Volume 12/Number 2/SPRING 2010 TThe rPew usCharitable Trustst

The Clean Energy Economy: Poised for Growth Credit Cards: Giving Consumers Fair Play The Pew Health Group: Purpose and Portfolio Philadelphia Examined Notes from the President

couraging economic news, the report with producing a steady stream of highlighted an area that seems ripe reports on matters of local import. for growth. Future research will In just over a year, the project has determine whether America is seiz- produced a graphics-rich “state of the ing that opportunity—and which city” report that gauges civic health states seem to have the upper hand. broadly and drills deep on specific issues—from the city’s preparations omparisons also played an for the 2010 census to how it is wres- Comparisons important role in the work tling with a recession-induced fiscal of the Pew Safe Credit Cards crisis. One feature of virtually all the CProject, which, in 2007, reports to date is comparisons with peer launched an effort, in partnership with cities. How does Philadelphia’s poverty d Koch, New York City the Sandler Foundation, to address rate, crime statistics or educational Emayor during the 1980s, growing concerns about unfair prac- attainment compare against other major wasn’t afraid of comparisons. “How tices in the credit card industry and American cities? How many other cities am I doing?” he would ask, inviting promote responsible management of decided on a major tax increase to anybody to judge his performance debt. The project examined all general- forestall significant cuts in services? How against his predecessors’, his own ac- purpose consumer credit cards offered do pension and health benefits of city complishments or his campaign prom- online by the largest 12 issuers, which workers look against those of workers ises. Comparisons may make us feel control more than 88 percent of credit in Chicago or Atlanta or Baltimore? competitive or insecure, but, done well card debt in America. Every single This kind of benchmarking gives and with the right motives, they can pro- card—400 in all—contained one or citizens and decision makers a yardstick vide useful information about strengths, more practices that the nation’s central for determining how well or poorly the weaknesses and how people or organi- bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve, had city is doing. In effect, we’re asking Ed zations stack up against their peers. classified as “unfair or deceptive.” Koch’s memorable question on behalf of Comparisons play heavily in the work The initiative’s team also met with the city itself. While the primary motive featured in this edition of Trust. In as- credit card providers and consumer behind these comparisons is to help sessing the strength of the nascent groups to identify mutually acceptable Philadelphia wrestle with its challenges, “green” economy in America, staff from ways to improve the card agreements. we have been happily surprised to find the Pew Center on the States and the The result was the Pew Safe Credit Card the reports getting a lot of attention in Pew Environment Group concluded Standards, many of which became part the comparison cities. It turns out the that the measure that mattered most of the Credit CARD Act of 2009. folks in Pittsburgh, Phoenix and Boston was a comparison between the growth of The project continued to track the are just as interested as Philadelphians green jobs over the decade preceding industry’s actions in the period be- in seeing how they measure up. the current recession and the growth of tween the signing of the law last May jobs more generally. In the ground- and 2010, when most of its terms take inally, a few words to honor breaking Clean Energy Economy: Re- effect. Unfortunately, this research a man of words. Marshall powering Jobs, Businesses and Invest- produced no exemplars. Across the Ledger is Trust’s founding ments Across America, they defined their board, unfair practices were endemic, Feditor, and he retires with terms conservatively, counting only with some becoming even more wide- this issue. Since 1998, he has gathered verifiable businesses and jobs—a spread. Thus, the best hope in this top-notch writers, artists, photogra- labor-intensive effort. The result: The arena appears to lie not with competi- phers and designers, orchestrating number of jobs in this emerging corner tive pressure to raise standards, but these creative elements to produce of the economy grew nearly two and with a new law that requires compa- this magazine. And how well it has told a half times faster than overall jobs nies to treat consumers more fairly. Pew’s story! Trust is accurate, attrac- between 1998 and 2007. tive and, especially, reader-friendly— Progress was not uniform across the ver the years, Pew peri- because Marshall is, at heart, a “reader’s nation, however, and the authors of the odically commissioned editor.” Since Pew deals with major report made sure that policy makers reports to illuminate issues of our time, engaged readers and journalists in each state could Ochallenges facing Phila- will do their own comparisons in decid- easily measure their state’s standing delphia, our hometown. Interest in ing which publications to read. Marshall against 49 others. Colorado, Oregon the findings was often high and, given has always wanted you to choose Trust, and Tennessee were early winners, the research orientation of so much and, year in and year out, he has given and the governors of these and other of our national work, we were encour- you good reason to do so. states that did well touted the find- aged to do more. In late 2008 we created ings. Others vowed to do better in an in-house unit, the Philadelphia Rebecca W. Rimel the future. In a year with little en- Research Initiative, which is tasked President and CEO Trust / Spring 2010 1 Trust The Pew Charitable Trusts Volume 12 Number 2 SPRING 2010

Clean Counts 2 Jobs in the new clean energy economy Trust grew at nearly two and a half times the rate of U.S. jobs overall between 1998 Published twice a year by and 2007. The future is here. The Pew Charitable Trusts © 2010 The Pew Charitable Trusts Taking Charge ISSN: 1540-4587 9 A credit card is, essentially, a contract. Thanks in part to the Pew Safe Credit The Board of Cards Project, the consumer has better The Pew Charitable Trusts standing in the deal. Robert H. Campbell Susan W. Catherwood Gloria Twine Chisum Risk and Reward Aristides W. Georgantas 14 J. Howard Pew II Shelley Hearne, managing director of J.N. Pew IV, M.D. the Pew Health Group, describes her program’s agenda. Mary Catharine Pew, M.D. R. Anderson Pew Sandy Ford Pew Rebecca W. Rimel The Tough Love of Robert G. Williams Fact-Based Data 16 Ethel Benson Wister Pew, known for providing solid informa- President and CEO tion and rigorous analysis, establishes the Rebecca W. Rimel Philadelphia Research Initiative to inform discussions on crucial city concerns. Managing Director of Communications Deborah L. Hayes Departments The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today’s most Editor NOTES FROM THE PRESIDENt Inside challenging problems. Pew applies a rigor- Marshall A. Ledger Measuring progress. front ous, analytical approach to improve public cover policy, inform the public and stimulate public life. Headquartered in Philadelphia and Editorial Assistants Washington, D.C., Pew will invest about Anahi Baca Lessons LeaRNED $270 million in fiscal year 2010 (not includ- Renee S. Wagoner Project on Student Debt. 24 ing donor funds) to provide organizations and citizens with fact-based research and One Commerce Square practical solutions for intractable issues. An independent nonprofit, Pew is the 2005 Market Street, Ste. 1700 Return on InvESTMENT Some of Pew’s recent accomplishments. 26 sole beneficiary of seven individual chari- Philadelphia, PA 19103-7077 table funds established between 1948 and Phone 215.575.9050 1979 by two sons and two daughters of Sun PerspectivES Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew and 901 E Street NW, 10th Floor On the Record, plus Carol Greider and 32 his wife, Mary Anderson Pew. Washington, DC 20004-2037 The official registration and financial the Nobel Prize, Pew fellow in the arts information of The Pew Charitable Trusts Phone 202.552.2000 Marc Brodzik (Breakfast at Sulimay’s), may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Global Museum on Communism, the Department of State by calling toll-free, On the Internet: Pew Research Center’s millennials series within Pennsylvania, 1.800.732.0999. www.pewtrusts.org begins, Peterson-Pew Commission, love Registration does not imply endorsement. letters from Steve Powers. Design/Art Direction: Lewis & Nobel Design LETTERS 35 Cover: ©Jupiterimages Unlimited C lBy Ken Edelsteine a n Gary Braasch/www.braaschphotography.com Gary Braasch/www.braaschphotography.com Gary Trust / Spring 2010 3 Map: where the jobs were in the clean energy economy between 1998 and 2007. “Large” and “small” refer to the total number of jobs, followed by the average annual growth rate (over or under the 1.9 percent national average).

Left, below: wind turbines in Wasco County, Ore.

Right: the 60,000-square-foot photovoltaic array that con- verts sunlight directly into electricity atop the Moscone Center, San Francisco’s con- vention facility. It saves more than $200,000 a year over conventional electric sources.

Right, below: from the cover page of the report. A Pew study defines “clean energy job” precisely—and then tallies the jobs in that category. The conclusion: impressive growth, outpacing the increase in U.S. jobs overall. C o u n t s

n a Thursday morning last June, just to-earth strategy that can help the people of Tennes- before he walked into his weekly see?’” the governor says in an interview. “The solar meeting with state legislative lead- initiative wasn’t just a nice thing to do. It was a way to Oers, Tennessee Governor Phil Brede- drive the economy.” sen got a bit of unpleasant news. Solar power might have been a tougher sell in a Bredesen is a centrist Democrat, a wealthy, retired conservative Southern state if Bredesen hadn’t businessman who in his first term gained credibility had his popularity going for him. He won re-election among fiscal conservatives by cutting health-care spending. One of his pet projects, though, breaks a stereotype: He’s pushing for Tennessee to become the solar power capital of the nation. “You always struggle with this green energy stuff because people are trying to figure out, ‘Is this some sort of airy, global-warming thing, or is this a down- 4 Trust / Spring 2010 Group Semiconductor Hemlock

Environment Group’s Global Warm- ing Campaign. “Everybody was really hungry for real data.”

