Community
False stereotypes harm people in poverty
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Politicians promote misconceptions to build support for punitive approaches to programs that help people in poverty pay for food, receive medical care and find housing.
Beaconomics
How do we measure poverty?
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The official poverty threshold is equal to three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963, adjusted for family size. Is it an adequate measure?
Policy Wonk
Opportunity Zones: Will this time be different?
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The history of place-based economic development is not particularly encouraging. When tax incentives are employed, they can be poorly targeted, reducing the tax liability of the prosperous while conferring little benefit on people in need.
Technology & Innovation
A different growth model
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Rochester has a number of nonprofit business incubators designed to assist fledgling firms. Now, two for-profit businesses—Innovative Solutions and Envative—are getting into the game.
Health & Science
Do bundled payments put some patients at risk?
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Is an alternative payment scheme designed to cut costs and improve care inadvertently shortchanging minorities and poorer patients? A URMC researcher aims to find out.
Government & Politics
Corruption matters
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Corruption—legal and illegal—undermines faith in government. Public officials often dismiss small ethical lapses, but that paves the way for worse misconduct with bigger consequences.
Technology & Innovation
Saving laser research
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It was only a few months ago that the University of Rochester’s Laser Lab was uncertain about its future. Now, it has joined eight other high-intensity laser facilities tasked with restoring the nation’s competitive edge in laser research.
Rochester education crisis
Why charter schools are part of the solution
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In the latest statewide public school test results, New York’s charter schools once again outperformed their local school districts as well as the state as a whole. To those who oppose the charter school movement, here’s simple question: “What is your proposed solution to the urban education crisis?”
Beaconomics
Making sense of the graduation rate
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Darrell Huff’s “How to Lie with Statistics” was an instant classic following its publication in 1954. Do widely quoted figures on K-12 education tell the whole story?
Community
RIT’s decisive moment
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This year marks a half-century since RIT relocated from downtown to Henrietta. What began as a move born of necessity paved the way to realize a more modern, progressive vision for the institute.