Policy Topics

Poverty and social policy

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Dean Barr on the need to do more for communities and small businesses

Apr 23, 2020

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been allocated to help small businesses and individuals in response to the COVID-19 financial crisis. Yet for low-income households and small businesses, accessing those funds has proved to be a challenge,...

Dramatic drop in remittances puts struggling communities around the world at risk

Apr 23, 2020

As the toll of the COVID-19 economic shutdown reverberates around the world, money sent home by foreign workers is drying up. Hundreds of billions of dollars are sent every year from countries where immigrants work to countries they call home or...

Research team takes on food insecurity in Detroit in the face of coronavirus limitations

Apr 17, 2020

Access to food is a critical measure of societal disparity that has been brought into sharp relief by the COVID-19 pandemic. School lunch programs that previously helped bridge a gap for low income families are unavailable during school closures,...

New website answers Michiganders’ questions about federal stimulus checks

Apr 14, 2020

April 13 press release from Poverty Solutions: A new 2020 Coronavirus Stimulus Payment website launched today aims to make sure Michiganders receive their federal stimulus checks as soon as possible. The vast majority of Michigan residents are...

News

Poverty Solutions releases Michigan COVID-19 pandemic resource guide

Mar 27, 2020

March 27 press release from Poverty Solutions: A new Michigan COVID-19 Pandemic Resource Guide provides information on how to access various resources aimed at supporting Michiganders through the coronavirus pandemic and related economic...

Shaefer discusses jump in joblessness that strains safety nets

Mar 27, 2020

With widespread shutdowns of businesses across the country due to COVID-19, states have seen a dramatic rise in the number of unemployed and those seeking unemployment benefits. This week, unemployment claims jumped 2000% in Michigan, putting the...

Luke Shaefer delivers a talk at the Ford School

News

H. Luke Shaefer appointed as the Ford School’s inaugural Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy

Mar 26, 2020

Today the Regents of the University of Michigan approved H. Luke Shaefer’s appointment as the inaugural Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, for a five-year term,...

Luke Shaefer on the impact of COVID-19 on hourly workers

Mar 20, 2020

With a state-wide prohibition on gatherings greater than 50 people, events canceled, stores closed, and many residents staying home, businesses are feeling the economic effects of the COVID-19 health crisis. Professor Luke Shaefer commented on the...

Ford School economists: Immediate action can mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19

Mar 20, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the U.S. economy in unprecedented ways. This week, Ford School economic experts including Ford School dean Michael S. Barr, and professors Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers weigh in on what’s ahead in The New...

News

Coronavirus response suffers when local government is starved

Mar 20, 2020

Local governments are on the front lines of the response to the coronavirus crisis. Their actions will ultimately shape how well the U.S. can survive COVID-19 and its economic aftermath, according to an opinion contribution in The Hill written by...

News

The Ford School ranks number one in social policy

Mar 17, 2020

The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan is recognized again as one of America’s top graduate programs in public affairs, according to the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings. According to the rankings, based...

Medicaid expansion does not discourage job-seeking among the unemployed

Mar 16, 2020

Although some worry that Medicaid expansion could discourage unemployed workers from seeking employment, a University of Michigan study found that Medicaid expansion did not affect whether unemployed workers found jobs. In fact, the study found...

Lantz contributes to National Academies advisory report for "Healthy People 2030"

Feb 12, 2020

Professor Paula Lantz contributed her expertise to a recently released National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus report that informed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) publication Leading Health...

Annual DC career trip fosters connections between students and alumni

Feb 11, 2020

On February 6 and 7, 2020, the Ford School held its annual DC career trip with record student attendance (55 graduate students) and alumni participation (140). A Ford School tradition, this year’s Washington, DC experience provided students with...

Report finds gaps in access to career, technical ed programs

Feb 5, 2020

A new University of Michigan report detailing access to career and technical education programs in Michigan has found that while CTE courses are popular among high school students, there’s a gap in access to them.CTE courses prepare students to work...

