Supporting the Child Care and Early Education Workforce: A Menu of Policy Options for the COVID-19 Pandemic and Recovery

Supporting the Child Care and Early Education Workforce: A Menu of Policy Options for the COVID-19 Pandemic and Recovery. Urban Institute.  Gina Adams, Danielle Ewen, Grace Luetmer. February 11, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented, urgent challenges for the child care and early education workforce. Though the workforce has always been fragile, new stressors presented over the past year have highlighted fundamental structural problems in the system, including the inequities facing Black, Latina, and Native American child care and early education staff and providers. Based on interviews with 20 experts about strategies to support the child care workforce, this report presents a set of 19 diverse state and local policy strategies that policymakers, philanthropists, and key stakeholders could implement to address these structural inequities and build a stronger and more equitable workforce in the future. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 49 pages].

Protecting Democracy in an Age of Disinformation: Lessons from Taiwan

Protecting Democracy in an Age of Disinformation: Lessons from Taiwan. Center for Strategic & International Studies. Jude Blanchette, Bonnie S. Glaser, Scott Kennedy. January 27, 2021

Taiwan has long defended itself from political meddling, including disinformation, by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Attempts to influence Taiwan’s domestic politics have increased in both intensity and severity following the election of Tsai Ing-wen in 2016, with Beijing continuing to target the basic underpinnings of Taiwan’s democratic system. The disinformation campaigns carried out by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are often obscured by the secrecy and opacity of the CCP’s “united front” approach, which makes it difficult to accurately diagnose and right-size the problem of disinformation, complicating efforts to craft effective solutions.  While CCP disinformation campaigns pose a clearly identifiable threat to the United States and Taiwan, they are only one part of a larger disinformation problem facing democracies in this era of instant and omnipresent communication technologies. Indeed, the experience of both Taiwan and the United States suggest that rival political parties are incentivized to exaggerate and weaponize charges of “foreign interference” against each other—charges which often are more damaging to underlying trust levels in a democracy than the original foreign disinformation attacks themselves.  [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 35 pages].

Remote Learning Is Here to Stay: Results from the First American School District Panel Survey

Remote Learning Is Here to Stay: Results from the First American School District Panel Survey. RAND Corporation. Heather L. Schwartz et al. December 15, 2020.

School districts in the United States have approached reopening public schools during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in notably different ways. The authors of this report developed a national picture of school districts’ needs and approaches to school reopenings by fielding a survey to the new American School District Panel, which consists of leaders of more than 375 school districts and charter management organizations. The authors surveyed these individuals in fall 2020, asking them about areas in which districts need additional resources or guidance, anticipated challenges for the 2020–2021 school year, staff-related challenges, professional development, sources of input and influence on plans for the school year, and approaches taken to school operations. The authors looked at both focus districts (where at least 50 percent of students are Black or Hispanic/Latino or at least 50 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch) and nonfocus districts (all those remaining). [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 24 pages].

COVID-19 and the Experiences of Populations at Greater Risk: Description and Top-Line Summary Data — Wave 2, Fall 2020

COVID-19 and the Experiences of Populations at Greater Risk: Description and Top-Line Summary Data — Wave 2, Fall 2020. RAND Corporation. Katherine Grace Carman et al. January 13, 2021.

As a continuation of RAND Corporation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation efforts to capture how people in the United States think about, value, and prioritize issues of health, well-being, and health equity, a longitudinal survey is being deployed to aid in understanding how health views and values have been affected by the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this report, the authors present the results of the second of four waves of the COVID-19 and the Experiences of Populations at Greater Risk Survey, fielded during fall 2020, with particular focus on populations deemed at risk or underserved, including people of color and those from low- to moderate-income backgrounds.

The questions in this COVID-19 survey focused specifically on experiences related to the pandemic (e.g., financial, physical, emotional), how respondents viewed the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic, whether and how respondents’ views and priorities regarding health actions and investments are changing (including the role of government and the private sector), and how general values about such issues as freedom and racism may be related to pandemic views and response expectations.

The authors summarize detailed top-line results for each of the questions included in the survey and sociodemographic characteristics of the sample. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 53 pages].

How Misinformation is Distorting COVID Policies and Behaviors

How Misinformation is Distorting COVID Policies and Behaviors. Brookings Institution.  Jonathan Rothwell and Sonal Desai. December 22, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has been far reaching in its effects, but knowledge of key facts about the virus and related perceptions of risk associated with it are far from uniform. The varied perception of the facts is caused, at least in part, by varied exposure to relevant information. Using monthly data from 35,000 U.S. adults who responded to the Franklin Templeton-Gallup Economic of Recovery Study, we document significant variation in the understanding of COVID-related facts and concomitant behaviors. In a random controlled experiment that exposes people to different pieces of information, we observe large differences in the likelihood of buying away-from-home services, acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine, and policy preferences regarding the closing of schools and restaurants. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[HTML format, various paging].

