Will the Left Go Too Far? (The Atlantic)
For
the third time in a century, leftists are driving the Democratic Party's
agenda. Will they succeed in making America more equitable, or overplay their
hand? Continue Reading
How local journalism can upend the "fake news"
narrative (Salon.com)
A
recent survey found that Americans trust local media outlets far more than
national ones. Continue Reading
The Democratic Caucus Nominated Its Leadership. Here's What It
Means. (New York Times)
For the third time in a century, leftists are driving the Democratic Party's
agenda.
Democrats ushered in their leadership on Wednesday for the 116th Congress,
including more than 200 returning and incoming members signaling that come
January, they want Representative Nancy Pelosi of California to reclaim the
speaker's gavel. Here are some of the takeaways from the caucus's votes. Continue Reading
The New Federal Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Would Remedy
Decades of Injustice (The Nation)
America's
2 million domestic workers have minimal protections on the job. The bill
announced today would fundamentally change their industry. Continue Reading
NYC's affordable housing agenda isn't doing enough for the city's neediest:
report (Curbed New York)
Comptroller Scott Stringer's office says the current plan doesn't address
the housing needs hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. Continue Reading
How technological innovation could amplify income inequality (PBS NewsHour)
Technological advancement often brings the promise of increased efficiency
in the workplace. But it also means apprehension about humans potentially being
replaced by automation and artificial intelligence. In a new series, "The
Future of Work," Paul Solman explores the concept of "creative
destruction" and how innovation is poised to affect jobs, income
inequality, mental health and more. Continue Reading
Are
Civics Lessons a Constitutional Right? This Student Is Suing for Them (New York
Times)
Many see
the lack of civics in schools as a national crisis. A federal lawsuit says it
also violates the law. Continue Reading
Newark launches campaign to bolster civic engagement (NJTV Online)
The model has four components: civics in the schools; civics in the
universities and online for all residents; associations of interested residents
called civic trusts; and an embrace by City Hall of the concept of empowerment.
Continue Reading
What's New in Civic Tech: Ash Carter Calls for Tech to Align with 'Public
Purpose' (Government Technology)
Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter called upon America's
innovators and technologists - in both the public and private sectors - to use
their work "with a public purpose," in a written piece published by
The Atlantic last week.
Continue Reading
The Digital Gap Between Rich and Poor Kids Is Not What We
Expected (New York Times)
America's
public schools are still promoting devices with screens - even offering
digital-only preschools. The rich are banning screens from class altogether. Continue Reading
'If we don't learn from this one, shame on us': Lessons from a Detroit charter
school that was set up to fail (Chalkbeat)
A
review of hundreds of pages of documents, and interviews with key leaders
involved in the school since its creation, show that the forces arrayed against
every school in Detroit had pushed Delta Prep's chances of survival to nothing
within a year of its opening, if not before. Continue Reading
When doctors say 'Read,' new parents listen (Hechinger Report)
A
campaign to get parents talking, reading and singing to their infants and
toddlers by sending the message through pediatricians is working, new report
shows. Continue Reading
US
manufacturing has a huge image problem (Quartz)
The way
Americans look at manufacturing might help explain why 2.4 million jobs could
go unfilled between this year and 2028. Continue Reading
PA Mention - Google retraining college-educated moms for tech jobs (Education
Dive)
Just as
MotherCoders participants want to improve their career prospects by
re-skilling, so do most prospective college students over the age of 25 when
weighing whether to pursue a degree or certificate, according to a May 2018
report from the nonprofit Public Agenda research group. Because they often
balance commitments such as families, jobs and expenses in addition to their
education, features such as childcare and financial aid programs are draws for
them. Continue Reading
New Film 'Unlikely' Shows How Higher Ed Sets Up Low-Income Students for Failure
- and How Some Educators Are Helping Them Succeed (The 74)
As an
admissions officer at her alma mater, Columbia University, Jaye Fenderson used
to spend every day deciding whether high school applicants were likely to be
admitted to the prestigious Ivy League school, with its 7 percent acceptance
rate. More often than not, Fenderson would mark applications with a large
"U" - "Unlikely." Continue Reading
Rate of children without insurance rises for
first time since 2008 (Modern Healthcare)
For the first time since 2008, the number of uninsured children has increased,
according to the report issued Tuesday by Georgetown University's Center for
Children and Families. The number of uninsured children under the age of 19
nationwide increased by an estimated 276,000 to about 3.9 million in 2017. The
rate of uninsured children ticked upward from a historic low of 4.7% in 2016 to
5% in 2017. Continue Reading
People with limited health insurance literacy more likely to avoid care
(Healthcare Dive)
A new JAMA Network study found that lower health insurance literacy could be
connected to people avoiding healthcare services, including preventive care. Continue Reading
CVS closes $69B acquisition of Aetna in a 'transformative moment' for the
industry (Fierce Healthcare)
The two companies closed the $69 billion deal on Wednesday, finishing off a
vertical merger that makes one of the largest healthcare giants even larger.