Hunting for numbers hen Pew researchers began their study in mid-2008, they already Wseemed to be on a hot topic. A conviction seemed to be grow- ing that the nation needed to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. Americans were dealing with the steepest gaso- Hemlock Semiconductor Group bought a site in Clarksville, Tenn., to make polysilicon for the line price hikes in a generation. Both solar industry. The investment will amount to $1.2 billion, creating 500 full-time jobs and more than 800 construction jobs. The gray material (above) is polysilicon, or polycrystalline silicon. In parties’ presidential nominees were solar applications, it is the cornerstone material used to produce solar cells that harvest renewable talking about cutting greenhouse gas energy from light rays. The material is also used in the production of semiconductor devices. emissions and transforming the energy sector. And most important, a grow- in 2006 with more than two-thirds of released in Washington on the very ing number of states were seeking to the vote. At the same time, though, day that Tennessee lawmakers staged expand their economies by attracting Republicans took control of the state their budget revolt. And Pew was businesses focused on products, Senate. Then the state’s 2009 budget scheduled to hold a press event with services and technologies that help dropped into a tailspin. Bredesen the next afternoon in Nash- sustain the environment. On June 10, Senate leaders worked ville to herald the state’s successful Pew staff were aware that plenty of into the evening on a radical rewrite clean-energy economy efforts. reports had been issued on “green of the governor’s spending proposal. On a national stage, the timing of jobs.” The problem was that nobody Early the next morning, his aides The Clean Energy Economy: Repower- actually had performed a credible briefed him on the details. ing Jobs, Businesses and Investments count of them. A hard count wouldn’t Gone were tens of millions of dollars Across America was nearly as provi- be good merely for policy delibera- for pre-kindergarten, universities and dential. The report came out just as tions. It also might provide investors bridges. But Senate leaders swung a the U.S. House of Representatives with a better idea of where business particularly heavy ax at Bredesen’s was gearing up to vote on the historic was headed in the future. sustainable-power idea: They chopped Waxman-Markey climate change bill. “Everyone had talked about and away all $62.5 million of federal stimu- Claims and counterclaims about green lauded green jobs, but no one had lus money he’d proposed spending jobs were being fired from Washing- defined what a green job was,” says on a solar research center in the ton’s political trenches: They’ll save Kil Huh of the Pew Center on the eastern part of the state and a solar the economy! They’re a total mirage! States, who oversaw much of the energy farm in the west. Hey, wait a second—what are “green research. (Fourteen staff members The usually tactful governor jobs,” anyway? from the center and the Global Warm- digested the news, walked into his The facts provided by The Clean ing Campaign worked with Huh on the breakfast with lawmakers and told Energy Economy were the ideal tonic project, along with several contractors them their budget plan was “stupid.” for the debate, and unsurprisingly and an advisory panel of experts.) Bredesen’s rough morning coin- the study drew an astounding amount Early on, the researchers concluded cided with an event in Washington, of attention. Within two weeks, it that green jobs should be defined as D.C. The previous year, two divisions generated newspaper reports in every those that are part of the “clean energy within The Pew Charitable Trusts— state and at least 400 headlines, not economy.” They in turn described the the Pew Center on the States and the to mention comparable interest from clean energy economy as one that Pew Environment Group—had joined bloggers, local TV and the national “generates jobs, businesses and invest- forces on a study designed to quan- networks. ments while expanding clean energy tify actual jobs, businesses and invest- “We were lucky enough to be in the production, increasing energy effi- ments in the “clean energy economy.” right place at the right time,” says ciency, reducing greenhouse gas It so happened that the study was Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Pew emissions, waste and pollution, and Trust / Spring 2010 5

conserving water and other natural growth is around the corner. Venture first people to get that idea. But Proj- resources.” capital investment in the sector sky- ect FROG went further than most by Counting such a diverse workforce rocketed from $360 million in 1999 to developing designs, using materials wouldn’t be easy. Government agen- $5.9 billion in 2008. Most of it came and relying on practices that empha- cies don’t gather statistics the way after 2005, which indicates that many of size energy efficiency. They’ve also Pew needed them, so Huh and com- the new jobs haven’t even arrived yet. focused on an increasingly eco-con- pany worked with a contractor, Collab- The Pew team used information it scious market: schools. orative Economics, which had per- collected about shifts in investments Rather than shipping building parts formed similar research for the state and patent registrations to clarify the across the country, Project FROG of California. They gathered public direction in which the clean energy contracts with manufacturers that and private databases that allowed economy was headed. The patent count, fabricate the pieces according to specifi- them to make sense of employment for example, showed a move away from cations sent to them electronically. A figures within the definition. They solar and traditional battery technolo- contemporary design template— poured over lists from industry groups, gies and toward wind and fuel cells. slanted roofs opening up to wall-to- business directories, government All in all, advocates for clean en- ceiling windows—can be tweaked for programs and venture capital asso- ergy had to be happy. Pew had used energy performance according to the ciations. They cross-referenced those conservative methods to demonstrate lists with lists of similar companies. with very hard data that “green jobs” They even hired a software contractor already were a vibrant force in the to run a special “search-bot” to flag economy. The numbers were impres- Web sites that used clean energy terms. sive. In fact, they were closing on The clean energy report Not only did the researchers need employment figures in the nation’s is an environmental a current job count, but they also vast oil and gas industry, and they had to track job growth over time, so appeared to be ramping upward. story—but equally an they had to analyze the numbers from “I got totally charged about what economic and fiscal 1998 through 2007. To understand America can do in an energy-innova- trends, they compiled information on tion race,” Cuttino says, “and frankly story. Its findings patents and venture capital. And to I think this is what we need to renew grasp how the government was our prosperity.” show that the United affecting clean energy growth, they States could be a leading catalogued state and federal policies. Small companies and big ones “All of our reports are pretty inten- uttino is particularly contributor to energy sive,” says Lori Grange, deputy director impressed with the range innovation, with of the Pew Center on the States who of companies that are part oversees its research and information Cof the clean energy sector. extraordinary results. cluster. “I would say this was at a level At one end of the spectrum sit com- of complexity that we hadn’t dealt panies that fit the stereotype many with before.” people might have of “green job” What researchers learned surprised enterprises. them: The clean energy economy was Take Project FROG, based in North- site and climate. The buildings, says more firmly established than they’d ern California, only three years old Tibbs, are completed with about one- imagined. Pew placed 68,000 inde- and founded with no less an objective twelfth the energy of comparable pendent companies and divisions of than to change the way buildings have conventional schools; once complete, larger companies in the clean energy been constructed for thousands of they use no more than half the economy. In 2007, those business units years. “This is what I’m doing because energy that code permits. employed 770,000 people. From 1998 I believe in it,” CEO Adam Tibbs says. A self-described “serial entrepre- to 2007, the sector’s work force grew The company was formed by archi- neur” with an environmental bent, at more than two and a half times the tects and product designers who be- Tibbs was recruited to run Project rate of the larger economy. came convinced that preparing build- FROG in 2007. In 2008, he helped The numbers may have dropped a ing parts in factories is more efficient convince RockPort Capital, a venture- bit during the recession. Still, there’s than constructing buildings on site in capital firm with a track record of reason to believe even more rapid the customary way. They weren’t the environmental investments, to advance 6 Trust / Spring 2010

$8 million to help Project FROG ex- pand. The pitch was pretty straight- forward: “We have essentially de- signed a new building typology. . . . We believe the way that we’re doing things now is the way that everyone will be doing it in 20 years.” Whether that new “typology” is about to change the world is an open question. But Project FROG appears to be doing well for itself. The com- pany employs only 20 people, but The roof of Cinema West’s Livermore (Calif.) Cinemas, which has a solar-power system from outsourcing to manufacturers allows Solyndra Inc., a manufacturer of photovoltaic systems designed to optimize solar electricity production production to scale up quickly. For on commercial rooftops. Courtesy of Solyndra. each $10 million in contracts, Tibbs says, 109 contractor jobs are created. Nesler points back to the 1980s, ing projected to cut energy use by 38 Project FROG has completed proj- when Ohio school systems began to percent. ects in California, Hawaii and New include future energy expenses in Aside from the prestige of revamp- England—“excellent growth,” he says. their cost-accounting for new proj- ing the nation’s most iconic office At the other end of the spectrum ects. As more clients began to look tower, Johnson Controls’ green direc- of companies that Pew identified sits at the long-term operating costs of tion seems to be bearing fruit finan- Johnson Controls. The 124-year-old cially. The Building Efficiency division Milwaukee-based industrial giant produces many kinds of high-efficiency might have been a poster child for systems for buildings, serves as a the Rust Belt if it hadn’t drawn its own In Chattanooga— commercial contractor and manages map for established industry’s transi- properties. Worldwide, it employs tion to the clean energy economy. celebrated in song for 54,000 and does $14 billion annually. Business reporters typically refer an Age of Steam In August, Barron’s ran an approving to Johnson Controls as an auto-parts article about Johnson Controls, which maker. But its Building Efficiency “choo-choo”—leaders centered on its “green” opportuni- division is larger than its Automotive have looked ahead, not ties. A stock analyst quoted in the Experience unit. The company’s third story summed up the sentiment this division, Power Solutions, is heavily back, by emphasizing the way: “This is a company that’s firing involved in the development of more on all cylinders, and it is taking even efficient automobile batteries. environment as a devel- more of a market leadership position.” “I would argue that we’ve always opment strategy. Indeed, been an energy business,” says Clay State-by-state stories Nesler, Johnson Controls’ vice presi- the state more broadly is he Pew report uncovered dent for global energy and sustainabil- taking part, setting a similarly compelling stories ity. The company’s founder, he points about the states. Some out, invented the electric thermostat. national example. Tconclusions weren’t sur- Johnson Controls got a big boost prising. Colorado, Minnesota and the in August when the Power Solutions Pacific Coast states—each of which unit won a $299-million federal grant offers energy-efficiency incentives from the Advanced Battery Manufac- their buildings, the company began to and requires utilities to rely in part on turing Initiative, which is intended to view its products and services as tools renewable power—were among the help the U.S. auto industry find cleaner to make buildings more efficient. biggest clean energy winners. Oregon ways to power cars. Most of Johnson “Our growth and focus on this has was the only state in 2007 whose clean Controls’ growth in clean energy, really been driven by our customers,” energy workforce totaled more than however, has had little to do with Nesler says. He proudly adds that 1 percent of all of its workers; that government grants and a lot to do the company is the lead contractor in said, jobs in the state’s clean energy with the market. a renovation of the Empire State Build- economy grew nearly seven times Gary Braasch/www.braaschphotography.com Gary Trust / Spring 2010 7

