American Dreams

Opportunity and Upward Mobility

Guian McKee, Cristina Lopez-Gottardi Chao, Guian McKee, Cristina Lopez-Gottardi Chao

• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780813945354
• eBook ISBN:
  9780813940212
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political History & Theory
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In an increasingly polarized political environment, the first year of the new president's term will be especially challenging. With a fresh mandate, however, the first year also offers opportunities that may never come again. The First Year Project is a fascinating initiative by the Miller Center of the University of Virginia that brings together top scholars on the American presidency and experienced officials to explore the first twelve months of past administrations, and draw practical lessons from that history, as we inaugurate a new president in January 2017.

This project is the basis for a new series of digital shorts published as Miller Center Studies on the Presidency. Presented as specially priced collections published exclusively in an ebook format, these timely examinations recognize the experiences of past presidents as an invaluable resource that can edify and instruct the incoming president.

Contributors: Melody Barnes, New York University * William A. Galston, Brookings Institution * Dambisa Moyo, global economist and author * Michael Nelson, Rhodes College * Margaret O'Mara, University of Washington * Robert Pianta, University of Virginia * Richard Schragger, University of Virginia * Peter Wehner, Ethics and Public Policy Center

Notes

Introduction

1 Philip Bump, “48 Percent of Millennials Think the American Dream Is Dead. Here’s Why,” Washington Post, December 10, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/12/10/48-percent-of-millennials-think-the-american-dream-is-dead-heres-why/.

2 “The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground,” PewResearch Center, December 9, 2015, http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/09/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground/.

3 America’s Shrinking Middle Class: A Close Look at Changes within Metropolitan Areas, Pew Research Center, May 11, 2016, http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/05/11/americas-shrinking-middle-class-a-close-look-at-changes-within-metropolitan-areas/.

4 U.S. Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2016/demo/p60-256.html.

5 The Miller Center’s Presidential Oral History program is available at http://archive.millercenter.org/oralhistory.

Longing for Uplift

6 Abraham Lincoln, “First Message to Congress at the Special Session,” Washington, D.C., July 4, 1861.

7 Elizabeth Kneebone and Natalie Holmes, “U.S. Concentrated Poverty in the Wake of the Great Recession,” Brookings Institution, March 31, 2016, https://www.brookings.edu/research/u-s-concentrated-poverty-in-the-wake-of-the-great-recession/.

8 Isabell Sawhill and Ron Haskins, “Five Myths About Our Land of Opportunity,” Washington Post, November 1, 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/30/AR2009103001845.html.

9 “Direction of Country: Trump Job Approval, Congressional Job Approval,” poll results, Real Clear Politics, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/direction_of_country-902.html.

10 Andrew Kohut, “Campaign Stops; Don’t Mind The Gap,” New York Times, January 27, 2012, https://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/dont-mind-the-gap/.

11 David Brooks, “The Working Nation,” New York Times, October 23, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/opinion/david-brooks-the-working-nation.html.

12 Walter Russell Mead, “The Energy Revolution and Its Biggest Losers,” Global Warning Policy Forum, October 7, 2012, http://www.thegwpf.com/walter-russell-mead-the-energy-revolution-and-its-biggest-losers/.

13 Scott Winship, “Why the 1996 Welfare Reform Benefitted Poor Children,” National Review Online, September 1, 2016, https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/why-1996-welfare-reform-benefited-poor-children-9215.html.

14 Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015).

15 W. Bradford Wilcox, Nicholas H. Wolfinger, and Charles E. Stokes, “One Nation, Divided,” Marriage and Child Wellbeing Revisited 25 (2015): 111–27.

16 Ibid., 122.

17 Carl M. Brauer, Presidential Transitions: Eisenhower through Reagan (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 62.

Opportune Moment

18 Congressional Budget Office, The Budget and Economic Outlook, 2016 to 2026,” January 25, 2016, https://www.cbo.gov/publication/51129.

19 Raj Chetty, The Impact of Neighborhoods on Economic Opportunity: New Evidence and Policy Lessons,” Brookings Institution, n.d., https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/RajChettyv2.pdf.

20 Richard V. Reeves, “Saving Horatio Alger: Equality, Opportunity, and the American Dream,” Brookings Institution, Aguust 20, 2014, http://aa61a0da3a709a1480b1-9c0895f07c3474f6636f95b6bf3db172.r70.cf1.rackcdn.com/content/research/essays/2014/saving-horatio-alger.html.

21 Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, “Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate: Women,” https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300002.

Pre-K Prerequisite

22 Jim Minervino, Ready on Day One, “Lessons from Research and the Classroom: Implementing High-Quality Pre-K That Makes a Difference for Young Children,” Gates Foundation, September 2014, https://docs.gatesfoundation.org/documents/lessons%20from%20research%20and%20the%20Classroom_September%202014.pdf.

23 T. J. Sabol, S. L. Soliday Hong, R. C. Pianta, and M. R. Burchinal, “Can Rating Pre-K Programs Predict Children’s Learning?,” Science, August 23, 2013, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/341/6148/845.full.

24 National Institute for Early Educ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Longing for Uplift: Americans Want to Believe Everyone Has a Fair Chance to Succeed
• Opportune Moment: The Time Is Right for the Next President to Pursue an Opportunity Agenda
• Pre-K Prerequisite: Ensure That Every Poor Child in America Gets Two Years of Preschool
• City Power: The Next President Can Help Cities Boost More Workers into the Middle Class
• The Long Game: The Next President Must Lay the Foundation for a Next-Generation Economy
• Moving Up: The Next President Can Restore Confidence in the American Dream
• Presidential Precedents: Oral Histories Show How Other Presidents Dealt with Opportunity Issues
• Contributors
• Notes