People operating machines in a training environment

Women outnumbering men in the workforce is an irreversible trend, says Stevenson

Jan 17, 2020

The Department of Labor released its employment situation summary report last week, which revealed that women make up more than half of U.S. payroll, for only the second time in history. Betsey Stevenson, professor at the Ford School, analyzed the...

Christina Cross (PhD ‘19) says in NYT op-ed that resource accessibility is the root cause of educational disparities

Dec 13, 2019

In an attempt to prevent educational disparities attributed to the effects of single-parent households, millions of federal and state dollars are poured into marriage promotion initiatives. But in a December 9 New York Times op-ed, sociologist...

New BA minor opens policy education to more U-M students

Dec 10, 2019

Starting fall 2020, the Ford School will offer University of Michigan undergraduates a 16-credit minor in public policy. The minor will have a competitive application process that will go live in April 2020. The school expects to enroll around...

Luke Shaefer named special counselor to the director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

Nov 22, 2019

H. Luke Shaefer, director of Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan and professor of social work and public policy, has been named special counselor to the director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). For the...

News

Dynarski’s work on school day SAT testing cited in Inside Higher Ed analysis of the 2019 test results

Nov 8, 2019

Sue Dynarski’s research is cited in a recent Inside Higher Ed analysis of an initiative that expanded access to the SAT for low-income, first-generation, and minority students. 2019 marked the highest number of SAT test-takers to date: 2.2...

State & Hill

All healthy families are not alike: Christina Cross advances our understanding of dynamics among family structure, inequality, and policy

Oct 22, 2019

By David Pratt A family = Mom + Dad + kid(s). Many researchers and policymakers still treat this as the standard. But Christina Cross (PhD ’19) knows a different reality. One she has lived. Cross, a 2019 graduate of the Ford School’s joint...

Lantz calls for nonbiased data to evaluate deaths from restricting abortions

Jun 25, 2019

As several states pass laws restricting access to abortion, many statistics are being batted around as part of the debate. In an opinion piece published in Milbank Quarterly, a leading health policy journal, Paula Lantz, associate dean for academic...

Pilkauskas finds Earned Income Tax Credit helps low-income moms live on their own

Jun 20, 2019

Increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit helps low-income single mothers improve their housing outcomes as they are less likely to live in crowded households and more likely to live independently, according to a University of Michigan study.The...

Who makes the call? Thacher and Gillooly advocate for 911 operator training

Jun 18, 2019

In the past few years, there has been a growing number of instances when people of color have been the victims of racial-profiling that led to a 911 call and police dispatch. Recent legislation in Michigan, New York and other states and localities...

For moms, working multiple jobs can be depressing, Bruns and Pilkauskas finds

May 22, 2019

Working mothers who have more than one job have a higher risk of depression than those who don’t, say University of Michigan researchers.According to the U-M study, working multiple jobs is linked to a 3-4 percentage points increase in the...

Ivacko discusses opioid interventions on Michigan Radio

May 14, 2019

Tom Ivacko, associate director of the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), housed at the Ford School, talks about Michigan’s relationship to the opioid crisis with Michigan Radio’s Paulette Parker. Published May 13, 2019 online, with...

Joshua Rivera testifies before U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee

May 3, 2019

On May 1, 2019, Joshua Rivera (MPP ’17), a researcher with U-M’s Poverty Solutions, testified before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. The hearing, titled “Examining Discrimination in the...

Bias in bail: Parthasarathy cautions against new Public Safety Assessment tools

Apr 19, 2019

Tackling criminal justice reform requires a multi-pronged approach, and one of the most recent avenues gaining traction is an attempt to rework how pretrial decisions are made. The Michigan Supreme Court has its hands in this effort, launching a new...

State & Hill

A new professorship: giving voice to the voiceless

Apr 1, 2019

“They lost their voices, they lost control of their lives, they lost their home,” Hal Kohn says of his grandparents. “They fled from Germany to Amsterdam, but Hitler invaded the Netherlands and they were deported to Sobibór and murdered...

Ivacko provides context for economic hardship findings

Mar 29, 2019

Understanding poverty in Michigan is the first step towards alleviating it, so people are playing particular attention to the recent Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) report on how local officials think about economic hardship. Much...