American Enterprise Institute

In today’s DataPoints, we examine the misleading cost of college tuition, the importance of family structure for young men, and President Trump’s impact on the US economy. Featuring: Preston Cooper, Bradford Wilcox, and Michael Strain.

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“The NAEP results make clear that American students have failed to bounce back despite the infusion of over $180 billion in federal money aimed at 'rescuing' our education system from the pandemic’s worst effects.”—Mark Schneider https://lnkd.in/e7xYRpZ8

US President Donald Trump’s management of economic policy has been a disaster. Previously, it would have been unfathomable for a president – including Trump during his first term – to inflict so much harm on the economy deliberately. As alarmed as I am, though, I am not panicked. A recession remains unlikely, and equilibrating forces in the political system may soon apply the brakes to this madness. My Project Syndicate column. Link: https://lnkd.in/ewwVke76

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College costs are out of control—or so the narrative goes. In recent years, a counternarrative has emerged that argues, correctly, that the meteoric rise in the sticker price of college is misleading. Net college tuition, or tuition after financial aid is applied, has risen far less quickly than sticker price tuition. However, net tuition’s relative stability is largely not due to universities holding their own prices down. Rather, average financial aid from external sources, such as the federal government’s Pell Grant and state grants, has tripled over the past three decades. This has driven a wedge between the tuition prices students pay and the tuition revenue institutions receive. The glass-half-full perspective on these trends is that generous increases in financial aid have somewhat mitigated the burden of higher college costs for students. But it is likely that when policymakers increased student financial aid, they were expecting students’ net tuition to fall. The glass-half-empty perspective is that society has vastly increased its contribution to college costs but largely has nothing to show for it. This raises an interesting counterfactual. What if institutions had fully passed on those increases in external financial aid to students through lower tuition? In other words, what would have happened if institutions’ net tuition had frozen in real terms at 1990 levels, but aid still increased at its actual rate? Under that counterfactual, the average student at a four-year public college would have free tuition today. I lay out all these trends in a new report for the American Enterprise Institute. While insufficient financial aid has often taken the blame for rising tuition, in reality taxpayers have dramatically increased financial aid spending. That casts doubt on the potential for further increases in aid, such as doubling the maximum Pell Grant, to fully solve the problem of college affordability. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eWrxcxF6

In today’s newsletter, we examine the emerging insurgency in Syria, global energy consumption from carbon-free sources, and plummeting math scores for eighth graders. Featuring: Critical Threats Project & Institute for the Study of War Roger Pielke Jr. Mark Schneider

For generations, America’s K–12 public schools have been largely immune from the disruptive forces that have roiled retail, travel, entertainment, health care, and many other sectors of the economy and culture, but the reckoning has finally come. Public education is on the verge of an unprecedented crack-up. In fact, it’s already underway. —Robert Pondiscio in The American Enterprise https://lnkd.in/eRctBiCB

There's still time to join my team! The American Enterprise Institute is #hiring a Coalitions Manager to lead impactful outreach initiatives that engage state and federal leaders with AEI scholars and their transformative work. This is a fantastic opportunity for a professional with 3+ years of experience in government relations, outreach, marketing and communications, events, or business management. Apply today or share this post with your network! https://lnkd.in/eMzEaprm

Available Now | Tides of Fortune: The Rise and Decline of Great Militaries by Zack Cooper An ambitious look at how the twentieth century’s great powers devised their military strategies and what their implications mean for military competition between the United States and China. How will the United States and China evolve militarily in the years ahead? Many experts believe the answer to this question is largely unknowable. But Zack Cooper argues that the American and Chinese militaries are following a well-trodden path. For centuries, the world’s most powerful militaries have adhered to a remarkably consistent pattern of behavior, determined largely by their leaders’ perceptions of relative power shifts. By uncovering these trends, this book places the evolving military competition between the United States and China in historical context.