Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. School closure is among the most controversial interventions in education, and the issue is back in the spotlight with Indianapolis Public Schools’ recent vote to close or transition four high schools. The impetus for the high school restructuring at IPS is the low enrollment at these schools, which led to the district operating mostly empty buildings. This has imposed a financial burden on the district and spread limited resources even thinner. The hope is that closing or restructuring high schools into middle schools and concentrating resources at only four high schools will lead to higher-quality […]

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Smoking remains the number one preventable cause of death in the United States, and Indiana’s smoking rate continues to rank among the worst in the nation. Smoking kills more than 11,000 Hoosiers each year. These impacts are felt especially hard among low-income individuals on Medicaid, who are more likely to be smokers. In addition to the public health impacts, smoking also hurts Hoosiers through high taxpayer-funded costs. For example, Medicaid smokers in Indiana cost $540 million more each year than non-smokers, according to a study we released earlier this year. These lost resources could instead […]