Continue Reading
(Washington, DC) I’m at a W.T. Grant Foundation grantees’ meeting on “reducing inequality” and currently listening to Tim Guetterman (University of Michigan) talking about mixed-methods research. Proponents and advanced practitioners of mixed-methods research form a community that is thinking hard about barriers and solutions to their research approaches. I’ve posted before about this community and its agenda. Meanwhile, I’m involved with colleagues on two fairly elaborate mixed-methods studies of our own: one on the effects of adolescents’ civic engagement on neighborhoods, the other on the role of an arts center in combatting the negative effects of gentrification.
One question is how to present qualitative and quantitative information together in an efficient format (fitting within journals’ word limits). Guetterman showed a nice example from Panda et al. (2015). These authors present findings by theme, with columns for the qualitative summaries and quantitative statistics. A third column could present reflections on divergences and convergences.
Panda, Samiran, et al. “Exploring stigma in low HIV prevalence settings in rural West Bengal, India: Identification of intervention considerations.” Journal of Mixed Methods Research 9.4 (2015): 362-385
On Wednesday, December 19th, the National Civic League – an NCDD member and partner, will be offering the free webinar, “Engaging the Public in Fiscal Matters”, as part of their AAC Promising Practices Webinar series. The webinar will feature residents from two All-America Cities who will share how the public contributed to budget decisions in each of their cities. We encourage you to read more about the webinar in the post below and register on NCL’s Eventbrite site here.
Can the public really help local governments make solid budget decisions? Of course!
Two communities – Hampton, Virginia, and Placentia, California – will share how residents have contributed their views on budget matters. In Hampton, City Manager Mary Bunting will discuss the I-Value effort in Hampton. In Placentia, Rosanna Ramirez, the city’s director of administrative services, will talk about the city’s Citizens Fiscal Sustainability Task Force.
Join the National Civic League for this free webinar on Wednesday, December 19th at 11:30 am PST/12:30 pm MST/1:30 pm CST/2:30 pm EST
To Join by Computer:
Sign on to the National Civic League’s Webex Meeting Room:
https://nationalcivicleague.my.webex.com/meet/ncl
Access code: 622 739 287
To Join by Phone:
+1-510-338-9438 USA Toll
Access code: 622 739 287
If you missed the November AAC Promising Practices Webinar: Community-Wide Visioning with an Equity Lens – click here to listen to the recording! Learn more about how two All-America Cities underwent a community-wide visioning process with a specific focus on engagement and equity.
2019 All-America City Key Dates:
All-America City Promising Practices Series
National Civic League is hosting a series of “AAC Promising Practices” webinars to share innovative and impactful AAC projects nationwide. This series will also highlight successful projects around the country with speakers from cities implementing creative strategies for civic engagement. By equipping individuals, institutions, and local governmental bodies through this series with ideas, models and insights that can be adopted/adapted to individual communities NCL hopes to accelerate the pace of change in communities across the country.
