Maxwell School News and Commentary

"The literature says, 'These [mobile] kids do worse,'" says Amy Ellen Schwartz, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Chair in Public Affairs. "But really, on the whole, we’re unable to fully disentangle the effects of moving from the underlying factors that led to it. And from a policy point of view, I’m not sure it matters: You show me a kid who’s moved three times in the last eight months, I’ll show you a kid who needs special attention."

According to research by Gretchen Purser, associate professor of sociology, somewhere between 2.4 million and 5 million American households are at risk of eviction in January alone if Congress fails to reach an agreement on economic emergency relief. 

In a choice between basic necessities, often, food is the first expense to be slashed, a decision that can result in adverse health effects for high-risk people. "This could put a further strain on the non-COVID health care system," says Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs.

"I thought at some point, reality would come back in for people and they would have a hard time balancing their motivations to stay consistent with their partisanship with what's going on on the ground," says Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science.  "That was wholly optimistic on my part."

"It’s not just the rural health care infrastructure that becomes overwhelmed when there aren’t enough hospital beds, it’s also the surrounding neighborhoods, the suburbs, the urban hospital infrastructure starts to become overwhelmed as well," says Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

“There’s no doubt that we are not going back to the way it was. There will be a—quote unquote—new normal," says Catherine Gerard, associate director of Executive Education, about the short- and long-term effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic. “This has been an incredible disruption,” University Professor Sean O’Keefe said. “This disruptive change is having a global consequence.”

“We were fortunate to have some experience with online education prior to the pandemic. Our work with the online executive master of public administration and other online training programs enabled an easier transition,” says Steven Lux, director of the Executive Education Program.