America's Demographic Destiny Can't Be Ignored
The birth rate is at an all-time low. That’s going to have a major impact on public services.
Peter Harkness, founder and publisher emeritus of GOVERNING, now serves as a co-writer of the Potomac Chronicle column. He launched GOVERNING in 1987 after serving as editor and deputy publisher of the Congressional Quarterly news service. Peter currently also is a senior policy adviser to the Pew Center on the States.
The birth rate is at an all-time low. That’s going to have a major impact on public services.
Its problems didn't start with Trump, but he ironically may be helping to turn some of them around.
Another recession is in the forecast. This time, states seem ready to weather it.
The system is broken. But the midterms laid the foundation for reforming it.
Federal policy, and other factors, are disrupting efforts to improve transit and forcing urban planners to make tough choices.
When it comes to dirty lakes and rivers, governments have learned how to cooperate.
Our federal system is tied up in knots. We have to try to untie them.
Our toughest problems can’t be solved unless we learn to work together.
One of them, Paul Posner, who recently died, spent decades advocating for a stronger relationship between federal, state and local governments.
In his new book, David Osborne argues the best way to fix the education system is to increase charter schools and create a survival-of-the-fittest system.
It's hard to tell who's in charge of what in American government these days.
His policy choices will challenge places from Manhattan to Mobile, Ala.
U.S. politics isn't all poisonous. You just have to leave Washington to realize that.
D.C. may be an object of Republican disdain, but it’s now at the center of governmental change.
They’re stepping down in cities across the country, opening up opportunities for major change.
The uncertainty of where they'll live is creating new challenges.
In D.C., above and below ground, historic and vital infrastructure is in bad shape. There’s plenty of blame to spread around for that.
Some of the skeptics are also the people with the most power to make a difference. Ignoring or denying the issue isn’t an option.
Most important, their prospects for survival can teach us about the resiliency of urban areas everywhere.
Federal firearm laws are unlikely to change, so it’s up to states and localities to lead a societal effort.
The U.S. may not be the next Greece, but it must face up to some hard decisions.
As public education becomes less public, what new economic model will emerge?
Dan Gilbert of Detroit is just one example of what a CEO determined to help their communities can accomplish.
Most governments don’t plan for population growth well. But Utah’s grassroots, nonideological, research-based approach has become a model for other states and localities.
With practically no legislation moving through Congress, the Washington press corps is beginning to focus on action in states and localities.
Even though airports and public transportation systems are in need of upgrades, all anyone ever talks about is roads and bridges.
With far too little water in some places and far too much in others, U.S. governments can no longer ignore climate change.
As urban populations have grown, cities have become centers of innovation.
Since Congress has trouble tying its shoes, states and localities must take the lead reversing the dangerous trends of rising inequality and stagnant mobility.
Hydraulic fracking holds so much promise for generating inexpensive, relatively clean energy. But first, we need to figure out how to regulate it.
Congress is back, but don’t expect the players in this sad comedy to know or care much about how any pieces of legislation they pass will affect our states, regions or metros.
More than ever, the feds need states and local regions to take the lead in crafting promising new programs.
States don’t just want money to rebuild -- they want money to make far-reaching changes to infrastructure too.
Elections and governance have become so intertwined that it’s hard to know when campaigns begin or end. We do know we need big ideas.
The nation’s capital is more about what you own these days than what you do.
Obama blames the states, but the problem is more complicated.
Severe funding cuts and the record-high numbers of people going to college are forcing state university systems to make tough decisions about financial aid, curriculums, research and more.
If the health reform law is upheld, the flexibility it will give states on health insurance exchanges could be a model for healthy federal-state relations.
Amid several ethics scandals, the city government has dramatically improved its delivery of services -- even as demand has increased.
Obama’s mixed approach of coercion and collaboration seems to be working, but that may not last.
GOVERNING Publisher Emeritus Peter Harkness says it may be time for government to get out of the business of promoting homeownership.
With stimulus funding gone, a misinformed citizenry is unprepared for the funding cuts on the horizon.
With Washington paralyzed by its debt and states facing deficits, the pressure is on local governments to raise more revenue or make significant structural changes to reduce costs.
Exaggerating problems is more about politics than budget balancing.
At all levels, denigration of public service is a legacy of the recession.
As problems cry out for solutions, we need more Richard Daleys.
When some labor unions in Rockford, Ill., came out in support of an increase in the local sales tax last month, it wasn't big news....
Almost two years ago, this space discussed George W. Bush's centerpiece education program in a column that started off this way: "There is a rebellion...