Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
September 26, 2000, Tuesday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A25; THE FEDERAL PAGE
LENGTH: 893 words
HEADLINE:
THE IDEAS INDUSTRY; Heritage Offers Databases to Wary Journalists
BYLINE: Richard Morin; Claudia Deane
BODY:
Was that William Beach of the
Heritage Foundation we spied last week expertly working the crowd at a
convention of investigative reporters meeting in Lexington, Ky.?
It was.
Beach attended the annual convention of the National Institute for
Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) to make an offer that many reporters
couldn't refuse: free data and quantitative analysis from Heritage, no
strings--ideological or otherwise.
The data comes from Heritage's
growing stockpile of databases, mostly obtained from the federal government.
Beach's Center for Data Analysis already has gathered about 60 data sets loaded
into the tank's computers. Some reporters remain skeptical about Heritage. They
fear the conservative tank's data and analysis come with a rightward tilt.
But a growing number of reporters have embraced the data, including
journalists at some of the country's largest newspapers, such as the Detroit
Free Press and the Los Angeles Times.
Currently, Heritage is working
with Elliot Jaspin of the Cox Newspapers' Washington bureau--a real coup, since
Jaspin is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a pioneer in computer-assisted reporting.
Jaspin isn't ready to pass judgment on the Heritage data: "We're waiting
to get what we requested from them. I don't have any basis to say they're great
or terrible. I can say that so far they've been extremely helpful and extremely
cooperative."
He said he initially feared Heritage "might try to shade
the data in some way." He's closely reviewing Heritage's work, and "they're
playing it straight."
Heritage wants to enhance its credibility with
journalists by offering sophisticated and ideologically "transparent" data and
analysis to reporters, Beach said. "We remain a conservative, free-market think
tank. But we are maturing. We used to be a think tank with an attitude. Now
we're trying to get to the point where we're thought of as a think tank with a
PhD."
ED POLICY'S THIRD RAIL: Those in the know will say that despite
the heated election rhetoric, education is primarily a local and not a federal
issue. But federal laws--and federal dollars--are critical to the nation's
controversial special ed programs, dubbed "the third rail of education policy."
"It's a classic policy dilemma in the sense that there are competing
interests with legitimate claims," said Andy Rotherham, director of the 21st
Century Schools Project at the Progressive Policy Institute. "A lot of parents
feel that the schools don't have their kids' best interests at heart. A lot of
schools feel that the law is cumbersome, restrictive, and hampers their ability
to run schools efficiently."
The controversial law is known by its
initials, IDEA--Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It
was reauthorized three years ago, and could be up for renewal again as early as
2002. To get a jump on the thorny issue, PPI and the Fordham Foundation--led by
Manhattan Institute fellow and former Reagan education official Chester E. Finn
Jr.--are planning a two-day conference in November.
One of the larger
thorns is the question of financing. Republicans and Democrats disagree as to
whether Uncle Sam initially promised to pay 40 percent of states' special ed
costs. Whatever the feds promised, though, they are chipping in more like 12
percent, according to Rotherham. "A lot of people view that as an unfunded
mandate," said Rotherham, an argument Hill Republicans also have been making.
Conference participants plan to address policy issues beyond funding,
however, including how charter schools are handling special ed and the ways race
plays into special education assignment.
JUSTICE AT URBAN: The Urban
Institute is reorganizing, creating a new research center from its former State
Policy Center and Program on Law and Behavior. The new Justice Policy
Center--which will focus on crime and community safety--is being run by Adele
Harrell, a longtime Urban scholar.
"It's a repackaging of who we are,
and an attempt to reach out to people with the findings," said Harrell. "It's
one thing to do the research, but now we really need to make renewed efforts to
get it into the hands of the users."
The center is also harnessing the
star power of senior fellow Jeremy Travis, the former director of the National
Institute of Justice. Travis is spearheading an effort to coordinate research on
prisoners reentering society.
The center's first official event: a late
October briefing on "The decline in crime: why and what next" at the National
Press Club.
BACK TO THE TANKS: Ted Warner returns to RAND from the
Pentagon, where he was the assistant secretary of defense, strategy and threat
reduction. Also coming back to RAND is economist Peter Reuter, a co-founder of
the tank's Drug Policy Research Center. He is on sabbatical from the University
of Maryland.
The Center for Arts and Culture is staffing up: Keith
Donohue is the new creative director. Donohue has worked as a speechwriter for
both Republican and Democratic chairs of the National Endowment for the Arts,
and comes most recently from the General Services Administration. Ann Galligan
of the Cultural Arts Policy Research Institute at Northeastern University joins
the center as a senior associate scholar.
Have news about think tanks,
policy-oriented foundations or nonprofits? E-mail it to ideas@washpost.com
LOAD-DATE: September 26, 2000
