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Donald F. Kettl

Columnist

Donald F. Kettl, a columnist for Governing, is a professor emeritus and the former dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. Until his recent retirement, he was the Sid Richardson Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. He is a senior adviser at the Volcker Alliance and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Kettl, who holds a Ph.D. and master's degree in political science from Yale University, is the author of several books, most recently The Divided States of America: Why Federalism Doesn't Work (2020) and Can Governments Earn Our Trust? (2017), and the co-author of Bridgebuilders: How Government Can Transcend Boundaries to Solve Big Problems (2023).

He can be reached at Dfkettl52@gmail.com or on Twitter at @DonKettl.

There's no more cash for state and local governments in the latest round of federal spending to prop up the economy.
State budget cuts are undermining national health reform.
The feds aren't just handing out money -- they're redistributing clout.
Governors running for president will have some uncomfortable moments in the year ahead.
A new federal law gives the military a domestic function it hasn't had before.
State and local interest groups don't wield the clout they once had in Washington. But there's crucial work for them to do.
The tough choices on emergency response are gradually migrating to Washington.
We all know there's something wrong with our rules for electing a president. But fixing it has proved impossible.
There's a lot to learn from the great storm of 2005. We're a little slow putting it to work.
War veterans are coming home in worse mental shape than anybody expected.