New America Foundation

The following chart lists the price, download and upload speeds of residential Internet services in the U.S. and Japan.

Executive Summary

San Jose uses a two-round runoff system to elect its mayor and city council, with the first election in June and a runoff election in November if no candidate wins a majority of votes in June. Voter turnout in the June general election is about half that of the November election, with turnout disproportionately lower among traditionally disenfranchised communities.  With most elections being decided in a low turnout June election, a small and unrepresentative segment of the community is having an oversized effect

On Monday, June 8, the New America Foundation's Federal Education Budget Project released "Equitable Resources in Low Income Schools: Teacher Equity and the Federal Title I Comparability Requirement" at an event on Capitol Hill. This event featured representatives from the White House, Representative George Miller's committee staff, and the National Education Association to discuss teacher equity and the comparability requirement in the law. Education Policy Program MaryEllen McGuire introduced the issue using this PowerPoint presentation.

Teachers with the least experience and fewest credentials teach in our poorest schools, putting low-income students at a disadvantage. School finance disparities in teacher spending within school districts are a major cause of this problem. However, school district budgeting techniques mask these intra-district disparities, allowing administrators and policymakers to ignore them.

This is a transcript of the June 8 event hosted by New America's Education Policy Program.

In May of 2008, Congress passed the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA) in response to concern that credit market conditions could disrupt federal student loan availability. The law gives the U.S. Department of Education temporary authority to purchase federally backed student loans made by private lenders, effectively providing a secondary market for the loans. Congress opted to leave the new purchase authority largely undefined in statute, giving the Department considerable discretion to design and administer it.

What is the Saver's Bonus?

The Saver’s Bonus is a policy proposal that would reward low- and moderate-income individuals and families who save at tax time. Every dollar deposited in a designated savings product would be matched with an additional dollar from the federal government, up to a $500 annual maximum. Participants would make or report contributions to an eligible account on their federal income tax return, and the bonus would then be transferred directly to the designated account. The… more

In April, the states and school districts began receiving the first installment of more than $48 billion in federal economic stimulus funds for education and child care appropriated under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). This unprecedented federal investment in education—from early childhood through college—is a tremendous opportunity for state and local investments to improve our nation's schools. The danger is that states and school districts may squander these funds on ill-conceived projects or use them simply to maintain… more

The CA Workforce Mobility and Savings Initiative, reforms the asset limit in the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, to encourage low-income families to build the savings they need to permanently exit welfare. The measure repeals the $2,000 asset limit in CalWORKs for current recipients and raises it for new applicants from $2,000 to $7,000 while also eliminating the $4,650 vehicle limit. By reforming the asset limit, this measure restores the stated goal of the CalWORKs program by assisting families in achieving

President Barack Obama submitted his first budget request to Congress on May 7, 2009. This request follows the initial summary budget request he submitted in February that included only aggregate funding levels for federal programs and agencies.