Dean Watkins-Hayes, at the Congressional Breakfast in DC, with Michigan in Washington undergraduates Ajay Morelli, Malinda Brunk, Rachel Ellisen, and Isaac Davis, and Riecker Fellow Hope Wang (MPP...
Professor Elisabeth Gerber is the inaugural faculty director of the Ford School’s Online Master of Public Affairs (MPA) program, which will launch in January 2026. Read what she has to say about the new...
Nearly 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. lack access to reliable transportation, making it one of the country's most common forms of material hardship, say University of Michigan...
In the first 100 days of his second term, President Donald Trump has unleashed a whirlwind of policy shifts that have sent ripples across the globe. The responses to his administration's actions have ranged from applause to skepticism.Ford School...
Franshelly Martinez Ortiz, a doctoral candidate in political science and public policy at the Ford School, recently wrote a blog post, "In Michigan, conspiracy thinking can be rooted in real historic harm" for U-M's Center for Political Studies...
Christina Weiland, co-director of the Education Policy Initiative and professor at the Ford School, delivered her inaugural lecture as the Karl and Martha Kohn Professor of Social Policy. Weiland, who is also a professor at the Marsal Family School...
"Whether by purchasing equipment, hiring contractors or training early career researchers, universities are a source of everyday economic and social benefits to communities in every congressional district in the country," said Jason Owen-Smith, from...
Through an executive order, President Trump intends to reclassify hundreds of thousands of federal civil servants' job titles as "schedule policy/career" positions. Don Moynihan from the Ford School told Reuters,"By deeming anyone involved in...
Seeking insight on climate and energy policy, Thumbwind interviewed Dr. Jennifer Haverkamp, from the Ford School, to ask about recent support for clean energy initiatives. “This isn’t just about climate anymore,” said Dr. Haverkamp. She added that...
“I genuinely have never been this concerned about the ability of that agency [Social Security Administration] to function,” said Pamela Herd, professor at the Ford School, in an interview cited by FactCheck.org. “Yes, I think people are right to be...
Paula Lantz highlights an “overt disconnect” between the creation of President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) Commission and his administration's concurrent actions that reduce federal funding for public health...
In an opinion piece for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Professor Jason Owen-Smith warns that NIH's new indirect-cost rate policy could harm research progress by undermining essential infrastructure....
Jason Owen-Smith, Ford School professor (by courtesy) and director of Institute for Research on Innovation and Science, in a piece for The Chronicle of Higher Education, explained the illogic of cutting indirect-cost (IDC) rates. Owen-Smith wrote,...
Don Moynihan, Ford School professor, said “Money is a an aggressive growing tumor at the heart of American democracy. The 2023 Wisconsin state supreme court race cost $56 million, a national record at the time. The 2025 version blasted that out of...
Empowered bureaucrats can make decisions that will lead to better and more efficient service for citizens, according to Dan Honig, author of “Mission Driven Bureaucrats: Empowering People To Help Government Do Better.” In a Policy Talk at the Ford...
“Executive orders can't overrule statutes, so that’s a mystery legally,” according to Michigan Law Professor Margo Schlanger. She was addressing the legal and rhetorical attacks the Trump administration has made against birthright citizenship....
Javed Ali, Ford School professor, discussed with USA Today the signal groupchat that was publicly released. He said, "you certainly don't want those details being revealed in any kind of public form because you are putting the force at risk." More...
States have varying approaches to boosting government efficiency. Route 50 turned to the Ford School's Don Moynihan to analyze Pennsylvania's method of increasing efficiency after they recognized their state's processing systems fell behind other...
In a recent article from TIME Magazine, the Ford School's Pamela Herd was quoted as an expert on public policy as the network searched for an explanation on delayed Social Security benefits. Herd stated, "People are waiting for hours to get through...
The Trump administration appears particularly focused on “the president having absolute power and control over where money goes regardless of laws on impoundment or statutes on agencies... It’s a consolidation of power in the name of efficiency,"...
The Ford School's Jeff Morenoff advocated for legislation that would reduce long sentences for incarcerated people in Michigan. In an opinion piece published in the Detroit Free Press, Morenoff explained that Michigan's average prison sentence...
Current government operations under the Trump administration are pointing to signs of democratic backsliding. The Ford School's Don Moynihan has stated that Americans have put too much faith in the law. Quoted in an article from the Financial Times,...
The Ford School's Don Moynihan spoke with The Daily Beast and commented on the removal of government history from various agency websites, specifically targeting topics involving DEI or POC and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. "It's this sort of...
Following the recent executive order designed to dismantle the Department of Education, the Ford School's Kevin Stange spoke with Bridge Michigan about what this means for education research. Strange shared that his biggest concern is the fate of...
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan promoted a Poverty Solutions study which shows that Detroit homeowners’ home wealth rose by $700M in 2023. At a well-attended news conference in Detroit, Duggan highlighted that Detroit homeowner occupants gained nearly a...
A new brief from the Ford School's Education Policy Initiative and Youth Policy Lab shows the impact of federally funded education research. The policy-relevant research is developed in partnership with local and state agencies, practitioners, and...
"We are living through a massive assault on basic premises of our constitutional system" said Ford School Professor Samuel Bagenstos, in a question-and-answer article for The New Yorker magazine. He said, "I really hate the significance that’s being...
The Baltimore Banner spoke to the Ford School's Catherine Hausman asking for her predictions on the future of nuclear energy. The article noted that a recent study concluded the U.S. would have to increase nuclear output by nearly five-fold to meet...
Technology writer and podcaster Kara Swisher will join the Ford School for the Fall 2025 semester as a Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Policymaker in...
