health care.

Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, is scaling back his campaign -- firing one-third of his staff and replacing his campaign manager


The Economist reports that nudges are catching on around the world.

Climatologists report that the Earth is on the brink of crossing a tipping point past which global warming will be irreversible.

The electric car seems to be losing steam.

THE future would appear bright for the electric car. Gasoline prices are high. The government is spending billions on battery technology. Auto companies are preparing to roll out a dozen new electrified models. Concern is growing about the climate impacts of burning oil. And tough new fuel economy standards are looming.
Yet the state of the electric car is dismal, the victim of hyped expectations, technological flops, high costs and a hostile political climate. General Motors has temporarily suspended production of the plug-in electric Chevy Volt because of low sales. Nissan’s all-electric Leaf is struggling in the market. A number of start-up electric vehicle and battery companies have folded. And the federal government has slowed its multibillion-dollar program of support for advanced technology vehicles in the face of market setbacks and heavy political criticism.

More Ed Policy Links, 3-27-12

Here's a good summary of efforts by the federal government to push schools toward using merit pay as part of RTTP.  According to the author of a new book on the psychology of motivation, teacher merit pay "doesn't work."  Here's a summary of the results of the Nashville merit pay experiment that support his contention. Meanwhile, a less-rigorous study in Arkansas found some positive returns to merit pay, but also found teachers reporting they didn't work harder.

Richard Rothstein writes that "keeping children in good health" must be part of our school reform efforts.  Apparently parents agree: after funding cuts, parents in some districts in California have paid for physical education out of their own pockets.

A new report on Charter Management Organizations asserts that the most successful charter management organizations focus heavily setting high expectations for student behavior and intensively coaching and monitoring students.

A recent study finds that attending a K-8 school instead of a middle school raises students' scores

Paul Peterson argues that low family income is "not a major reason for poor student achievement"

Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews writes that history suggests that too many people are not attending college, contrary to Rick Santorum's claims.

The high school graduation rate in the US rose 3.5 percentage points, to 75%, from 2001 to 2009.  Wisconsin is the only state above the goal of 90% and Nevada saw a 15 percentage point decrease to 56% as high schoolers dropped out to work on the Las Vegas strip.

A survey of teachers finds that fewer than one-third of teachers believes longer school days/years or merit pay will raise student achievement while 84% believe "increased family involvement and support" would make a difference.

Experts recently debated whether college should be for everyone.

A teacher writes that current measurements of teaching ability are all wrong.

The POSSE Foundation recruits low-income students and coaches them on how to make it through college. The results is that POSSE students are more likely to graduate from college than peers who score much on higher on standardized tests.

In a new feature, Paul Tough asks whether the secret to success is learning how to deal with failure.

A pediatrician writes that our children are chronically sleep deprived (69% get "insufficient" sleep on school nights and only 7.6% sleep the optimal amount) and argues that the lack of sleep is negatively impacting our kids in a variety of ways.

This chronic sleep deprivation is not without consequences. Sleep restriction in children has been linked to daytime sleepiness, inattention, poor motivation, memory problems, increased irritability, decreased socialization, low self-esteem, increased anxiety and depression, and suicidal behaviors.
Many of the prototypical traits of modern adolescence could just as easily be attributed to sleep deprivation as to raging hormones. Not surprisingly, there is further evidence (though limited) that these sleep deprivation problems with attention, memory consolidation, motivation, etc., contribute to overall lower grades and standardized test scores.
Finally, physical problems have been linked to chronic sleep restriction including: increased auto accidents, impaired immune function and obesity.
In 1997, seven high schools in the Minneapolis Public School District shifted their school start times from 7:15 a.m. to 8:40 a.m. In the two years following this change, data showed improved attendance, fewer depressive symptoms, less daytime sleepiness, increased student calmness in the cafeteria and hallways, fewer school counselor and nurse visits, and fewer disciplinary referrals.

Education Policy Links, 3-25-12

Education Week examines the growing focus on the role of poverty in education.  As does the NY Times.

Here's an excellent, information-dense piece on the influence of income on education and the influence of education on future earnings.

Teach For America founder Wendy Kopp pens "In Defense of Optimism" and education historian and NYU professor Diance Ravitch, "In Defense of Facing Reality" -- they argue mainly over whether programs like TFA can overcome the obstacles faced by children living in poverty.

A new study finds that "preschool attendance may help to reduce achievement gaps"

Here's an interview with prominent education writer Lisa Delpit on "educating other people's children"

David Brooks, long an advocate of "no excuses" charter schools that eschew teachers' unions, writes about the good things happening at a local school that emphasizes relationships and uses teams of 4 teachers to work with 60 kids per classroom.

