Julian L. Alssid

As we kick off 2011, if you are in the higher education field, as I am, things are looking great.

Higher education is becoming a national priority thanks to our president's call to produce 8 million more college graduates by 2020. Money is there to help make that happen...

This blog was co-authored by Whitney Smith, a Program Manager at The Joyce Foundation.

As the election of 2010 fades, all leaders should turn their attention to the overriding question facing the nation: how do we get more Americans back to work? And not just back to work,...

A persistent unemployment rate of about 10% does wonderful things to focus national attention.

Ranging from a cover story in The New York Times, to the bipartisan vote to pass the SECTORS Act, there is suddenly focused attention on the question of how we get unemployed...

One of the ramifications of the tragic events that have unfolded over the last month in the Gulf of Mexico is likely to be even more emphasis on developing "green energy" and building with it a "green economy." With a national unemployment rate stubbornly resistant at close to 10%, the...

As we come into the homestretch in the highly contentious debate over health care reform, there is the possibility that more Americans will have access to health care in the near future. Should health care reform pass, however, it is not clear how our already strapped health care system will...

Despite some hopeful signs of recovery in late 2009, Americans welcomed a new decade with the realization that the highest unemployment rate in nearly 30 years is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. In December, jobless claims unexpectedly rose, keeping the national unemployment rate at 10 percent.

It is puzzling that during the past two presidential debates neither candidate has offered specifics about what he will do to help Americans get through these hard economic times.

Consider for example one of our most critical challenges -- how do we move Americans into jobs that pay family-supporting wages...