2020 has been a year like no other. The United States faced many confounding policy issues, both at home and abroad, many in response to the coronavirus. Throughout it all in publications across the country, Hoover fellows offered thoughtful insights, ideas, and policy recommendations all grounded in serious scholarship. Here is a selection of their work in reverse chronological order.

FEATURED ESSAYS

TOWARD EQUITABLE SCHOOL CHOICE
by Paul E. Peterson via Hoover Education Success Initiative, December 1, 2020
For school choice to become more equitable, all parents must be allowed access to a wider selection of schools: a portfolio of options within school districts, an expanded number of charter schools, and school vouchers and tax-credit scholarships that can be used at private schools.
To view more from the Hoover Education Success Initiative, click here.

NEW OECD ANALYSIS BY HOOVER INSTITUTION FELLOWS: AFFECTED STUDENTS SEE AT LEAST 3% LOWER CAREER EARNINGS BECAUSE OF COVID SCHOOL CLOSINGS
by Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann via Hoover Institution, September 10, 2020
Eric A. Hanushek, the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow in Education and Distinguished Visiting Fellow Ludger Woessmann at Stanford’s Hoover Institution released an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)  analysis on The Economic Impacts of Learning Losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.  This groundbreaking OECD analysis was presented at the G20 Education Ministers virtual meeting on September 5, 2020.  While not addressing when or how schools re-open, it points to the long-run harm to students and to the nation of the accumulating learning losses. 

GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT: RETHINKING RISK IN THE RESEARCH ENTERPRISE
edited by Glenn Tiffert, via China's Global Sharp Power Project, July 23, 2020
Neither the US government nor the universities and national laboratories in the US research enterprise are adequately managing the risks posed by research engagements with foreign entities. The task is quite simply falling through the cracks. Data with which to assess the performance of current frameworks for managing foreign engagement risk, to identify their defects, and to devise proportionate fixes is consequently in short supply. Dueling narratives have filled this evidentiary vacuum, pitting some who propose incremental adjustments against others who call for far-reaching change. Without a common set of facts to anchor the debate, consensus has proven elusive. This report offers a way forward.
To view more from the project on China's Global Sharp Power, click here.

CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM AND NATIONALISM: LESSONS FROM HISTORY
by Niall Ferguson via Socialism and Free Market Capitalism: The Human Prosperity Project, February 24, 2020
Schumpeter warned that socialism might ultimately prevail over capitalism, for four reasons. Creative disruption is rarely popular. Capitalism itself tends towards oligopoly. Intellectuals are susceptible to socialism. So are many bureaucrats and politicians. Socialism had manifestly failed everywhere it had been tried by the 1980s, apparently proving Schumpeter wrong.
To view more from the Human Prosperity Project, click here.

For a list of featured books by Hoover fellows in 2020, click here.

FEATURED OP-EDS

THE MYTH OF A MAJORITY-MINORITY NATION
by Morris P. Fiorina via Real Clear Politics, December 9, 2020
In 2002, influential political observers John Judis and Ruy Teixeira published a book that helped craft an enduring narrative. “The Emerging Democratic Majority” postulated that ongoing socio-demographic trends worked to the advantage of the Democratic Party. These trends included a growing percentage of ethnic minorities, along with increasing percentages of younger voters, unmarried working women, and the college-educated.

COLD WAR II
by Niall Ferguson via National Review, December 3, 2020
This time, it’s with China.

INEQUALITY AND ITS DISCONTENTS
by Michael J. Boskin via Project Syndicate, October 21, 2020
Former US President John F. Kennedy famously proclaimed that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” In a growing economy, the absolute well-being of those near the top and the bottom are positively correlated, so the most important policies to pursue are those that promote strong economic growth and full employment.

THE END OF CHINA’S “PEACEFUL RISE”
by Larry Diamond via American Interest, July 17, 2020
Two generations of American scholars held out hope that China would become “a responsible stakeholder.” In 2020, those hopes have been dashed.

AMERICA DOESN’T NEED A NEW REVOLUTION
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali via Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2020
Can the country confront its current problems with its traditional can-do spirit? We have barely four months to figure out how.

CHARTER SCHOOLS’ ENEMIES BLOCK BLACK SUCCESS
by Thomas Sowell via Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2020
Teachers unions are gaining in their fight to stop students and resources from moving toward what works.

‘THE DEFICIT MYTH’ REVIEW: YEARS OF MAGICAL THINKING
by John H. Cochrane via Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2020
At least Bernie Sanders believes spending depends on tax revenue. Modern monetary theory says: Dream big!

THIS MOMENT CRIES OUT FOR US TO CONFRONT RACE IN AMERICA
by Condoleezza Rice via Washington Post, June 4, 2020
Words cannot dull the pain of George Floyd’s family. Like many black families before them, they find themselves in the spotlight for reasons that every parent, sibling and spouse dreads.

EMERGENCIES DO NOT EXPAND CONSTITUTIONAL POWER
by Clint Bolick via Defining Ideas, May 8, 2020
The notion of unbounded executive authority has no place in the United States.

DON'T USE CORONAVIRUS AS EXCUSE TO BAIL OUT STATE, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS THAT HAVE MISMANAGED FINANCES FOR DECADES
by Joshua D. Rauh via Fox Business, April 13, 2020
If Speaker Pelosi gets her way, coronavirus assistance may turn into a federal bailout of states and municipalities that have mismanaged their finances for decades

THE DANGERS OF MEDICARE FOR ALL
by Scott W. Atlas via New York Times, March 9, 2020
It is pure fantasy to believe that the access and quality Americans enjoy today would hold if private insurance were abolished.

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE'S STATEMENT OF CORPORATE PURPOSE
by George P. Shultz, Michael J. Boskin, John F. Cogan, and John B. Taylor via Real Clear Markets, February 5, 2020
From time to time in the last 150 years, a socialist impulse has taken hold among a significant segment of the U.S. population.