Briefs

What would you do if your child was not thriving in his or her school environment? What if you could use the money your state sets aside for him or her to tailor a better educational fit? Vouchers, Education Savings Accounts, and Tax-credit scholarships allow the flexibility of choice for parents facing this dilemma. What exactly are they and how do they work?

In a democracy, the government derives authority from the electorate's consent. Holding elections and exercising the right to vote are essential to democracy. Many laws and rules govern the people and resources involved in campaigns and voting to ensure elections are competitive and inclusive. This brief will focus on election basics and ways to protect free, fair, and secure elections.

The goal of energy that is reliable, resilient, affordable, and not detrimental to the environment is straightforward, but has not been so easy to reach. Can we achieve all four simultaneously when it comes to energy policy and the environment? What is the current situation and how did we get here? And what energy policy best balances meeting our energy needs while being responsible stewards of the world’s resources?

In the United States, 54% of American adults read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, and nearly one in five adults reads below a third-grade level. Lower literacy rates directly correlate to higher unemployment rates, reduced income, and overall impacts U.S. competitiveness on the global stage. Understanding both K-12 literacy rates as well as adult literacy rates at a local level is critical to improve overall literacy policy and drive access to literacy programming.

Community, civic life, and faith all work together to form society. Social capital and groups have been declining since the late 20th century, forcing a special focus on these bonds and their importance. This Brief will cover the history, decline, and conversation about the role of faith in civic activity.

U.S. foreign policy towards activities in the Asia Pacific region has vital national security, diplomatic, and economic implications for the U.S. Read on to learn more about our allies and security challenges, and the strategic goals and implications of U.S. foreign policy in Asia, in particular with respect to China and North Korea.

The U.S. has long served as a pillar of global security and stability, promoting democracy and prosperity and opposing human rights abuses and repressive rogue regimes. Read on for more about the specific national security threats that face the U.S. in the Middle East, a region that has long been a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy, and home to both some of our most important allies and most pressing challenges.

The free-enterprise system is the only system that has been proven to create opportunities for everyone, even the most vulnerable. This brief is a compilation of foundational work helpful for understanding and articulating the power of free markets and individual freedom in unleashing what human creativity can accomplish in a free market economy.

What is free speech? What are the limits to free speech? How does free speech play out on university campuses and on social media platforms? This brief discusses freedom of speech as provided in the First Amendment of the Constitution, why it is important in a democracy, court decisions that have limited and/or expanded these freedoms over time, and the challenges of supporting freedom of speech while also promoting safety and security of the nation and its citizens.

The United States political system was originally founded on the idea of consent of the governed. Today’s government relies on thousands of administrative officials, which makes it difficult for citizens to know who is making decisions. Only with transparency at the administrative level can citizens know the decision makers and the decision making process, which allows them to hold elected and appointed officials accountable for the results of those decisions.

Ideally, regulations are designed to protect individuals and/or the environment, yet regulations can negatively impact people’s ability to create innovative products or services to serve their communities and to employ people.

What the proper balance is between protecting citizens and not prohibiting growth remains an area of debate. This brief outlines and explores regulation from a free-market perspective with the goal of creating an economic environment where human creativity can best flourish.

The impact of sports in the United States is undeniable: sports teams have had lasting social and economic effects at the local level in their own communities and at the professional level across the country. What goes into the economic value of sports teams? What do sports bring to communities? What should the role be, if any, of government in fostering sports in community development?