An Idea for Republicans, Ctd

Last Friday I talked about the importance of the poverty problem to a limited-government party in a modern society. It comes down to this: poor people are expensive. The money they don't earn in wages they still cost society in terms of prison cells and emergency room visits. In the 1990s, …

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Written by David Frum on Tuesday November 1, 2011

An Idea For Republicans

In the 1990s, many Republicans took the problem of hard-core poverty seriously. (One of those poverty-conscious Republicans was Sen. Rick Santorum, now the one presidential candidate who takes seriously the data on faltering upward mobility in America.) In 1999 and 2000, candidate George W. …

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Written by David Frum on Friday October 28, 2011

The New Poor

In my column for The Week , I discuss what needs to be done to reduce rising poverty levels: The collapse of the American job market has pushed the poverty rate to the highest level since 1993 — back before welfare reform was even enacted. The poverty rate touched bottom in the year 2000 at …

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Written by David Frum on Wednesday September 14, 2011

Is Baltimore Bouncing Back?

As a new resident of Baltimore's Federal Hill neighborhood, my impression of the city has done a complete one-eighty. Thanks to popular shows like The Wire , Baltimore isn’t exactly known for being a thriving metropolis.  After four years as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University, …

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Written by Rachel Ryan on Sunday June 12, 2011

The Next Fake Hollywood Scare: Child Hunger

A new documentary Hungry in America hopes to launch a crusade to end child hunger. But if they don't their facts right, they may discredit a worthy cause. The current wave of partisan cinéma non-vérité has become every bit as formulaic and tiresome as Michael Moore's scruffy Common Man routine.  …

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Written by Tim Hodgson on Sunday March 20, 2011

New School Year, Same Frustrations

The start of another school year does not signal a new day in our worst urban schools. Last year’s colossal problems had three months off. As soon as the bell rings and the buses roll in, the embarrassing reality of “education” in inner city schools will resume. The problems of last year will have …

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Written by Thomas Gibbon on Monday August 31, 2009