The All-America City Promising Practices webinars are made possible with support from Southwest Airlines, the official airline of the All-America City Awards.
You can find the original version of this announcement on the National Civic League’s site at www.nationalcivicleague.org/resource-center/promising-practices/.
Here is a recent discussion of Civic Studies. The audience was Tufts alumni. The speakers (from left to right) are Tisch College’s Associate Dean Diane Ryan; Prof. Hilary Binda, who runs the Tufts University Prison Initiative at Tisch College; Prof. Alnoor Ebrahim of the Fletcher School and Tisch College, whose next book is Measuring Social Change: Performance & Accountability in a Complex World; and me. We discuss what “Civic Studies” means at Tufts. Much more is written about it here.
For our participatory budgeting enthusiasts out there (and we know there are a lot of you!), NCDD member org – the Participatory Budgeting Project, recently shared the exciting new book, Hope for Democracy: 30 years of participatory budgeting worldwide. The 600-page volume, edited by Nelson Dias, features over 60 authors on their experiences with PB across the world over the last 30 years and offers great insights for how to further grow the PB movement. We are thrilled to note that folks are able to download this book for free! You can read more about it in the post below and find the original announcement on the PBP site here.
An expansive new volume edited by Nelson Dias features dispatches by more than 60 authors from the frontlines of participatory budgeting’s (PB) growth around the world. This book, Hope for Democracy, could not have come out at a better time for PB supporters in North America. Next year will mark 10 years of PB in the US and new opportunities to take PB to the next level: a big citywide process approved in NYC, hundreds of new school PB processes, and growing political interest in strengthening democracy.
To make the most of these great opportunities to revitalize democracy, we need to first learn from PB’s growth internationally. Dias and his collaborators deliver countless insights in their 600-page panorama. (Download the book for free here.)
We lift up the biggest lessons below…
Why have Hope for Democracy?
Dias begins with an overview of key trends in PB as it spread from Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989 to over 7,000 localities around the world. PB experts Brian Wampler, Stephanie McNulty, and Michael Touchton note how in Brazil during the 1990s, leftist politicians and activists championed PB as a radical project to “broaden the confines of representative democracy, mobilize followers, and achieve greater social justice” (p. 55); over time, it attracted support from a wide range of actors, including international organizations like the World Bank, because of its potential to improve governance and promote civic engagement. Giovanni Allegretti and Kalinca Copello discuss how, as PB spread internationally, new processes often committed fewer funds, whether measured as lower PB spending per person or as a smaller share of PB in the overall budgets (p. 45).
Benjamin Goldfrank and Katherine Landes examine how this trend has played out in the U.S. and Canada. They report that PB has expanded more slowly than other regions in terms of the number of cities implementing it, the amount of participants, and the volume of funds (p. 161). Yet, Goldfrank and Landes demonstrate this is not due to a lack of public interest: “we find that where PB allocates larger pots of money, the rate of participation tends to be higher” (p. 172). In other words, the more dollars that a PB process allocates, the more people care about it. Moreover, two bright spots on the horizon indicate that PB may grow faster in coming years: its mounting presence in schools and its rising appeal among progressive activists and politicians.
In the light of the recent victories in NYC—PB in all public high schools and citywide PB approved into the city charter—this watershed may be closer than the Goldfrank and Landes anticipated. Chapters on Paris, Russia, and Portugal offer additional insights on how to scale up PB in North America.
Paris offers a model of PB going big
Paris currently runs the largest PB process in the world. Similar to NYC’s coming city-wide process, PB in Paris was championed by a progressive mayor, Anne Hidalgo, who successfully campaigned on bringing PB to Paris in her 2014 election. Mayor Hidalgo wasted no time in implementing her plan of dedicating 5% of the city’s capital budget to PB over the first five years (That’s roughly 500 million euros!). Tiago Peixoto and colleagues use the Paris case to study large-scale issues, like whether online voting improves the process or biases it towards more privileged residents. Their research finds that voting patterns between online voters and those who vote in person are remarkably similar.