here and said ‘I wanted all you guys to participate,’” Pinkston recalls. By the afternoon, lawmakers who’d pushed for the solar cuts were backing down. The lieutenant governor asked why Bredesen hadn’t said earlier that the initiative was tied to economic development. A key committee chair- man was quoted the next morning promising to push for a “clarifying amendment.” Ultimately, the legisla- ture approved the governor’s proposal A solar field, part of Kramer Junction Company’s Solar Electric Generating System, in Southern California’s Mohave Desert. The parabolic mirrors heat an oil that makes steam to run turbines. to use $62.5 million on the solar initia- tive, and after a few tweaks, the U.S. Department of Energy approved Ten- faster than total jobs between 1998 in 2009, for example, a green-energy nessee’s application for the stimulus and 2007. tax credit helped lure two large manu- money. In the Rust Belt, where manufac- facturers of material for solar photo- “I can’t believe,” the governor says, turing jobs have been disappearing voltaic panels to the state. “that there’s anyone who wouldn’t for decades, clean energy provided a Before the Pew report was ready agree that green jobs and alternative ray of hope. Ohio’s total job count to release the report, staff members sources of energy won’t produce more shrunk by 2.2 percent from 1998 to got in touch with governors who were jobs in the future.” 2007, but clean energy jobs grew by likely to be proud of their state’s results. 7.3 percent. In Michigan, the overall Tennessee was near the top of that list. An immediate impact number dropped 3.6 percent while Emily Bryan, a contractor for the n Washington, policy debates clean energy jobs rose 10.7 percent. Pew Environment Group, gave a heads- seldom wrap into such a neat The report offered other surprises. up call on the state’s high rankings ending. But the Pew study at Texas, the heart of the nation’s oil- to Will Pinkston, an adviser to the least avoided the heated recep- and-gas complex, turns out to have governor. Pinkston says he relayed I tion that has greeted other green 55,000 clean energy workers—partly the news to Bredesen, who immedi- jobs reports. because it generates more wind energy ately saw it as an opportunity to give “One of the things that we were than anywhere else. momentum to his solar initiative. happiest about was that it wasn’t Tennessee may provide the most The governor’s aides invited clean covered only as being about the envi- counter-intuitive story. It was one of energy companies to the state capitol ronment,” Grange says. “It was cov- three states with both a “large” clean for a presentation of the findings. Pew’s ered as an economic and a fiscal story.” energy economy and a rapidly grow- Lori Grange got set to head down to Because of a dearth of substantial ing one, beating the national averages Nashville for the press conference. criticism, I solicited a conservative for total jobs and average annual Then, a week later—the evening before economist who’d criticized other green growth. While total jobs grew by 2.5 the report’s launch—Senate leaders jobs reports to critique the Pew study. percent, Tennessee’s clean energy decided to whack the solar plan. Robert Murphy of the Institute for sector added 18.2 percent. Even as he prepared for his law- Energy Research took issue with one There were plenty of reasons. Green makers’ breakfast, though, Bredesen point: Researchers hadn’t accounted businesses flocked to Chattanooga in figured he’d be able to restore the for jobs that might disappear else- the 1990s, when leaders there began money. It helped that a press event where because taxes had to be raised to emphasize the environment as a was scheduled that afternoon to trum- or deficit spending increased to fund development strategy. Oak Ridge pet good news about precisely the aid to clean energy employers. National Laboratory, originally a kinds of programs Senate leaders “The Pew statement is wrong for nuclear energy facility, also has be- had suggested cutting: After all, sound implying that we can have our cake come a magnet for innovative energy research demonstrated jobs-and-growth and eat it too,” Murphy wrote in an companies. But the full impact of Gov. success stories. e-mail after studying the report. Bredesen’s clean energy push wasn’t “He walked into the breakfast, Economist Joel Yudken, a member even reflected in Pew’s findings. Early pointed out that Pew was going to be of the Pew advisory panel and princi- 8 Trust / Spring 2010

At the same time, it was difficult for the researchers not to notice the way the wind is blowing. They ob- served, for example, that most states with renewable portfolio standards (requirements that utilities get some power from clean energy) have bene- fited from clean energy growth. And specific federal actions—waste disposal Project FROG’s pre-engineered building for the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School in Sonoma, Calif. FROG stands for “flexible response to ongoing growth.” Courtesy of Project FROG. laws, Energy Star appliance certifica- tions and the stimulus bill of 2009, for examples—have nurtured parts pal at High Road Strategies, acknowl- their support will be needed for the of the clean energy economy. edges that environmentalists often bill to pass. “Although every state has a piece of “underplay the transition costs” of a So a leading Senate supporter is today’s clean energy economy, clear shift to clean energy. At the same time, relying on the Pew report to convince winners and losers will emerge going he says, free-market economists too fence sitters that the bill has an up- forward,” the report concluded. “Policy readily dismiss productivity gains side. Senator John Kerry “has been makers who act quickly and effectively that often follow public spending on could see their states flourish, while innovation. others may lose opportunities for new “You invest now. Over time, you jobs, businesses and investments.” can make the economy more effi- The report lays it out Among the strongest advocates for cient,” Yudken says. “You might see frankly: “Policy makers such policies are the companies that a lot of growth because of that.” employ clean energy workers. More broadly, Yudken argues, the who act quickly and Johnson Controls is one of several Pew study actually was “very conser- effectively could see their large corporations that now advocate vative.” Researchers limited their for national policies to reduce green- numbers by not counting clean energy states flourish, while others house gas emissions; the company workers who weren’t employed by is also a member of the Business clean energy business units. They also may lose opportunities Environmental Leadership Council, stayed away from projecting ripple for new jobs, businesses created by and based at the Pew Center effects on the larger economy. “If on Global Climate Change. anything,” Yudken says, “the report and investments.” Project FROG’s idealistic CEO, Tibbs, understates.” calls for strong climate change legisla- That understatement may be one tion. In true “act locally” fashion, how- reason the study quickly became a ever, he points to a commonplace set tool for policy makers considering very specifically” showing colleagues of policies that could affect his corner climate change legislation; they could Pew data that compare overall job of the clean energy world. If states point out that even a conservative growth in their states to clean energy simply tightened building codes to count showed impressive numbers. job growth, an aide to the Massachu- require more energy efficiency, he In the heat of the U.S. House debate, setts Democrat says. “That’s the num- says, Project FROG’s competitors Pew’s findings appeared on fact sheets ber one stat he’s using when he’s would be encouraged to follow suit. around Capitol Hill. Parts of the report talking to these senators.” “It may sound mundane,” he were entered into congressional testi- The study itself stopped short of says, “but sometimes you can mony. endorsing policies. As the authors really move the needle with the The study may play a larger role in pointed out, many clean energy most basic things.” the Senate, where the legislation’s policies were too new to have been passage remains in doubt. Democratic evaluated before the report was senators from states that produce coal published. Cuttino notes that the data For the complete report, go to www.pewtrusts.org/ or rely on it for most of their electric- will serve as a baseline to examine cleanenergyeconomy. ity are wary of voting for a climate bill policies in the future rather than a that could increase coal’s cost. But tool to judge policies now. Ken Edelstein is an Atlanta-based environment writer. interest protecting cardholders safe due terms standardscredit cardrate agreement balances rules fees interest consumers percent deceptive issuers practices industrysafe interest due percent practices transparent companies increases interest rate consumers payment rules credit card issuers charges standards disclosures agreement safe practices agreement costs policy recommendations penalty unfair due regulators costs penalty payment agreement increases agreement research transparent penalty increases analysis industry accounts pricing safe increases practices fees rights policy recommendationspolicy recommendations analysis companies industry reforms dollars credit carissuersd disclosures companiesinterest accounts safe terms interest due available standardscredit cardrate interest deceptive protecting cardholders agreement dollars consumers percent harges payment issuers practices industry rules c practices payment interest rate consumers rights credit card issuers analysis standards safe practices costs unfair