Trade Policy Priorities for a COVID-19 Era and Beyond

Trade Policy Priorities for a COVID-19 Era and Beyond. Atlantic Council. Barbara C. Matthews. December 14, 2020.

Transatlantic trade policy stands at a crossroads as 2020 draws to a close. Challenged by populists across the political spectrum, disrupted by COVID-19, and potentially rendered irrelevant by the distributed digital economy, it is fair to question whether the multilateral trading framework crafted at the tail end of World War II is fit for the twenty-first century. At seventy-five years, the system was showing its age before the pandemic hit. The transatlantic community should seize the opportunity to make key changes and encourage the evolution of the multilateral trading system in four ways: accelerate supply-chain digitization, diversify supply-chains, increase standards interoperability, and engage constructively with China.

Transatlantic policymakers have a real opportunity to rebuild and push forward a new trade policy agenda that can deliver economic growth in response to the pandemic. Choosing achievable goals can lay the foundation for a multilateral trading system that is fit to serve the needs of the twenty-first-century digital economy, and provide the foundation for a generation of cooperation that promotes real and responsible economic growth. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 30 pages].

COVID-19 and the U.S. Economy

COVID-19 and the U.S. Economy. Congressional Research Service. Lida R. Weinstock. November 16, 2020

On June 8, 2020, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) announced that the United States entered into a recession in March 2020, a result of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, lockdown orders were issued in many parts of the country and travel restrictions were put in place. These measures, along with general fears of the coronavirus, caused swift and large aggregate demand and supply shocks that resulted in the deepest economic downturn the United States has seen since the Great Depression.

In the post-World War II era, the peak unemployment rate of 14.7% in April 2020 was the highest recorded monthly rate, and the second quarter annualized decline in gross domestic product (GDP) of 31.4%, driven by decreases in personal consumption expenditures and gross private fixed investment, was the highest recorded single quarterly decline in real GDP. The pandemic caused relatively low inflation in the aggregate, and prices for certain goods, such as gasoline, decreased by double-digits. Although the economy has improved since the second quarter, including the highest single quarterly increase in GDP (33.1% annualized) in the third quarter and the decline in unemployment to 6.9% in October, most economic indicators show that economic activity has still not fully recovered. In some cases recovery appears to be slowing and the recession is not expected to end until the pandemic subsides. When the public health crisis began, many workers were laid off on temporary furloughs, but since then, many of those temporary job losses have become permanent, leading to concerns that unemployment will remain high for several years.

[PDF format, 21 pages].

The Future of the United States Dollar: Weaponizing the US Financial System

The Future of the United States Dollar. Atlantic Council. Michael Greenwald. December 4, 2020.

The US economy and the power of the dollar have been unmatched since the time of the Bretton Woods agreement. The privilege of having the dollar serve as the global reserve currency enables the United States to weaponize its currency and leverage effective sanctions on rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran. However, some of the same strategies have not worked in relation to other important global players such as China.

It is critical that the United States continues to look forward and prepare for the future. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the impact of COVID on economic statecraft, the role of the dollar in great power competition, and the era of digital currencies. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 29 pages].

Horizon 2025—End of the Beginning: Development Cooperation in the Pandemic Age

Horizon 2025—End of the Beginning: Development Cooperation in the Pandemic Age.  Center for Global Development. Homi Kharas, Andrew Rogerson  and Beata Cichocka. November 30, 2020

COVID-19 and economic responses to it have amplified and changed the nature of development challenges in fundamental ways. Global development cooperation should adapt accordingly. The focus of our analysis is on the “intelligent reconstruction” phase of 2022-2030, once the immediate stabilization of economies and the health pandemic have taken place. We look at changes in the development context that may have long-term effects: global growth, debt, budget deficits and taxes, aid, capital markets, along with poverty and vulnerability. We suggest that aid is moving beyond altruism to become an instrument of national self-interest and of better planetary management of the global commons. These new objectives for aid put more emphasis on what is happening within each country, rather than across countries. Metrics of environmental sustainability and social inclusion performance, as well as governance, will become more important determinants of aid’s effectiveness. We identify the trade-offs in using aid to simultaneously relieve debt distress and development distress, and conclude that other instruments beyond aid are needed. Prominent among these is far more ambitious use of multilateral and national development banks, and global policies to reduce capital outflows from developing countries. We encourage the delineation of areas of cooperation and competition between geopolitical rivals, to limit the tainting of development priorities with elements of “us” versus “them.” [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 84 pages].

Vaccine Safety in the United States: Overview and Considerations for COVID-19 Vaccines

Vaccine Safety in the United States: Overview and Considerations for COVID-19 Vaccines. Congressional Research Service. Kavya Sekar, Agata Dabrowska.  November 4, 2020

Widespread immunization efforts have been linked to increased life expectancy and reduced illness. U.S. vaccination programs, headed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), have helped eradicate smallpox and nearly eradicate polio globally, and eliminate several infectious diseases domestically. With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) now causing major health and economic impacts across the world, efforts are underway to make safe and effective vaccines available quickly to help curb spread of the virus.

[PDF format, 43 pages].