The New American Academy has two big advantages as a reform model. First, instead of running against the education establishment, it grows out of it and is being embraced by the teachers’ unions and the education schools. If it works, it can spread faster.
Second, it does a tremendous job of nurturing relationships. Since people learn from people they love, education is fundamentally about the relationship between a teacher and student. By insisting on constant informal contact and by preserving that contact year after year, The New American Academy has the potential to create richer, mentorlike or even familylike relationships for students who are not rich in those things.

A new study finds that college freshman are not learning how to critically analyze the sources they cite.  Students "don't know how to do anything but grab a few sentences and go," writes one of the study's authors.

Education reporter Alexander Russo writes that those who argue for charters and merit pay and those who argue for social reform and fixing poverty are becoming more polarized.

There's no one I can think of who's acceptable to both sides.  And the absence of a unifying figure -- and some sort of a joint rallying cry -- is a problem that most of those currently engaged in battle don't seem to appreciate. This is in large part because both sides of the fight seem to think that they're winning.

Leonie Haimson, executive director of the nonprofit Class Size Matters argues that -- you guessed it -- class size matters.

A new survey of teachers finds job satisfaction plummeting.

New accountability measures for Head Start programs are, according to Sara Mead, making it obvious that there's a lack of quality providers.

Links, 3-23-12

Romney was basking in the glow of his victory in Illinois and endorsement by Jeb Bush when one of his aides said that Romney would be like an "etch-a-sketch" for the general election -- that he could start over in an effort to win over moderate voters.  Conservatives pounced on the comments, with Rick Santorum handing out etch-a-sketches to media at a press conference, to declare the Romney was flip-flopping again.

In a 5-4 decision, with Kennedy siding with the four liberal justices, the Supreme Court declared that the legal system should have more oversight over plea bargains and that lawyers must give competent advice to the clients they defend, opening the door for claims of incompetent representation after plea bargains.  One law scholar called it "the single greatest revolution in the criminal justice system" in the past 50 years.

Economist Christine Romer discusses recently published researching finding that while tax raises and cuts incentive people to work less and more, that the incentive is quite small and nowhere near enough to boost tax revenue through tax cuts or reduce tax revenue through tax increases.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has called a hearing to investigate bounties in professional sports in the wake of the Saints scandal


Environmental Links

A new report ranks Nashville 50th of 51 large cities in affordability of transportation.  Because of the sprawl and lack of public transit, metro Nashville residents spend about 29% of their income on commuting.

In an editorial, the NY Times points out that though gas prices have risen, the US now produces more oil and imports less than at any time in the past 10 years.

In an online debate over energy efficient products, an economist from the libertarian Cato Institute argues that we should "increase fossil fuel prices enough through taxation to account for [negative externalities]"

In the first three years of Obama's administration, real per-capita government spending has increased at a lower rate than all but one of the last six Presidents (Clinton).

President Obama yesterday declared his support for expedited construction of the Southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline, but not the Northern portion.

Oil and gas companies are taking advantage of new finds in the Marcellus Shale formation to build plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio that will produce CNG for cars.

More Health and Health Care Links

Here's the chart examining the 100+ causes of obesity that we discussed in class

A new study at convenience stores in low-income Baltimore neighborhoods posted the caloric values of soft drinks in various ways.  Posting absolute caloric count and percentage of recommended daily intake had no statistically significant effect on consumption, but posting the physical activity equivalent of the calories resulted in only half as many youths buying soft drinks.

NYT health writer Mark Bittman asks the authors of a new book if a calorie is really a calorie.  Their answer is that it is for weight loss purposes (eating 1500 calories of junk food will result in a lower weight than eating 1600 calories of healthy food every day, assuming no differences in behavior), but that a.) the types of foods you eat affect your behavior (it's easier to consume 500 calories of Coke than of apples); and b.) calories are not equal for overall health.  Some policy options are discussed.

The LA Times recounts the history of conservative proposals to mandate health insurance.  Here's a detailed history of conservative proposals both including and not including a mandate.

We briefly discussed the immense health care costs of the last few months of one's life in class.  Here's a Doctor's reflection on why we have such a difficult time letting loved ones die.  Among other explanations, he argues that urbanization has shielded Americans from seeing death in nature and that

Rising affluence has allowed us to isolate senescence. Before nursing homes, assisted-living centers and in-home nurses, grandparents, their children and their grandchildren were often living under the same roof, where everyone's struggles were plain to see. In 1850, 70 percent of white elderly adults lived with their children. Today, that figure is only 16 percent. Sequestering our elderly keeps most of us from knowing what it's like to grow old.