Taking agreementCharge agreementpenalty By Tim Gray

When unexpected fees, fter U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill’s father died, her mother stumbled into money problems and ran up a pile of credit penalties and unwanted card bills. By the time Sen. McCaskill and her sisters Aintervened, the card company had slapped their mother with late fees and penalty interest rates, which bloated her debt. enticements are factored Even after her daughters paid off the charges, Betty Anne McCaskill kept receiving “convenience checks,” encouraging her to spend in, credit cards can prove more on credit. “It’s like sending a six-pack of beer to somebody who is on their 30th day of sobriety and saying, ‘Why don’t you just costly. Giving consumers have another drink?’” Sen. McCaskill said at a 2007 Senate hearing. The same spring that Sen. McCaskill, who represents Missouri, some muscle against railed against credit card issuers, The Pew Charitable Trusts began work to protect vulnerable folks like Betty Anne McCaskill abusive charges—the and all Americans from the cards’ most perilous provisions. That effort culminated in May of 2009 with the passage and presidential goal of the Pew Safe signature of the first major credit-card reform ever. The new law bans a variety of controversial practices and limits companies’ Credit Cards Project— ability to raise interest rates on existing balances. “The problem is that credit cards can be dangerous,” says Nick may prove priceless. Bourke, manager of the Pew Health Group’s Safe Credit Cards Project. “We view them through the lens of consumer product safety—they can be harmful to families’ financial health.”

he root of Pew’s concerns was that card companies gave themselves the right to change the fine print of their agreements at any time for any reason. A card Tissuer could even raise a customer’s interest rate if she defaulted on her debt to another creditor. This practice, called uni- versal default, stemmed from the premise that any late payment interest interest protecting cardholders safe protecting cardholders safe due due terms standardscredit cardrate agreement terms standardscredit cardrate agreement balances rulesbalances rules fees interest consumers percent fees interest consumers percent deceptive issuers practices industrysafe interest deceptive issuers practices industrysafe interest due percent practices due percent practices transparent companiestransparent companies increases interest rate consumers increases interest rate consumers payment rules credit card payment rules credit card issuers charges standards disclosures issuers charges standards disclosures agreement safe practices agreement costs agreement safe practices agreement costs policy recommendations penalty unfair due regulators policy recommendations penalty unfair due regulators costs penalty payment costs penalty payment agreement agreement increases agreement increases agreement research transparent penalty research transparent penalty increases increases analysis industry accounts pricing safe increases analysis industry accounts pricing safe increases practices fees practices fees rights policy recommendationspolicy recommendations analysis companies industryrights policy recommendationspolicy recommendations analysis companies industry reforms reforms dollars credit carissuersd dollars credit carissuersd disclosures disclosures companiesinterest accountscompanies interest accounts safe terms interest safe terms interest due available due available standardscredit cardrate interest deceptive protecting cardholdersstandards credit cardrate interest deceptive protecting cardholders agreement dollars agreement dollars consumers percent harges payment consumers percent harges payment issuers practices industry rules c issuers practices industry rules c practices payment practices payment interest rate consumers rights interest rate consumers rights credit card issuers analysis credit card issuers analysis standards standards Consumers cansafe makepractices better-informed costs decisionsunfair on card safe practices costs unfair

use when the contract is fair. The newagreement law helps restore agreement balance by banningagreement somepenalty of the worst industry practices. agreementpenalty

showed that a borrower’s finances should prompt the wholesale aban- had gotten shakier and that he or donment of a business that will still she had thus become a greater risk. yield healthy margins. Pew, Plunkett’s “Millions of people were entering group and a coalition of consumer into these contracts with teaser interest advocates aimed to end a handful of rates and other attractions,” Bourke says. harmful practices, not kill credit cards. “What underpinned the card companies’ “The credit card is a valuable tool ability to make those offers was the for many Americans,” he says. “Trans- ability to change the contract later. actors like me—people who pay off card companies’ practices. What he’d Credit cards have lots of legal language their balance each month—get a good begun to see over the last few years around them, but they were one-sided deal, and it’s a convenience that I gnawed at him. agreements. We wanted to restore the depend on. We were never involved “I felt that the industry was be- sanctity of the contract so that people in this debate for any reason other coming greedy,” he says. “In my could make informed decisions.” than believing consumers needed to mind, some of the leading banks Some card provisions seemed almost be treated more fairly.” should’ve drawn some lines. But designed to drag people deeper into nobody did. I have no problem with a debt. Pew, in a report released in effrey Wigand—portrayed by profit motive. I have a big problem March 2009, found that all of the 400 Russell Crowe in the film The with exploitation and greed. cards it surveyed included provisions Insider—famously blew the whistle “The biggest issue for me was the that the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Jon cigarette makers. His testi- changing of interest rates on existing nation’s central bank, had classified mony that they knew they were balances. Someone could be an hour as “unfair or deceptive.” addicting customers to a deadly prod- late with a payment, and an issuer As card use grew, these question- uct doomed them, not only because would pop a penalty rate on them.” able practices were touching more Wigand was a scientist with inside Once card companies applied those and more Americans. The U.S. Census information but also because he’d higher penalty rates to accounts, Bureau has predicted that, by 2010, once been a believer. they rarely relaxed them. 181 million Americans will have credit Pew’s campaign to improve credit Michael Roster, former general cards, up from 159 million in 2000. cards has a Wigand of its own, and counsel of Golden West Financial and About half of families with cards carry his name is R. Dwane Krumme. Like an adviser to the Sandler Foundation, balances, with the average balance Wigand, Krumme is a former execu- introduced Krumme to the staff at reaching $7,300 in 2007, according to tive who concluded that his industry Pew. Roster knew that Pew sought the Federal Reserve. had erred. Unlike him, Krumme someone with Krumme’s expertise Critics have said that the new reform couldn’t be portrayed as a malcon- to lead its credit-card reform effort law will hurt consumers by restrict- tent bent on revenge, as the tobacco because the Sandler Foundation was ing the availability of credit. Without industry had done to Wigand. an early partner in the work, initially the ability to quickly change rates Krumme has had a distinguished helping to fund it. Roster also intro- and terms, the reasoning goes, card career. Starting in the 1970s, he ran duced Bourke, a former consultant issuers won’t lend to riskier borrow- the credit card division for a Califor- with Visa, to Pew and Krumme. The ers. Some people thus won’t qualify nia bank called First Interstate, Sandler Foundation brought not only for cards, and others may see their which was acquired by Wells Fargo. contacts and money but also exper- credit limits lowered. Banks might also At First Interstate, he pioneered the tise: Its founders, Herbert M. and get stingier with rewards programs use of credit scores in granting cards. Marion O. Sandler, built Golden West as they strive to protect their profits. Later, he oversaw the North American into one of the country’s largest sav- Minor changes are likely, says credit-card operation for a Japanese ings and loans before selling their Travis B. Plunkett, legislative direc- company called JCB International bank to Wachovia. tor for the Consumer Federation of Credit Card Co. Since his retirement, Initially, the Safe Credit Cards America, but nothing in the new law he has continued to observe U.S. Project’s goal was to persuade at interest protecting cardholders safe due terms standardscredit cardrate agreement balances rules fees interest consumers percent deceptive issuers practices industrysafe interest due percent practices transparent companies increases interest rate consumers payment rules credit card issuers charges standards disclosures agreement safe practices agreement costs policy recommendations penalty unfair due regulators costs penalty payment agreement increases agreement research transparent penalty increases analysis industry accounts pricing safe increases practices fees rights policy recommendationspolicy recommendations analysis companies industry reforms dollars credit carissuersd disclosures companiesinterest accounts safe terms interest due available Trust / Spring 2010 11 standardscredit cardrate interest deceptive protecting cardholders agreement dollars consumers percent harges payment issuers practices industry rules c practices payment interest rate consumers rights credit card issuers analysis standards safe practices costs unfair