PB in Russia innovates, expands rapidly
In 2015, Russia experienced a turning point after which the number of PB processes grew surprisingly fast. This occurred when the Ministry of Finance noted the positive outcomes in regional PB processes and created a framework known as Initiative Financing. The next year, 8,732 PB projects were implemented. By 2018, half of all regional governments in the country (the equivalent of U.S. states) decided to set up PB programs.
Why did so many regions begin PB so quickly, when the federal government did not provide financial incentives to do so? Ivan Shulga and Vladimir Vagin emphasize how the central framework and technical assistance provided by the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank made regional implementation much easier. These processes also made use of some innovative institutional designs. In some programs, municipalities, businesses, organizations, and citizens pledged to co-finance projects, increasing their chance of receiving regional funding. Another program used a form of sortition or citizen jury, in which a cohort of volunteer budget delegates was randomly selected, to work with experts to turn project ideas into full-fledged and feasible proposals.
Portugal leads the way with national PB
Portugal was the first country to run nation-wide PB. While the process is not particularly large in terms of public participation or budget, it does provide one model of a large-scale institutional design that bridges disparate regions.
Roberto Falanga outlines how the process collected nearly 1,000 ideas from each part of the country in 50 assemblies and winnowed them down into viable proposals for a vote. The process did not use budget delegates to revise the proposals. While this may streamline the process, it runs the risk of giving experts and officials more power than public participants. However, an effort was made to minimize this danger by requiring detailed reasons for rejecting proposals and re-including ones that could be revised and made feasible. Still, proposals that were backed by informal social networks may have received undue prominence. For example a bullfighting project won funding even though a majority of the Portuguese public believes that the practice should be banned.
Reflecting on what’s been done, ready for more
It’s an exciting moment to get involved with PB. And it’s an important time to reflect on how far different regions have taken PB. While there are currently around 100 active processes in the U.S. and Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean hosts around 2,500 processes and Europe 3,500. We have some catching up to do.
Donate here to help PB grow.
You can find the original version of this announcement on the Participatory Budgeting Project’s site at www.participatorybudgeting.org/hope-for-democracy-a-new-book-reflects-on-30-years-of-participatory-budgeting/.
CIRCLE has released a highly substantive analysis of social media and the 2018 youth vote that is worth reading in full.
It probably won’t surprise you that many young adults heard about the election on social media. In fact, it might be worth pausing over the fact that only 47 percent saw something about it on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and/or Twitter. It is possible to go through an election cycle without seeing much about politics on social media if your friend-networks are apolitical. We talk a lot about polarization into left and right, but an equally significant phenomenon is the division between political and apolitical Americans. That was less of a problem when people got their information from sources like broadcast TV and newspapers, which forced everyone to see political headlines.
More than one quarter of young adults heard about the election only on social media, not from traditional outreach by campaigns, candidates, and parties. That probably means that social media is expanding the number of youth who are engaged in the election.
The more you hear about an election, the more likely you are to vote. Compared to young adults who had heard about the election both on social media and from campaigns or candidates, young adults who recalled no outreach were less than half as likely to say (in October) that they were extremely likely to vote.
Some selection is at play here. If you are already a likely voter or part of a community that is seen as active, campaigns are more likely to contact you. If you have friends who vote, you are more likely to see information about the election online, but you might have voted anyway. Maybe you even pick friends who are into politics. Still, evidence from randomized experiments shows that outreach boosts turnout, and at least some of these differences must be attributable to the effects of outreach.
Want to join us in supporting a good cause? This #GivingTuesday the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) is asking for your support in our mission to bring together and support people, organizations, and resources in ways that expand the power of discussion to benefit society.