Ezekiel Emanuel discusses various plans to reduce growth in Medicare spending.

To solve the contraceptive debate, Sally Kalson argues that guys should stop having sex instead of focusing on what women are doing.

Paul Krugman says "Hurray for Health Reform" (any of these arguments sound familiar?):

The fact is that individual health insurance, as currently constituted, just doesn’t work. If insurers are left free to deny coverage at will — as they are in, say, California — they offer cheap policies to the young and healthy (and try to yank coverage if you get sick) but refuse to cover anyone likely to need expensive care. Yet simply requiring that insurers cover people with pre-existing conditions, as in New York, doesn’t work either: premiums are sky-high because only the sick buy insurance.
 The solution — originally proposed, believe it or not, by analysts at the ultra-right-wing Heritage Foundation — is a three-legged stool of regulation and subsidies. As in New York, insurers are required to cover everyone; in return, everyone is required to buy insurance, so that healthy as well as sick people are in the risk pool. Finally, subsidies make those mandated insurance purchases affordable for lower-income families.

Meanwhile, Tyler Cowen argues that the mandate is a bad idea -- in part because it may lead to Americans continually demanding higher subsidies and politicians and interest groups will keep creating more expensive health plans as minimum coverage.

And a WSJ journal op-ed argues for dropping the health insurance mandate because adverse selection will happen anyway and there are other ways to prevent consumers from gaming the system.

House Republicans released a new budget that proposes changing Medicare from a publicly run insurance program to a flat subsidy to be used by senior citizens to purchase private health insurance.

Medicare announced last year that they would start paying for weight loss programs, so now -- much like pharmaceutical companies -- various weight loss programs are advocating that doctors refer patients to them.

Health insurance companies and other firms are beginning to try to make medical pricing more transparent by proving customers with the costs of a procedure at various facilities.  Progress has been slow.

A NYT editorial argues that reducing Medicare reimbursements for doctors has resulted in doctors performing more tests and procedures, increasing waste.  They recommend cutting reimbursement rates only for specialists, and particularly for procedures deemed overused and wasteful.

Health Care Links

Here's an interesting piece by former Bush writer David Frum, who argues that Health Care is the Republican Party's Waterloo (he was subsequently let go by the American Enterprise Institute).

Here's the latest on Accountable Care Organizations.  And here's a brief overview and a brief on the issue

Here's a WSJ op-ed arguing that the individual mandate is unconstitutional.  Here's one economist's explanation why people can't fire their insurance companies like Mitt Romney would like them to.  And here's another discussion of adverse risk selection, health insurance, and used car sales

Here's a thorough breakdown of how America's health spending compares to other countries and what we can do about it.  Here's a shorter news article comparing costs in the US to other countries with some nifty charts.  And here's one economist's take on what the US can learn from other countries' health care systems

Here's more on the history of public responses to the expansion of the social safety net

Here's a conservative call for universal access to health care

Finally, here's a compilation of a lot of other articles on health policy issues

Election Update, 3-13-12

The big story of the night is that Rick Santorum won primaries in both Alabama and Mississippi despite trailing in polls in both states.  More accurate than the polls were predictions based on demography -- the results continued to be starkly different by geographic region.

The obvious questions regarding tonight's results are: 1.) Will Gingrich drop out now?; and 2.) Does Santorum actually have a chance against Romney?

It's too early for a definitive answer to either, but both look far more likely than they did just a few hours ago.  Romney has huge delegate, organizational, and financial advantages, but no longer looks that much more electable than Romney.  In hypothetical head-to-head match-ups with Obama, Santorum loses by an average of 6 points while Romney loses by an average of 3.

Exit polls in both states indicated that voters who wanted the most conservative candidate tended to vote for Santorum while those who wanted the most electable candidate tended to vote for Romney (50 and 52% of the voters in Mississippi and Alabama said that Romney's positions were "not conservative enough" while 49 and 46% said Romney was most likely to defeat Obama).

The split over electability versus conservativeness may partially explain why former first lady Barbara Bush recently said that this is "the worst campaign I've ever seen in my life . . . I hate the fact that people think 'compromise' is a dirty word".