agreement Getty Images, photographed by Maria Maria Teijeirobyphotographed Images, Getty Linda Sherry, director of national bling Pew’s proposed certified one. agreementpenalty priorities for Consumer Action, says The card has no annual or over-the- that she welcomed Pew joining the limit fees. Its late charge is $5. Its push for fairer cards. The institution interest rate varies according to a brought credibility and resources to published schedule, so cardholders an issue that her group had pushed, don’t face surprise increases. And with little success, for nearly two de- the credit union doesn’t increase cades. “Pew has instant name recogni- credit limits unless customers ask tion,” she says. Plus, its reputation and show they can manage higher for reasonableness gave it access to ones; people thus aren’t lured into industry executives who might’ve been spending beyond their means. reluctant to meet with consumer groups. But Blaine’s members haven’t Krumme and Bourke poured a scooped up this good-guy card. De- least one of the biggest card issu- year and a half into dialogue with the spite being the second-largest credit ers—10 banks control about 90 big banks but couldn’t persuade union in the country, SECU ranks percent of the market—to issue a anyone to issue the certified card. only 20th among credit-union card pro-consumer card—that is, one issuers. In other words, many of its certified not to have any of the pen- ne financial executive isn’t members are going elsewhere for alty rates and punishing provisions convinced that a certified their plastic. that can lead to a spiral of indebted- card would’ve made much Blaine believes that they’re flocking ness. The idea was that having a major difference, even if a big to the same teaser rates and rewards issuer like, say, Capital One or Citi- O bank had embraced it. that seduce everyone else. “If we play group offer a certified card would Jim Blaine runs the State Employees it straight with our card—and I think change the dynamics of the industry, Credit Union in North Carolina, the we do—with what’s going on in the forcing other banks to follow. second-largest credit union in the market, we always lose,” Blaine Krumme and Bourke, with the help country. Blaine has long been recog- says. “Our members go ahead and of a consulting firm and a clutch of nized as an innovator in his industry, take those crazy cards because of advisers, including Elizabeth Warren, and he acted as an informal adviser the rewards or the zero interest rate a leading advocate for credit card to Krumme and Bourke. Brainy and for the first 90 seconds.” reform and a professor at Harvard outspoken, he also loves to evange- From Blaine’s point of view, better Law School, laid out what they be- lize about the benefits of credit unions laws will help consumers more than lieved were reasonable parameters over banks. For years, he and the chair a certified card could have done. Laws for such a card. They understood of the North Carolina Bankers Asso- give consumers tools they need to that companies had to be able to make ciation sniped at each other in a public, protect themselves: By banning the healthy profits and protect themselves but mostly good-natured, feud about most egregious practices, they restore from borrower defaults. They thus whether credit unions, because they’re the fairness of contracts and let people spent 18 months talking with the banks tax-exempt, represent unfair competi- make informed decisions. and refining their guidelines in re- tion to banks. When confronted with pushes for sponse to the concerns that they heard. Yet when talk turns to credit cards, reform, business people often argue “We had many conversations talk- Blaine can sound much like a banker. that the market will solve the prob- ing through the tradeoffs. If we were He says that credit cards’ prodigious lem. Once consumers start to com- inflexible, then nobody would have fees and quicksand policies arose not plain, they say, an entrepreneur will adopted the card,” Krumme says. because banks are greedy but because figure out a way to capitalize on that Krumme, Bourke and their advis- consumers pay attention to only two dissatisfaction by dreaming up some- ers didn’t just confer with lenders. things when shopping for a card: the thing better. Irate consumers, in other They had to create something that key advertised initial interest rate and the words, provide an incentive for some- consumer groups would support. If rewards. They fail to read, or heed, one. Thus when airline fares got too consumer advocates attacked the card the fine print. high and ticket policies too restric- and the media aired their complaints, Blaine concluded this because tive, Southwest Airlines and other Pew and its partners would look as State Employees Credit Union has discount carriers emerged, and travel- though they had been co-opted by conducted, in effect, a large multi-year ers scurried to them. And when people the industry. experiment. It offers a card resem- got sick of late fees on video rentals interest protecting cardholders safe due terms standardscredit cardrate agreement balances rules fees interest consumers percent deceptive issuers practices industrysafe interest due percent practices transparent companies increases interest rate consumers payment rules credit card issuers charges standards disclosures agreement safe practices agreement costs policy recommendations penalty unfair due regulators costs penalty payment agreement increases agreement research transparent penalty increases analysis industry accounts pricing safe increases practices fees rights policy recommendationspolicy recommendations analysis companies industry reforms dollars credit carissuersd disclosures companiesinterest accounts safe terms interest due available standardscredit cardrate interest deceptive protecting cardholders agreement dollars consumers percent harges payment issuers practices industry rules c 12 Trust / Spring 2010 practices payment interest rate consumers rights credit card issuers analysis standards safe practices costs unfair

agreement

agreementpenalty At first, the Safe Credit Card Standards made no progress in the industry, giving credibility to the argu- ment that card issuers would not change voluntarily. AFP/Getty Images, photographed by Stan Honda

just where the industry needed to go, lators, couldn’t be dismissed as some but that it would never happen unless dreamy agitator. Congress established a level playing field,” Bourke recalls. “That’s when we ew and its allies welcomed the started doing more policy-oriented Fed’s proposal but believed research and reaching out to regula- that it wasn’t enough. “Con- tors and legislators in Washington.” Pgress needed to get involved As Krumme and Bourke continued because Fed rules apply only as long as to make their case and consumers the Fed enforces them,” Bourke says. continued to rack up debts, trouble- “And we wanted to see a law with more some credit cards did begin to gar- consumer protections—something ner greater attention in Washington. that more resembled our standards.” Lawmakers began to threaten to As he and others made this argu- increase regulation of the industry. ment in Washington, events were The certified-card effort became a moving in their favor. By the fall of resource to help propel the later legis- 2008, the financial crisis was raging, lative campaign. The project had and bank stock prices were begin- at Blockbuster, Netflix offered an achieved a lot—developing its Safe ning their long burn down to charred alternative. Credit Card Standards, documenting stubs. Some banks were flirting with The lack of results after Krumme’s industry practices and building a insolvency, and Lehman Brothers and Bourke’s months of diplomacy, bridge between the companies and had begun its market-rattling slide however, suggested that the same consumer groups. The months of into bankruptcy. The U.S. Govern- process wouldn’t play out in the credit discussion also gave credibility to the ment was waging its effort to shore card industry, at least not quickly. Even argument that card issuers wouldn’t up the biggest financial firms and when offered an enticing inducement— change voluntarily. restore investor and consumer the positive publicity that would’ve Several legislators introduced bills confidence. As the government geared come with public endorsements by Pew to ban some of the most controversial up to pump hundreds of billions of and leading consumer groups—the practices. Then in May 2008, the Fed- dollars into the sector, people began biggest credit-card issuers wouldn’t eral Reserve surprised reform advo- to ask why, if taxpayers were bailing change. cates by proposing tight new rules, out the banks, banks weren’t offering which included restrictions on “hair- relief to their strapped customers. y 2008, the economy had trigger penalty rates” and some of On top of all of this, in September sputtered into recession, the other practices targeted in Pew’s the House of Representatives passed a and the subprime mort- standards, Bourke says. The proposal reform bill introduced by Representa- Bgage crisis had begun to ended up generating about 56,000 tive Carolyn B. Maloney of New York. spread beyond a handful of Sun Belt public comment letters, an unusually “The facts about abusive credit-card states and niche mortgage lenders. large number. practices were out there,” says Gail Some bankers told Bourke and Just as important, it represented a Hillebrand, manager of the financial Krumme privately that they knew turnabout for the Fed—which had services campaign for Consumers their industry had to evolve. But previously taken a mostly laissez-faire Union, publisher of Consumer Re- none of them was willing to go first approach to consumer protection— ports. “But in Washington, you have for fear of losing customers and and a signal of changing attitudes in to win on the facts and the politics, profits to competitors—for fear, in Washington. Previously, banks had and the politics changed.” other words, of finding themselves easily beaten back proposals for signifi- However, the Senate did not act on in Jim Blaine’s situation. cant new credit-card regulation. But the bill, which expired without becom- “One executive at a large bank told the Fed, the most respected and ing law. It was not all bad news for us our Safe Credit Card Standards were powerful of the country’s bank regu- reform advocates, who got something interest protecting cardholders safe due terms standardscredit cardrate agreement balances rules fees interest consumers percent deceptive issuers practices industrysafe interest due percent practices transparent companies increases interest rate consumers payment rules credit card issuers charges standards disclosures agreement safe practices agreement costs policy recommendations penalty unfair due regulators costs penalty payment agreement increases agreement research transparent penalty increases analysis industry accounts pricing safe increases practices fees rights policy recommendationspolicy recommendations analysis companies industry reforms dollars credit carissuersd disclosures companiesinterest accounts safe terms interest due available standardscredit cardrate interest deceptive protecting cardholders agreement dollars consumers percent harges payment issuers practices industry rules c practices payment Trust / Spring 2010 13 interest rate consumers rights credit card issuers analysis standards safe practices costs unfair

