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Charter Schools and the Myth of Desegregation
Brief #83 – Education Policy Brief
by Steve Piazza
When it comes to the progress of desegregating schools, charter schools have actually been shown to have little success achieving diversity, and even creating more segregated environments.
Reversing Obama-Era Regulation That Combats Housing Segregation
The Trump administration is trying to eliminate the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule started by President Obama. The AFFH is a legal requirement that federal agencies and federal grantees further the purposes of the Fair Housing Act. Specifically, this means asking communities that receive Department of Housing…
North Carolina (2026 Democratic Primary Preview Series Brief #26)
North Carolina, the Tar Heel state, enters the 2026 election cycle as one of the nation’s most closely watched battleground states. While Republicans have enjoyed success in many statewide federal races over the last decade, Democrats remain highly competitive thanks to continued growth in urban centers such as Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, & Greensboro. At the same time, Republicans continue to dominate much of rural eastern & western North Carolina, creating a state that is often decided on the margins. That said, North Carolina may represent Democrats’ best Senate pickup opportunity in 2026.
Protect Communities, Not Criminals (Social Justice Brief #191)
On May 15, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a new initiative titled “Protect Communities, Not Criminals,” which includes a proposal to create a statewide prosecutor with the authority to override local district attorneys in certain cases. This proposed role would allow a state-appointed prosecutor to step in when a local prosecutor has not secured an indictment within 90 days, effectively creating a “backstop” to ensure cases move forward. Supporters of the proposal frame it as a necessary response to what they describe as “rogue prosecutors” local district attorneys who decline to pursue certain categories of crimes based on policy or resource limitations. The initiative is presented to ensure consistency in enforcement across Texas counties and to prioritize victims’ rights.
New York (2026 Democratic Primary Preview Series Brief #19)
New York often sits in the average voter’s mind as a solid blue state, almost as a homogenous Democrat stronghold. With the recent election of Zohran Mamdani as the mayor of NYC, one wouldn’t be faulted for assuming that the rest of the state is skewed towards the left to some degree. Representatives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer lend credence to this impression.
Watching their home go up in smoke: the indigenous of the Amazon ( Environment Policy Brief #187)
The Amazon rainforest is rapidly degrading. The ecological functions of the rainforest such as absorbing greenhouse gases and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere are diminishing as the size of the rainforest shrinks. Global precipitation patterns depend upon the Amazon’s unique location on the planet. The diversity of plant life in the Amazon constitutes about a quarter of the globe’s stock of carbon biomass. There are 80,000 species of plants.
Montana Youth Return to Court to Block Laws Weakening Climate Protections (Environment Policy Brief #186)
A group of young activists from the landmark Held v. Montana case filed a new challenge against recent state laws. The filed petition challenges several statutes passed by Republicans that threaten the activist group’s victory in the Montana Supreme Court in 2024. According to the group, the new changes are violations of the state’s guarantee of a “clean and healthful environment.” The youth plaintiffs are preparing for a renewed legal fight and highlighting that climate harms are a constitutional issue.
The Final Bill: The Economics, Ethics, and Ecology of American Death Care
Death in the United States has evolved from a community-centered rite into a sprawling, multi-billion-dollar commercial sector often dubbed the funeral industrial complex. With approximately three million Americans dying annually, a figure projected to rise as the baby boomer generation ages, the logistics of disposition have become a pressing socioeconomic challenge. For decades, the default American way of death involved embalming, heavy metal caskets, and concrete vaults, a practice that is historically an anomaly and environmentally taxing. However, economic pressures and shifting cultural attitudes have catalyzed a massive transition toward cremation. In 2024, the cremation rate surpassed 61 percent, with projections suggesting it will exceed 80 percent by 2045.
How low will he go? President Trump’s penchant for debasing himself undermines U.S. Credibility (Elections & Politics Brief #201)
If you were new to President Trump’s Oval Office press conferences with world leaders, you might have found his meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) on Tuesday, November 18, to be an astonishingly low moment for a U.S President. As though determined to debase himself and weaken U.S. credibility, Trump dismissed U.S. intelligence findings linking the crown prince to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, while savagely attacking the reporter who asked about it. And, per usual, Trump went out of his way to denigrate past presidents and brag about himself ad nauseum.