Policy
This coverage will look at how public leaders establish new policies in a range of crucial areas of government – health, education, public safety, for example – and how these policies impact people’s lives through better services, effective regulations and new programs. This will include stories examining how state and local government approaches policymaking around emerging areas, including artificial intelligence.
Temporary pandemic-era changes helped a lot. Continuing revival requires systems calibrated to rural scale rather than to urban norms.
Federal subsidies helped 13 million more Americans access health insurance through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Millions are expected to lose coverage now that subsidies have expired.
A dramatic drop in paroles reflects 2024 changes that tightened eligibility and eliminated discretionary release for many incarcerated people.
State officials intentionally timed new limits on soda and candy purchases to begin on Ash Wednesday as part of a health-focused push.
Alabama’s central data repository enables coordinated action across health, law enforcement and governmental agencies.
Across the U.S., lawmakers are introducing a wave of bills that would either restrict or support federal immigration enforcement.
Nebraska becomes the 12th state to bar diversion of federal survivor benefits toward foster-care costs.
Chatbots with inadequate safeguards are harming our children, rewiring their brains in ways that lead to anxiety, depression and self-harm. State lawmakers should take swift action to protect them.
State legislators introduce hundreds of K-12 proposals each year, but less than 10 percent reach the governor’s desk.
Parents say inconsistent and confusing local attendance policies undermine efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism and erode confidence in districts’ accountability.
Rising use of force by federal agents is testing the limits of state authority and civil rights protections.
A statewide strike aims to halt normal economic activity in response to recent enforcement actions and a fatal shooting.
Small schools with minimal staff face hundreds of hours of work to satisfy the Education Department’s new reporting requirement tied to post-affirmative-action scrutiny.
With about 86 percent of its transportation fuel imported from California and refinery closures looming, state leaders launched a Fuel Resiliency Committee to address supply vulnerabilities.
For-profit programs proliferated as oversight lagged and exam pass rates sank.
A national repository of personal information the federal government is seeking poses serious dangers. Americans should be free to speak out without fear that their data will be used to target them for retaliation.
This isn’t the first time the president has threatened to invoke the act giving him broad power to deploy the military on U.S. soil.
The White House offered few details Wednesday on what Congress can expect from planned legislative recommendations for a national standard that would seek to preempt state laws.
Santa Fe has adopted a new law that ties the local minimum wage to inflation and housing costs. Backers say the measure will boost workers’ incomes while providing predictability to businesses.
New federal guidance calls for reducing the number of vaccines recommended for all children from 17 down to 11. At least 17 states have announced they’ll disregard it.
The state doesn’t currently allow for the voting method, but some legislators want to ban it from being an option in the future.
Officials hope the move helps them ease a doctor shortage.
The more flexible approach some doctors are taking clashes with traditional views of how to treat people with addiction.
Those just joining governing bodies shouldn’t just hang back and observe. They need to stay in touch with their constituents, work with colleagues who don’t share all their views, and commit themselves to high ethical standards.
Worker-owned cooperatives and direct-connect registries are reducing turnover and reshaping how older adults get care at home.
Nineteen states raised their minimum wage in January. Almost as many are keeping it at the federal level of $7.25 set in 2009.
The fatal shooting of a woman by a federal ICE agent has renewed scrutiny of long-standing rules that sharply limit when officers may fire at moving vehicles.
A first-of-its-kind lawsuit from the city of San Francisco seeks to end advertising that misleads consumers about the health impacts of highly processed foods. The city attorney spoke with Governing about the suit.
Vermont’s plan to redraw districts to cope with declining enrollment highlights mixed research and fierce community resistance.
The city plans to provide $1,500 during pregnancy and $500 a month after birth as part of an effort to reduce infant mortality and child poverty.
Applied behavior analysis has become one of Medicaid’s fastest-growing costs, prompting cuts that families say threaten progress.
