National Issues Forums Institute: 13 books
Climate Choices
How Should We Meet the Challenges of a Warming Planet
Language: English
Release Date: December 1, 2015
CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT ONLY AN ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM. It is also a public-health issue, a national security risk, and an economic challenge of considerable magnitude. And it has only been recently that the public debate has shifted away from weighing the evidence to asking what we should do about our...
by Julie Pratt
Language: English
Release Date: January 1, 2007
Language: English
Release Date: January 1, 2007
From the very start, Americans have held widely divergent views on issues related to public schools. Many of these have to do with the methods by which we achieve an educated society. How do we ensure that our schools are accessible to all children? By what means do we hold students accountable for...
Over the Edge
What Should We Do When Alcohol and Drug Use Become a Problem to Society?
Language: English
Release Date: December 1, 2015
There are no easy answers to deep-seated public problems like substance abuse. In order to make progress on such issues, we need to tap the experience, wisdom, and hopes of people in communities who are concerned about the issue. Why does this issue matter to people? What roles can different people...
End of Life
What Should We Do for Those Who Are Dying?
Language: English
Release Date: September 23, 2016
What ought to be done at the end of life is both a personal and public decision. As our population ages, it is becoming a matter of great concern for the entire nation. Diseases that would have been death sentences a few decades ago are now often treatable.This guide explores end-of-life decisions...
Making Ends Meet
How Should We Spread Prosperity and Improve Opportunity
Language: English
Release Date: January 1, 2016
For many Americans, the recovery from the 2007 recession, a recovery that officially began in 2009, feels very remote, or nonexistent. Even as the stock market surges and millions of jobs have been created, they see a very different picture. Many Americans still believe in the basic notion that anyone...
Too Many Children Left Behind
How Can We Close the Achievement Gap?
Language: English
Release Date: January 1, 2007
In a nation that prides itself on providing equal opportunity for all, too many low-income and minority children are falling behind their peers in school. In an increasingly competitive global arena, the United States cannot afford to ignore this widening achievement gap. What can be done to close...
Land of Plenty
How Should We Ensure that People Have the Food They Need?
Language: English
Release Date: March 15, 2017
All of us affect, and are affected by, the food system: students who grow and eat carrots and tomatoes from their school garden; farm owners who maintain patches of natural habitat for bees; immigrants who hand-pick our apples, grapes, and oranges; public employees who design food-nutrition labels...
Safety and Justice
How Should Communities Reduce Violence?
Language: English
Release Date: January 27, 2017
After falling steadily for decades, the rate of violent crime in the United States rose again in 2015 and 2016. Interactions between citizens and police too often end in violence. People are increasingly worried about safety in their communities.
How should we ensure that Americans of every...
Alcohol in America
What Can We Do about Excessive Drinking?
Language: English
Release Date: December 1, 2015
What Can We Do about Excessive Drinking?Alcohol is a legal beverage, but its misuse hurts people, costs our nation billions of dollars, and makes the public less safe. The question remains: What can we do about excessive alcohol use?"This issue guide presents three options for deliberation:Protect Others...
A New Land
What Kind of Government Should We Have?
Language: English
Release Date: January 1, 2016
What Kind of Government Should We Have? It is the spring of 1787. We are now in a critical period. Our new republic is unstable and the liberty we won just four years ago is threatened. We’ve lost the unity inspired by our fight against Britain. Trade is difficult and our physical safety is uncertain....
Bullying
How Do We Prevent It?
Language: English
Release Date: December 1, 2015
Bullying occurs at every age and in many different environments, but it is an all-too-ordinary childhood event. At least one out of every five students has reported being bullied at school. The behavior involves key characteristics: repeated, aggressive, and unwelcome actions towards another, and an...
Coming to America
Who Should We Welcome, What Should We Do?
Language: English
Release Date: January 15, 2018
The immigration issue affects virtually every American, directly or indirectly, often in deeply personal ways. This guide is designed to help people deliberate together about how we should approach the issue. The three options presented here reflect different ways of understanding what is at stake...
A House Divided
What Would We Have to Give Up to Get the Political System We Want?
Language: English
Release Date: January 1, 2019
Every American is affected by the divisions and outrage that prevent us from making progress on urgent problems. This issue guide is designed to help people deliberate together about how we should approach the issue. These are difficult questions, and there are no easy answers:
Should we require...