agreement agreementpenalty

to cheer when the Federal Reserve hefty fees and penalty rates won’t see leased by the project last fall, adver- finalized its consumer protection immediate relief. The new law wasn’t tised interest rates on 400 credit cards rules in December. But even then retroactive, and much of it has yet to studied had risen 20 percent on aver- they were disappointed, especially take effect. Its first part took effect age between December 2008 and because the rules would not take last August, and the rest will be phased July 2009, even as the federal funds effect until mid-2010. “Much more in by August of this year. rate, a key benchmark for bank lend- needed to be done,” said Bourke, Pew is continuing its research and ing rates, fell to near-zero percent. “and more quickly.” advocacy to ensure that forthcoming The report also revealed that 100 In early 2009, Representative Malo- regulations hew to Congress’s intent percent of credit cards offered online ney reintroduced a version of her bill to stamp out the most abusive prac- by the leading bank-card issuers in- that closely matched the Federal tices. “The law says that penalty fees dulge in practices that will become Reserve’s rules but would speed up and charges must be ‘reasonable and illegal once the Credit CARD Act fully their implementation. This time, the proportional,’ so the Fed needs to hear takes effect. Senate responded. Connecticut’s from organizations that don’t repre- Christopher J. Dodd, who chairs the sent the industry to help it identify what et consumers like Acheson Senate Banking Committee, offered ‘reasonable and proportional’ means,” won’t have to tolerate these up an even tougher measure. In argu- Bourke says. “The long-term benefits kinds of increases much ing for it, Dodd cited research Pew of the new law will depend signifi- Ylonger. As Bourke points published in March, pointing out that cantly on what the Fed does next.” out, they can already close their Pew’s report found that, in one year, Meanwhile, around the country accounts without fear, in most cases, “card companies raised interest rates millions of people (“a record high,” of being cut off from credit. And on nearly one out of every four ac- says Plunkett of the Consumer because the credit card industry counts, nearly 70 million cardhold- Federation of America) continue to remains profitable and competitive, ers, who were charged $10 billion in struggle to catch up with their loans people will continue to have choices. extra interest rates.” or avoid defaulting. At the same time, once the act totally His arguments met a receptive Lynn Acheson, in Elyria, Ohio, near kicks in, they’ll no longer have to audience among his fellow senators. Cleveland, is one person who found worry about issuers unilaterally Last May, they passed the Credit herself in financial straits. She lost raising rates on money they already Card Accountability Responsibility her job at Barnes & Noble when the borrowed. and Disclosure Act of 2009 by a vote recession sapped her store’s sales. “Going forward, contracts will be of 90 to 5. House members, too, voted To cope, she slashed her spending real contracts,” Bourke says, summing strongly for reform. President Obama— and found two part-time jobs. Even up. “Over-the-limit fees will become who’d called on the Congress to act on so, she could make only the mini- much less common and less severe— credit cards before Memorial Day— mum payments on her credit cards. they may even go away. Hair-trigger promptly signed the measure into law. She managed to keep the accounts up and permanent penalty interest-rate “We don’t begrudge [credit card com- to date, paying on time. She nonethe- increases will be banned. And if the panies] turning a profit,” he said at less saw the interest rates on two of rate people pay on new purchases the signing ceremony. “We just want her accounts rise. goes up because of a drop in their to make sure that they do so while “They didn’t give any reason,” she credit scores, they will have to come upholding basic standards of fairness, says. “I called Capital One, and they down later as the scores improve. transparency and accountability.” said it was nothing personal. They Credit cards will be much safer and were doing it to everybody.” more transparent.” he campaign to make Her only alternative to accepting credit cards safer for con- the rate hike, the bank’s telephone sumers isn’t completed. operators told her, was canceling the The new law represents a card. But she feared trying to get along For more on Pew’s Safe Credit Cards Project— T reports, invited congressional testimony, real victory for the coalition of Pew without plastic in a world where cash comments submitted to the Federal Reserve, and consumer groups and, more has become nearly as retro as roof- media attention and press releases—go to important, for Americans who use top TV antennas. www.pewtrusts.org/creditcards. credit cards. Situations like Lynn Acheson’s are Tim Gray, a freelance writer based in the Boston But some people who’ve already far too typical, Pew’s ongoing research area, has won editorial-excellence awards for his watched their debts swell because of shows. According to a report re- articles on business and management practices.

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Health Group’s Shelley Hearne Shelley Group’s Health By Elizabeth Pitts Elizabeth By

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Risk and Reward Reward and Risk

14 / Spring 2010 Spring / Trust Trust / Spring 2010 15

voluntarily withdraw the product, which a real sandwich, there was a booklet years ago are now causing greater takes time. If the company declines or inside that gave specific examples of suffering and death in healthy, vibrant stalls, that kicks off a laborious, time- the risks associated with common members of our population. More consuming process, and more people lunch items like lettuce, tomatoes and more, our antibiotics are not doing could get sick or die in the interim. and cheese. the trick. Remember the outbreak that took We want those bags to be daily place early in 2009 involving con- reminders that we know how to fix Trust: Why not? taminated peanut butter? I personally this problem. People shouldn’t have call it a “Keystone Cop” incident: to worry about the lunch they send Hearne: Biology 101: The more you Who’s really watching out for the food with their kids to school. use it, the more you lose it. Bacteria supply? Ultimately, it was a story about are smart little bugs, and they share layer upon layer of contractors, con- Trust: What keeps you up at night? what they learn with their friends. So sultancies and agencies missing the when bacteria come into contact with problem. Hearne: Losing our antibiotics. As a an antibiotic, if they survive, they The frequencies of inspection would public health scientist, I am extremely have learned how to resist that drug. be funny if the consequences were concerned about the infectious dis- not so serious—the agency’s own data Trust: Are you saying that doctors show the FDA is currently equipped shouldn’t prescribe these drugs? to inspect about one percent of the The Pew Health Group imported products it regulates. Hearne: Antibiotics should only be The FDA needs clear authority and addresses policies that prescribed by a doctor or veterinar- resources to do its job of keeping oversee products that ian when patients are ill or in immi- people safe. Again, it’s pretty simple. people use or consume nent danger. But antibiotics are being However, we haven’t had any major used injudiciously, not to treat sick reform of the FDA’s food safety law in their daily lives—for people or animals, but to speed up in over 70 years. instance, credit cards, growth in animals on industrial farms. If you ever go to visit one of these Trust: How are you addressing the food and pharmaceutical facilities, it is mind-boggling. Think situation? drugs. In that way, its of wire cages the size of a file desk drawer crammed with chickens, managing director Hearne: Earlier this year, we helped stacked 40 feet high and as long as establish the Make Our Food Safe points out, it is having a football field. This is not a bucolic coalition, which includes victims of a significant effect on setting. This is as stressful as you previous food-borne illness outbreaks can imagine. as well as major consumer and public the public’s health Science tells us that the more a health organizations. We’re support- and well-being. human or animal is under stress, the ing bipartisan legislation called the more vulnerable they become to dis- Food Safety Enhancement Act. ease and sickness. These settings This bill would restore the checks eases that are increasingly resistant are potential breeding grounds not and balances to prevent contaminated to the very drugs we developed to only for antibiotic resistance, but also foods from getting to your kitchen battle them. Two million Americans for novel viruses that are what a public table—which includes strengthening acquire bacterial infections in U.S. health scientist worries about most: the FDA’s ability to inspect and recall hospitals each year, and 90,000 die as the emergence of a new deadly virus or contaminated foods. a result. About 70 percent of those bacteria that we’re not able to handle. It has been an incredibly powerful infections are resistant to at least one It is a danger like this that keeps experience working with people who antimicrobial drug, and resistance is me and my colleagues focused and have lost loved ones to these out- growing. committed to our work. breaks. We’ve organized a number Whether it’s in the food supply— of events where parents and chil- such as Salmonella becoming resis- For the full scope of the Pew Health Group’s work, go to www.pewtrusts.org and click on Health in dren have spoken, and, together, we tant to antibiotics—or antibiotic- the left-hand column under Improving Public Policy. even delivered reusable lunch bags resistant staph infections, diseases to members of Congress. Instead of that were easily treatable just 10 Elizabeth Pitts is an officer in Pew’s Executive Office. 16 Trust / Spring 2010

The Philadelphia Research Initiative treads new ground with reports that are read closely within the city and beyond. Trust / Spring 2010 17

s a veteran of internal government reform ef- forts, Claire Shubik spent years learning how to conduct research in a political milieu—making sure whom she could talk to, getting someone else to make the initial contact if need be, carefully shaping questions to avoid any unseen hazard, what she calls “the political third rail.” So she was a little bit intimidated last spring by her first assignment for Pew’s Philadelphia Research Initiative: cold- By Pat Loeb calling budget officials in major cities and asking for all manner of information about their finances and spending. On the other hand, her colleague Laura Horwitz, coming out of community organizing for faith-based organizations, had no qualms about contacting public-employee unions for a report on the fiscal impact of employee pensions and health benefits. After all, she was used to sitting down at a table with people of disparate interests and finding common ground to build on. Both women were in for a big surprise and a lesson in the power of the Pew name. For Shubik it was a pleasant surprise. “I’m convinced I’m going to ask for information and people are going to 18 Trust / Spring 2010

say no,” she says. “But no one did. I was totally delighted.” She spoke with budget officials, citizen watchdog groups and journal- ists who cover the budget process. She had only to identify herself and explain the Philadelphia Research Initiative, and doors opened, phone calls were returned. “We’ve got the reputation,” she says, “by virtue of being Pew.” Horwitz had a similar experience on the budget report, but on her next assignment, when she sought infor- mation on city employee contracts, she unsuspectingly hit a stone wall. The unions in Philadelphia either wouldn’t answer or responded with hostility. She concluded they feared the impact of a Pew report as they entered contract talks with the city. “They would really rather we didn’t weigh in at all,” she says.

