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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.

State and local governments are still trusted more than Washington, though they’re having their own brushes with incivility and polarization. But they’re still the best bet for preserving our traditions of governance.
When it comes to major life events, agency boundaries never line up with the challenges people face. There’s a federal push to get at the problem, and state and local governments should be part of the solution.
It’s shaped politics, government and culture throughout our history. Schools may not be teaching critical race theory as such, but today’s students — tomorrow’s leaders — need to explore why these disparities continue to exist.
The expanding legalization of marijuana sales is failing to give entrepreneurs from disadvantaged communities a chance to get into the cannabis business. Policymakers should take a new look at licensing, tax and other policies.
The battles over masks and vaccine mandates threaten the idea, going back to the founders, that surrendering a bit of personal freedom is necessary to secure everyone’s welfare.
A campaign in the states to make public workers “at-will” employees and undo civil service protections has gained traction at the federal level. But there are early signs of a counter-trend in local government.
In deploying the National Guard to the southwest border and with other actions, several Republican governors are illustrating the impact states can have on federal policies.
It's been strong for decades, but the poisonous polarization at the federal level has begun to flow downhill, threatening to undermine the service to citizens that is the foundation of that trust.
The U.S. could have done much better in battling COVID-19, preventing hundreds of thousands of deaths. But its decentralized system of governance failed to rise to the challenge.
Republican resistance isn’t just about taxes. It’s rooted in the party’s hostility toward urban initiatives that has played out on a broad range of issues.