NCDD envisions a future in which all people–regardless of income, position, background or education–are able to engage regularly in lively, thoughtful, and challenging discussions about what really matters to them, in ways that have a positive impact on their lives and their world. We envision a society in which systems and structures support and advance inclusive, constructive, dialogue and deliberation.
NCDD is a small outfit, with just four part-time staff, and we rely on the support of our network and friends to help us continue to educate people on dialogue and deliberation, and to build this national coalition. Your contribution will make an impact, whether you donate $5 or $500.
For today only, Facebook and PayPal will match a total of $7 million in donations. Starting at 8am Eastern/5am Pacific, donations made through our Facebook page, will be matched – so please give what you can and help NCDD continue to support this network of innovators! If you don’t use Facebook, you can always make a donation of any amount on our donation page.
Everyone who contributes to NCDD’s Giving Tuesday fundraiser will be thanked on our website and in our November newsletter. Additionally, the first 15 people to donate $50 or more will get a special NCDD notebook as a thank you for your support.
For sixteen years, NCDD has worked hard to gather visionaries and practitioners dedicated to raising the quality of discourse across many key issues and questions. Many of you have been a part of that – and we’re grateful for you!
As you reflect back on your years of association, we’re curious: how much has this network meant to you? Has it made a difference for good in some way? In what ways can we continue to drive NCDD together to support each other doing this work?
Please consider a #GivingTuesday donation to help us continue this work into the new year. More than ever before, we could use the help and support – and would be so grateful for your assistance!
We recognize there are a lot of fantastic organizations out there to donate to on Giving Tuesday, but we hope you consider donating to NCDD, which plays such a critical role in building capacity for improved democracy, conversation, and connection (which, we argue, is actually the most important issue we face right now as a country). It is really tough for organizations like NCDD to fundraise and be sustainable because it is a network of organizations, practitioners, and volunteers. Most of the members understandably have to focus on their own organizations and efforts. But networks like NCDD are critical to build a community of practice and grow the field.
If you don’t know very much about us, we encourage you to check out some of the great benefits of NCDD and become a member. If you are already connected, please consider donating, even just a little bit, especially since it can be matched this morning.
Thank you for your support this Giving Tuesday!
Hot off the digital press! Democracy Fund, an NCDD 2018 sponsor, announced this morning they are building a new team dedicated to being a better resource for donors and the field; in order to support strategic efforts to invest in our country’s democracy. Currently, there is very little funding given to those working to improve our democracy, and it is vital to invest resources to those doing this work if our democracy is to survive. Democracy Fund is seeking a Director of Partnerships to lead this newly created team and stay tuned for the program rollout which will offer investment strategy resources, educational events, and joint funding opportunities.
On a related note, if you are looking to support an organization working to further democracy then consider donating to NCDD! We are one of the leading organizations that work to foster the D&D field and support those working to actualize a truer democracy. This Giving Tuesday, Facebook will match your donations – so double your impact and donate tomorrow through our NCDD FB page here! We encourage you to read the announcement below and find the original on Democracy Fund’s site here.
Following the 2016 election, Democracy Fund heard from many philanthropists seeking advice on what they can do to respond to the threats facing our political system. For some, the last two years have brought a newly pervasive sense that our democracy is under threat and that our political system is far more fragile than most of us assumed. We feel the same way, and we are humbled that interested donors and their advisors are turning to us and to our peers for guidance.
Through our efforts to support these new partners, we discovered that Democracy Fund can play a helpful role in providing advice and connections to philanthropists who are learning about the field. To that end, I am delighted to share that we are building a new team at Democracy Fund to help us be a better resource to philanthropists, advisors, and our peers. The team will be led by a newly created position, the Director of Partnerships. (Read and share the job description here.)
