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San Francisco's new bot will downgrade marijuana crimes

Anoush Darabi

June 01, 2018 |

Apolitical |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Writing laws to be machine-readable could have huge payoffs. San Francisco is designing a computer program to read through the city’s prosecution records and automatically downgrade applicable marijuana possession convictions from felonies to misdemeanors. Such a change became possible in 2014, but the downgrading process proved too expensive and complicated for most individuals to take on themselves. Software developers face hurdles that include needing to teach computers to read inconsistent language and paperwork formats.

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Can ‘Tennessee Promise' of free tuition offer lessons for Seattle and Washington?

Katherine Long

June 01, 2018 |

The Seattle Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Nashville, Tennessee

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan looks to Tennessee's initiative that offers free community college education for every high-school graduate in the state. Only one year after Tennessee became the first state to offer such assistance, the college enrollment rate by five percent.

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Colleges Are No Match for American Poverty

Marcella Bombardieri

May 30, 2018 |

The Atlantic |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Texas

Journalist Marcella Bombardieri calls community college "one of America's largest and most important anti-poverty programs." The president of Amarillo College in Texas is testing just how far community colleges can go to fight systemic issues - day care, social workers, and emergency funds for students' daily expenses are part of his plan. Other administrators are looking on at the dramatic experiment with mixed views and takeaways.

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Thousands of refugees can't prove they have degrees — this scheme could help

Fergus Peace

May 29, 2018 |

Apolitical |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Greece

First piloted in 2017, the Qualifications Passport allows refugees to apply for a document certifying their education background earned in their home country. The Council of Europe is working to spread awareness of the document and encouraging universities to accept the passport not only as a social symbol but as a formal recognition capable of leveling the playing field for refugees in the job market.

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Can Portable Schools in India Keep Kids Off the Streets?

Puja Changoiwala

May 24, 2018 |

Pacific Standard |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: India, Mumbai

A Mumbai school located in a remodeled shipping container meets kids on the street where they are at. Signal School results from a collaborative effort between the city and a non-profit, and focuses on bringing education to migrant children, so that they are less likely to be forced into child labor or street begging. Signal School does more than just teach, it also provides meals, works with families to change the cultural perspective that education is an amenity for the privileged, and helps migrant families find permanent housing.

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Nonprofits: Providing Education For People During And After Incarceration

Julie Christie

May 16, 2018 |

Philadelphia Neighborhoods |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Nonprofits in the Philadelphia area work to bring education to offenders who are in corrections facilities, as well as those who are re-entering into the world. Research shows that, with access to classes, novels, and career resources, offenders are significantly less likely to be re-incarcerated than they are without these services.

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Georgia State, Leading U.S. in Black Graduates, Is Engine of Social Mobility

Richard Fausset

May 15, 2018 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Georgia

Since 2013, Georgia State University has graduated more African-American students than any other nonprofit college or university in the country. Georgia State takes a data-driven approach to retaining its 40,000 person population, intervening at early signs of academic trouble. The comprehensive services are "meant to provide the kind of safety net for poor students that wealthier students usually get from their families."

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When women have power: lessons from India's local leaders

Odette Chalaby

May 14, 2018 |

Apolitical |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: India, Soda, Rajasthan

Female government officials often have different priorities than male representatives.In India, after an experiment in government quotas for women in leadership positions, reporting of domestic violence and sexual assault has increased, along with other proof that the radical stance may have worked.

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New Zealand explores machine-readable laws to transform government

Anoush Darabi

May 11, 2018 |

Apolitical |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: New Zealand, Wellington

Legislation is currently written in such a way that it often takes a lawyer to interpret how policies are supposed to work. What if laws were written to be machine-readable instead? A team in New Zealand rewrote two laws as software code in a pilot program that showed how this style of writing could prove invaluable for increasing transparency and accountability across government.

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Special delivery: Text messages bring courses to disconnected students

Stacy Teicher Khadaroo

May 09, 2018 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Yemen

A group of college students has developed a text-message based entrepreneurship course designed for students in locations where "phones are common, but internet access is not," including in Yemen. The founders hope that their curriculum will help to close the persistent "social-capital gap" in business education.

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