hubik and Horwitz were gath- ering information intended to help Philadelphia—its citizens Sand its leaders—make better- informed decisions about the issues the city faces. They constitute half the staff of the Philadelphia Research Initiative, led by veteran political-reporter-turned- Looking West on Cresson Street Toward St. Johns, Manayunk by Stuart Shils (oil on paper project-director Larry Eichel and mounted on board, 8” x 13”, 1992). Courtesy of the artist (www.stuartshils.com). project manager Thomas Ginsberg, also a former journalist. and challenges. The study was in- report, this one in collaboration with The idea that Pew could help the tended strictly for internal use, but, the Economy League of Greater financially troubled city with facts realizing it would be valuable to policy Philadelphia. Called The Quiet Crisis, and data was the brainchild of Don- makers, the staff produced a public it zeroed in on the cost of city em- ald Kimelman, managing director of version, which, though sobering, was ployees’ pension and health benefits. Information Initiatives as well as the very well received. That was followed by another joint Philadelphia Program at Pew. The report had coincided with the effort with the Economy League, “Pew does a lot of policy-relevant beginning of the administration of looking at chronic inefficiencies and research,” says Kimelman. “We see Mayor John Street, and as that era ownership options at the Philadelphia the impact. We’re known for it na- drew to a close in 2007, Kimelman Gas Works. (In July, the Gas Works tionally and globally, so we wanted to says, he thought it might prove study won the Governmental Research bring some of that expertise to our instructive to invite Whiting back to Association’s 2009 Most Distinguished hometown.” assess what had changed in eight Research Award.) Kimelman first began to see the years—what was better, what was His appetite whetted, Kimelman possibilities a decade ago when he worse, what challenges seemed took stock. “I thought, ‘This is good, commissioned consultant Basil Whit- most pressing. but it’s hard,’” he says, referring to ing to compare Philadelphia to six Again pleased with the response, the fact that each study was its own other cities in terms of its prospects Kimelman commissioned another mini-project. “Every time we did one Trust / Spring 2010 19

of these things, we had to figure out at the top of his game. And to lose It wasn’t nearly as difficult for who could do the heavy lifting, and it him was gut-wrenching for his edi- Eichel to walk out of the newsroom made me a little nervous because tors. At a struggling paper in a that last time as it was for his col- we’re dependent on outside consul- beleaguered industry, it seemed like leagues to watch. He was not looking tants although, in the end, it is Pew’s the end of something. back as he left. credibility that is on the line.” Eichel was the project leader “I was thinking, ‘I have to go do this So Kimelman went to the Pew board Kimelman wanted. other job now. It’s different, and I with a proposal: Make these research “I had some conversations with haven’t done anything different in a reports a regular feature of what Pew Larry even before the board ap- long time. I hope I don’t screw it up.’” does in Philadelphia. Create our own proved [the initiative],” says Kimel- internal capacity to do this work and man. “I thought he had just the right he State of the City, the add elements such as polling to bring kind of skills and temperament for first major report from a public voice to the issues. Kimel- the job. He’s rooted in the city but the Philadelphia Research man felt he had a strong case. But he also senior enough and mature enough TInitiative, was already under also knew it would be stronger if he to navigate the shoals of city politics way in November when Eichel took could identify the right leader to run and keep us on the right course.” the helm. To get the ball rolling while the new unit. Eichel says he was intrigued right Eichel was still caught up in campaign away. It was the spring before the coverage, Kimelman hired former earts were heavy in The Inquirer columnist Tom Ferrick Jr., Philadelphia Inquirer who has a talent for ferreting out data newsroom the day Larry The initiative’s staff is and making them accessible to read- HEichel left, in November strong in gathering ers. The result was a glossy, slightly 2008. “Larry’s departure was a water- oversized booklet of 54 pages, packed shed day for the Inquirer,” says complicated information with charts and graphs, laying out executive editor Bill Marimow. and explaining it clearly, where the city stands in terms of Eichel had been one of the paper’s economy, crime, education, health, stalwarts and stars for 34 years, and Pew is strong in government and the arts. covering city hall, elections, politics— policy-relevant For Eichel, the project he joined the highest-profile stories and the in-progress was an education in the most important events. Soft-spoken research and public- differences between his old job and and slim-built, he was nonetheless a his new one. hefty presence on the second floor. opinion polling. Where he’d been used to turning His dark hair and beard and heavy- stories around in a day, The State of framed glasses had become a reas- election, during perhaps the greatest the City took months. He was acutely suring sight to his colleagues through story of his career. “I was covering aware of the importance of getting the turmoil of the newspaper’s sale the campaign, and I knew there was everything right. “This institution has and subsequent layoffs, and his report- no plan [at the newspaper] for what a hard-earned reputation for being ing was one of the treasures that had was going to happen to me after the solid and reliable. When we say these survived. “To me, he epitomized the election, and I didn’t see any great are facts, they’re facts,” he says. “So best of our reporters,” says Marimow. options,” he says. “I kept trying to you spend more time checking facts.” “His departure was a major, major come up with reasons not to do it Still, he was surprised at how hard loss for the Inquirer.” and couldn’t.” it was to get the report out without One of his last stories, page one on Kimelman believes that being able mistakes in it. November 5, the day after the presi- to tell the board that Eichel would be “Every time you looked at it, you’d dential election, began: “Step back the likely director of the project helped see a different typo,” says Eichel, for a moment and consider what make it seem more tangible and doable. who says he gained a new apprecia- happened yesterday. The people of Authorization came in September, tion for the importance of copy editors. the United States have elected an but Eichel’s one condition was that “At one point, we said there were 224 African-American man named Barack he not start until November. “No way cultural institutions in the city. Then Obama as their president.” To capture was I missing out on the campaign when we listed them, we realized the enormity of the moment in such [coverage],” he says. But as soon as there were 225. We figured out that deceptively simple prose takes a pro the election was over, his focus shifted. there was one in the database that 20 Trust / Spring 2010 Graham Graham Perry wasn’t real, and we revised the list.” In other ways, the report played to his strengths. “I thought the thing I did best as a reporter was to take something complicated and explain it clearly,” he says. “That was a really important skill. There’s not a lot of

Few Cities Taking the Hard Look By Larry Eichel

The following op-ed on the city’s budget last for long. If such optimism is well cuts. They also can have an impact crisis by the director of the Philadel- placed and the economy improves on the level of services a city provides; phia Research Initiative appeared in substantially in the months ahead, big in some places, city governments The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Currents cities may be able to return to some- now have furlough days on which all section last fall. thing resembling business as usual. But government offices close for business. the early indications are not promising. But the attraction of the concept ou might think that the devas- New York, Los Angeles and Chicago hinges on the idea that what’s hap- tating impact the recession is already are projecting huge budget pening to city budgets now is a devia- having on municipal budgets shortfalls for their next fiscal years. tion from the norm and not the new Ywould cause city officials This year, Baltimore, Boston and Phoe- norm. That’s why a number of may- around the country to take a hard look nix have been forced by falling rev- at how their governments function and enue and cutbacks in state aid to revisit which of their services are truly essen- budgets that already had been put to “For officials in many big tial. But you’d be wrong. bed. Philadelphia, it turns out, is not cities, the unpleasant task For the last six months, we at The the only place where budget-balanc- Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia ing has become a year-round activity. of matching revenue and Research Initiative have been exam- ining Philadelphia and 12 other major he hope that this era of expenses this year has cities as they’ve gone about the pro- tough choices will be been challenge enough, longed and painful process of balanc- short-lived helps explain ing their budgets in these challenging Tthe widespread appear- and they’re reluctant to times. We’ve compiled two reports on ance of a new phenomenon in many undertake a major restruc- their decisions and their struggles. local governments—the unpaid fur- And we’ve seen little public evidence lough. In city after city, workers are turing unless absolutely that any of them are engaging in a being made to take furlough days, in necessary.” fundamental review of operations. some cases 10 or more per year, as a A few mayors, like Dave Bing in way to balance the books. Detroit, have talked about the need Philadelphia has instituted fur- ors across the country, after initially to consolidate departments, establish lough days for some nonunionized threatening unionized workers with priorities, eliminate some services employees. Whether the city will widespread layoffs, have settled for and privatize others. Even for him, impose furloughs on anyone else furloughs instead. It’s why some though, it’s just talk at this point. depends on the new union contracts, union leaders have reluctantly come He’s busy trying to make sure his which are to be worked out at the to view them as less objectionable troubled city can pay its bills from negotiating table for non-uniformed than the alternatives. one month to the next. workers and through arbitration for “We’re just between a rock and a Around the country, many city police officers and firefighters. hard place,” Brenda Clayburn, head of governments seem to be operating in Though less draconian than layoffs, a municipal union in Baltimore, recently the belief that their budget woes won’t furloughs amount to temporary pay told The Baltimore Sun, in reference to Trust / Spring 2010 21

