KF News and Ideas

Education has been the topic of a handful of widely distributed documentaries in recent years. 2009’s Race To Nowhere highlights what some believe is an overemphasis on academic outcomes in America’s educational system, and that the subsequent risk to our children’s mental health. A play on the Obama administration’s controversial Race To The Top legislation, the film insists that education should accentuate creativity, instead of what some would argue are meaningless, stress-inducing academic outcomes.

Public's made progress, but still hasn’t come to grips with costs of making health care a universal right, judges rule in mock trial. The American public is more aware of the costs of health-care reform than it was 15 years ago, but still hasn’t resolved the trade-offs associated with making health care a universal right, raising questions about the Obama administration’s goal of reform this year. This was the ruling by a panel of five “judges” in a mock trial at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., earlier this spring.

In collaboration with the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI), the 12 Presidential Libraries of the National Archives and Records Administration hosted a series of discussions on public policy issues in the fall of 2008.