Meanwhile, President Obama may be more vulnerable in November than many thought just a few weeks ago.  The latest tracking polls reveal a drop in his approval ratings, with the NYT/CBS polls reporting just a 41% approval rate.  The same poll has Obama up only 4 points in a hypothetical match-up with Santorum.

And it could always get worse, particularly if oil prices continue to rise.  The Economist writes that "More expensive oil is, for now, doing little harm to global growth" but "if the Strait of Hormuz is threatened, the resulting surge in oil prices will spell the end of the global recovery".

Health Links, 3-12-12

The Tennessean is currently soliciting readers' ideas on how to combat childhood obesity.

School lunches have been the subject of recent intense fights between health advocates on one side and industry lobbyists and politicians from states that grow and produce less healthy foods on the other.

Despite recent controversy, it's still allowed in school lunches, and 70% of ground beef in the US contains what the meat industry refers to as "lean, finely textured beef" and what critics refer to as "pink slime," which is made mostly from connective tissue and has ammonia added to kill bacteria.

Here's a feature from the Tennessean about attempts to limit sugar intake.  Here are some corresponding public service announcements about sugary beverages.

Here's a long, but interesting, article about genetics and other factors that explain why weight gained can't be reduced to a simple equation computing calories consumed and calories burned.

Here's an explanation of how exercise benefits the brain

New technology may help people manage their weight, including new watch-like devices designed to track physical activity and food consumption

There are signs that obesity rates may finally be beginning to level off

A wide array of businesses are taking steps to help people eat healthier.  Wal-Mart has announced a new food labeling system.  And the Quaker Oats man is now skinnier.

Here's an update on Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign

Food writer Mark Bittman says people need to understand that potatoes are healthy but Pringles aren't

The average American ate literally a ton of food this past year

Life expectancy in the US has fallen significantly further behind international averages since 2000

Family Teaching Kitchens are currently being run by the United Way in Tennessee to help people learn how to cook healthier for their family.

Politics Links, 3-11-12

Romney won enough states on Super Tuesday to cement his position as frontrunner and extend his delegate lead, but not enough to convince Gingrich, Paul, or Santorum to leave the race.  As a result, Romney's staff began responding to those who question his lack of decisive victories by arguing that the delegate math makes it impossible for any of the other candidates to win.

Santorum, meanwhile, won a decisive victory in Kansas on Saturday, extending his streak of winning every state in the middle of the country.

Meanwhile, turnout is down in the majority of Republican primaries to date -- with the exception of states with "open" primaries that allow Independents and Democrats to vote.

The economy added 227,000 jobs in February -- the third consecutive month with 200K+ jobs added -- and a wide range of figures indicate likely future growth


Harvard Economist (and Romney campaign consultant) Greg Mankiw provides a breakdown of what counts as ordinary earned income and what counts as capital gains using five examples where people make money off the sale of a house.

In a rare act of bipartisanship, the House passed the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) by a vote of 390-23.  The bill is designed to make it easier for new businesses to obtain financing.

Female legislators in Georgia's State Senate walked out last week to protest votes on limiting access to contraception and abortions -- what they called "a war on women"

Olympia Snowe, a moderate Republican Senator from Maine, has decided not to run again because she sees little possibility of progress given the partisan gridlock

Illegal border crossings along the Mexican border have decreased by about 2/3 over the past six years, but there's been an uptick in violent confrontations

Environmental Links, 3-11-12

The Outer Banks faces a large question regarding their highway that keeps getting destroyed as weather eats away at the sand supporting it and sea levels potentially rise . . . locals suffer economically every time another section is destroyed and not immediately repaired, but the state suffers financially every time they temporarily fix the road.

The BBC explores how the Fukushima nuclear disaster affected worldwide views of nuclear power . . . meanwhile, Japan has shut down all but two of their 54 nuclear reactors.  In the US, expansion of nuclear power plants depends, in part, on finding a place to permanently store waste.  TN Senator Lamar Alexander thinks that if we offer high enough incentives, communities will step forward to volunteer to host such storage facilities.

Ohio has stiffened laws on "fracking" after concluding that recent drilling caused earthquakes around Youngstown . . . fracking and related earthquakes were also mentioned in a Dilbert cartoon last week.

Both environmental leaders and deficit hawks are fighting against an increase in natural gas powered vehicles.

Deliverymen in NYC are increasingly using electric bikes, despite the upping of the fine to $1,000 for their use

Here's an op-ed arguing for increased use of methanol to power cars.  And The Economist also has a feature on methanol.


According to a new poll, Californians narrowly support high-speed rail . . . but those planning on voting do not