Rebuilding from the College Catastrophe Starts Here
The problem that the American Workforce Act aims to solve is simple, but deadly serious: In American education, all roads lead to college.
Browse our library
Search and filter below to explore our library of research, essays, commentary, and more.
Results
Republicans Have Great Ideas. It’s Time To Start Talking About Them
American Compass executive director Oren Cass makes the case for a GOP focus on substantive policy ideas, prioritizing efforts that benefit working families.
Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness is Wrong. Here’s How to Handle College Debt Instead.
America has turned higher ed into a lavishly expensive sacred cow, and now we’re all footing the bill. Let’s make college debt boring again, argues Oren Cass.
What Republicans Should Do if They Win Big This Fall
American Compass’s Oren Cass and Chris Griswold describe how a conservative agenda focused on workers and their families could create new avenues for progress in a divided government.
The Chips Act Debate Shows How Far the Republicans Have Moved
FINANCIAL TIMES—Oren Cass argues that conservative interest in rebuilding America’s industrial base may finally be overtaking free-market fundamentalism on the right.
The Problem Joe Manchin Highlighted Is Crucial for America’s Future
Oren Cass makes the case for serious permitting reform, without which it will take years to spend any money building climate-related projects, costing us money and harming the environment.
Chipping Away at Globalization Is a Smart Move
American Compass’s Oren Cass argues that the CHIPS Act marks an inflection point for America turning away from globalization and revitalizing domestic industry.
CHIPS Won’t Help China
American Compass executive director Oren Cass argues that demanding perfect legislation is a convenient excuse for voting no, and a standard by which everyone would always vote no.
Pass the CHIPS, Please
Restrictions on investment in China are a good idea, to be sure. The taller and stronger the guardrails, the better. But holding incentives for domestic investment hostage to tougher restrictions on foreign investment may not be wise or necessary, for two reasons.
Recovering a Sense of Papoose
In this week’s Compass Point, Pursuing the Reunification of Home and Work, Erika Bachiochi throws a fascinating curveball into the modern debate over home economics. That debate, to oversimplify, pits the mid-20th-century model of breadwinner-plus-homemaker against the late-20th-century model of the dual-income household.
Post-Roe, the GOP Is Stepping Up To Support American Families
American Compass executive director Oren Cass discusses the promising shift on the right-of-center toward supporting generous pro-family benefits like Senator Romney’s Family Security Act 2.0.
The Climate Crisis Is No Excuse for Backsliding on Democracy
For progressives, the US Supreme Court’s EPA ruling should have been a teachable moment, argues American Compass executive director Oren Cass.
College Is Not for All
American Compass’s Oren Cass and Wells King discuss the reality that most young Americans miss out on commencement.
Brave New Regulation
Silicon Valley’s techno-optimists insist loudly on two contradictory points. On one hand, they celebrate the Internet and its associated innovations with phrases like “paradigm shift” and “creative destruction,” and celebrate themselves as the visionaries leading humanity into (unironically) a Brave New World. On the other, they reject the need for new public regulation, insisting that the legal frameworks of past eras are perfectly adequate to the task. Both cannot be true.
The Banality of Student Loans
With loans dischargeable in bankruptcy, with subsidies limited to a straightforward grant, and with providers responsible for financing the investments they promise to facilitate, the white-washed “ivory towers” would lose much of their magical allure.
Who Has the Expertise to Watch the Experts?
What role should experts play in our politics? Of course, they have their own freedom of speech, and are welcome to hawk their wares in the marketplace of ideas. But when election day arrives, their votes count no more or less than others, and they are far fewer in number.
Cutting China Tariffs Will Offer No Respite From Rising Prices
American Compass executive director Oren Cass makes the case against rolling back tariffs on China in response to inflation.
Is Washington the Next Detroit?
Our latest Compass Point is by James M. Roberts, long-time research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and co-editor of their Index of Economic Freedom, reflecting on his experience in the conservative establishment and the perils of a political movement running on autopilot.
The Market’s Border Crisis
American Compass executive director Oren Cass makes the case that revitalizing the American industrial base requires moving beyond globalization.
The Workforce Training Grant
Public policy should recognize that employers, not universities, often provide the most socially valuable form of training and should redirect public resources accordingly.