This swell in philanthropic interest comes at a pivotal time. Despite a clear and pressing need, the level of philanthropic support for this field remains critically low. Whether you look at voting, journalism, or civic education, many of the most capable and innovative organizations in the space have struggled through multiple cycles of feast and famine and need more resources to meet the challenges at hand.
To make progress on issues that are important to the American people and to ensure the health of our democracy for future generations, the United States needs deep investment by philanthropists and advocates. Policy reforms ranging from the future of affordable housing to climate change depend on a political system that is responsive to the public. A more equitable society requires eliminating barriers to voting and reducing the influence of money on politics. And improving the ability of individuals and communities to thrive rests on a functioning government, fair enforcement of the rule of law, and stability in our politics. Despite the reality that progress hinges on a healthy democracy, the field receives less than two percent of overall philanthropic giving.
Building a healthier democracy together
Working with our peer funders, we hope the Democracy Fund Partnerships team can be a resource to donors and to the field. Our goal is to make the expert capacity of our staff and our collaborative approach available to interested philanthropists. We believe that enlisting greater philanthropic energy, ideas, and resources to the fields in which we work is one of the most effective ways for us to meet the scale of the challenge.
Our new team will educate and engage philanthropists who are new to democracy with the goal of helping them to enter the field. Led by the Director of Partnerships, the team will help donors and their advisors make strategic decisions to invest in our country’s democracy. It will take some time and experimentation to build this program, but there are a few things you should expect to see:
Our Commitment to the Field
Our new efforts to build philanthropic partnerships will not slow our existing efforts to deploy our resources to support the field. Since Democracy Fund began, we have committed more than $100 million in grants and built a team of more than 45 people with deep expertise on issues ranging from journalism and elections to Congress and government accountability. Thanks to the generosity and leadership of Pierre Omidyar we intend to continue to invest at a similar level in the coming years.
At the same time, our commitment to our existing grantees will not limit our advice to new donors – we hope to help philanthropists find their own path into the field, whether or not it mirrors the path that we have chosen.
We are grateful for the mentorship and ongoing partnership of many foundations who have supported this field for decades, including the Knight Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. At such a deeply important moment for our country, we are excited to begin this important work and will continue to share our progress as the team grows and the program develops.
You can find the original version of this announcement on Democracy Fund’s site at www.democracyfund.org/blog/entry/building-a-team-to-invest-in-democracy.
With Thanksgiving this week, NCDD’s staff are giving thanks to YOU, the members and broader NCDD network, for continuing to support NCDD and our collective work of bringing people together to connect and make decisions. NCDD is a coalition, and it takes every one of us working together to make it work, and to make our field stronger and more connected. You are why NCDD exists, and you keep us going with your fabulous contributions of time, skills and other gifts, and of course your support of NCDD.
This time of the year is a time for giving thanks, but it is also a time where many people fear the tough conversations that can emerge when family gathers together. Millions of Americans find themselves dreading family gatherings they used to enjoy, especially with the current political climate.
NCDD and our network know there is a better way! There’s a way to come together with those who see the world night-and-day different, and do something more than just bite our tongues and talk about the weather.
As a reminder, NCDD has gathered helpful resources anyone can use to help navigate these potentially tough topics:
Do what it takes to make YOUR family gatherings what they should be: enjoyable.
We hope you have a happy and full Thanksgiving holiday. And, we hope you will share your thanks for NCDD next week with a donation of any amount on Giving Tuesday. On Tuesday, November 27, be sure to join us over on Facebook for our Giving Tuesday fundraiser, where your donations will be matched dollar for dollar by Facebook and PayPal!
NCDD is a small outfit, with just four part-time staff. We rely on our network’s support through membership and donations, to help keep our organization running. It is the time and support of this fabulous network of innovators which keeps NCDD running! Please consider supporting us this Giving Tuesday with a donation over on Facebook. If you don’t use Facebook, you can always make a donation of any amount on our donation page.
Thanks again for making NCDD so vibrant and for all the work that you do!