flash to the writing, but it has to be Philadelphia has a lot of poor people.” Eichel’s instincts as a reporter told accessible.” Another significant element of the him this was the big story in the city A good example is the opening of report was a poll, conducted in Janu- and the one on which the initiative the report’s chapter six, on health ary 2009, on a variety of issues. This should shine its light. For the next and welfare: “All of the data on wages was a particular interest of Kimel- poll, he constructed budget-related and wealth in the city can be boiled man’s, a central part of his proposal questions. One significant finding was down to a single declarative sentence. for the initiative. that, to balance the budget, Philadel- “I’m really influenced by Andy phians preferred cuts in services to Kohut at the Pew Research Center,” tax hikes. A real-estate tax increase a proposed furlough program there. “If Kimelman says, referring to the was considered particularly unpalat- we say ‘no,’ people get laid off.” president of Pew’s subsidiary, a able, according to the poll, and a For officials in many big cities, the nonpartisan “fact tank.” He contin- sales tax increase even more so. unpleasant task of matching revenue ues: “I believe there’s value in bring- While the pollsters did their work, and expenses this year has been chal- ing a public voice into issues and Eichel and his staff began working lenge enough, and they’re reluctant doing it in a scientific way where you to undertake a major restructuring have a representative sample of the unless absolutely necessary. A few public involved.” The multi-city are beginning to think that they are The poll results were broken out comparisons have reaching that point. into two separate reports that were Meredith Weenick, associate direc- published online in February—one gained the Philadelphia tor of administration and finance for highlighting public opinion about the Research Initiative lots the City of Boston, expressed skepti- administration of Mayor Michael cism that revenue from an economic Nutter after two years on the job (the of national coverage. rebound will solve the city’s financial conclusion: generally favorable), and “There aren’t a lot of problems. “We have to take a hard the other an overview of what Phila- look at our service delivery,” she said, delphians like and dislike about their other organizations that to ensure that Boston can pay its own city. These findings fit neatly into The way in the future and not become State of the City, augmenting the do this,” says Eichel. overly reliant on uncertain state aid. hard data. In this regard, Philadelphia and The finished product was sent to on their first research report as a Mayor Michael Nutter do have one Pew’s mailing list of influential Phila- team, comparing Philadelphia’s bud- factor working in their favor. This year, delphians as a means of introducing get woes to those in 12 other major as every year, the city had to submit a the Philadelphia Research Initiative. cities. The report was very straight- five-year budget plan to the Pennsylva- “We’re not going to publish many forward—the size of budget gaps (11 nia Intergovernmental Cooperation things,” says Kimelman. “In this day of the cities had one), the remedies Authority, the state watchdog agency. and age we don’t need to do that. We local governments were seeking, the The requirement prevented the city can make stuff available online. But constraints each was under. from settling for the kind of one-year this seemed like a nice thing to have The Nutter administration appreci- fix many other cities fashioned. and a nice way to say, ‘Pew is now in ated it. “It’s always helpful to have To make the five-year numbers this business.’” outside sources of research,” says work, Philadelphia cut back on some budget director Stephen Agostini. services and raised taxes, one of only n addition to issuing The State “Some of the data they pulled on four of the cities we studied that of the City, Eichel spent his first services were helpful in informing imposed a tax increase. The five-year weeks at Pew hiring a staff and the analysis we do internally.” increase in the sales tax here, com- talking to people. “What should But what surprised the staff was bined with a delay in the city’s contri- I how much other cities appreciated it. we be doing?” he’d ask. The city budget butions to its pension funds, should seemed to trump everything. In a city “Doing comparisons was useful from allow the city to keep its current short by half a billion dollars with a policy perspective,” says project governmental structure largely intact. most expenditures fixed by employee manager Ginsberg, “and for getting That may create the space to en- contracts, the Nutter administration attention from outside Philly. The gage in more long-term thinking. Or it was facing stark choices with far-reach- report got more ‘bumps’ outside the may relieve the pressure to do so. ing ramifications. city than in.” 22 Trust / Spring 2010

From 5th and Fairmount streets in Philadelphia: Blue Windows by Charlotte Schatz (oil stick, acrylic on canvas, 32” x 45”, 2002). Courtesy of the artist (www.charlotteschatz.com).

For example, the mayor of Seattle issued a news release on it. The city of Atlanta put the report on its Web site, and the major newspaper, the Journal-Constitution, published a story on it. The report even went international: The Economist devoted a full page to the report, and the news service Reuters picked it up. “It had tremendous appeal,” says Eichel. “We found there aren’t a lot of other organizations that do this. funded and had an unfunded liability of understanding.” And then, he adds, There’s a fair amount written about $4 billion. “A week before the report came out, states but not cities. It made us think At the same time, the study offered they denounced it” as full of errors— there’s a niche here.” a menu of “policy options” that could based on a memo the initiative had This was the report that had been help, items such as increasing em- sent for fact-checking. such a pleasant surprise for senior ployee contributions to the pension “It seemed to us there were other associate Claire Shubik. “That was an fund and to their health benefits, both agendas driving them,” says Cathy awesome piece to work on,” she says. of which would have to be renegotiated Scott, D.C. 47 president. “They said Research associate Laura Horwitz when contracts expired. they wanted the report out before the also enjoyed working on the report. “It While there was a general consen- contract expired so there would be was exciting to hit the ground run- sus on the accuracy of the report and ‘more dialogue’ at the negotiations. So ning,” she says. “It was amazing to the need for action, public employee what’s the real purpose: information?— show up, and, my second week here, unions, perhaps not surprisingly, or impact on negotiations?” I was talking to budget officials denounced it as “fatally flawed.” Horwitz says she tried to make it around the country.” More than a year later—well into clear she had no agenda, and she felt The excitement of that experience, 2009—some solutions had been pro- somewhat vindicated, a month and a though, left her perhaps less prepared posed but none carried out. However, half later, when Scott co-authored an for what came next. employee contracts were about to op-ed piece in the Inquirer that cited expire, opening a possibility for change. the report to support her argument: “A he Quiet Crisis made news With the decision to focus on the recently released Pew study concluded when it was released in budget, an update of the report seemed that Philadelphia city workers’ pension January 2008. It was on a natural task for the Philadelphia benefits are not out of line with those the front page of The Research Initiative. Horwitz jumped of other public employees.” T right in. “It was unexpected,” Horwitz says. Philadelphia Inquirer. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wrote about a possible She called each of the four munici- “On one hand, I was happy. On the statewide solution to the crisis since pal unions repeatedly. In one effort to other hand, it was frustrating that they Pittsburgh’s pension fund was the establish her commitment to getting ignored the inconvenient pieces.” only one of the cities studied that the facts, she sat through a full day The report was titled Quiet No More: was in worse shape than Philadel- of police arbitration hearings. They Philadelphia Confronts the Cost of phia’s. Business and financial writer still wouldn’t talk to her. Employee Benefits, and the union Robert Samuelson cited the report in The one response she got—from wasn’t alone in using it selectively. a column for Newsweek, “Promises District Council 47, which represents Two weeks earlier, the Inquirer’s They Can’t Keep.” white-collar city workers—felt more editorial board had also used the The report did not gloss over a like an ambush. The union’s attorney report to argue for union concessions dire situation. The number of retir- took the questions but treated them on health benefits: “City workers enjoy ees in Philadelphia exceeded the with suspicion and hostility. From a gold-plated benefits package. Tax- number of active workers. Annual Thomas Ginsberg’s perspective, the payers fund 100 percent of the health- costs for both pensions and benefits union’s approach was “Every ques- insurance premiums for most of the were high and rising sharply. The tion revealed bias. Every fact we city workers. By comparison, a Pew pension fund was only 52 percent checked revealed some lack of Charitable Trusts study found local Trust / Spring 2010 23

governments require single employ- sion of two or three polls, a state of the ees to contribute an average of 9 city and two or three in-depth reports percent of the cost for health-care a year,” he says. Instead, he adds, coverage and those with families to “We’ve done more smaller reports.” contribute 27 percent.” That’s not to say he’s not pleased Kimelman is philosophical. “People with the way the initiative has evolved. will always cherry-pick data, but the “The short reports have provided truth has a way of emerging,” he says. useful information at a time when “When a debate is going on, one things are not set in stone,” he says. person’s use of the facts is going to be “Timing is essential. You have to do more persuasive than another’s. We good, in-depth, unassailable work, but don’t get involved in those debates. you’ve got to get it out on a schedule We just put out the facts.” where it’s going to be most meaningful.” One reservation raised during Pew’s he Philadelphia Research internal vetting of the initiative, Kimel- Initiative’s next major man recalls, was whether Philadel- report focuses on the phia is a place where good informa- Tprison system, a particu- tion matters: “I was asked, ‘In a place lar passion of Shubik’s. “I’m inter- where fact-based decision-making ested in seeing that government has not been the tradition, is this systems that have the power to deny work going to be truly influential?’” people their liberty are run efficiently, Again, the timing was good. “We effectively and fairly,” she says, have, in the Nutter administration, a noting that the budget for Philadel- staff very interested in this kind of phia prisons has risen 80 percent in work. Whether or not it ultimately nine years. influences what transpires remains to Eichel is considering holding an be seen, but it’s not being ignored.” event around the release of the report, Indeed, Mayor Nutter says he something that would bring together takes the reports “very seriously.” various stakeholders in the system. “I think information, data and analy- In the meantime, the staff contin- sis are always helpful,” he says, “espe- ues to produce shorter reports on cially coming from an organization important local issues. A report by with the credibility of Pew. Compar- Ginsberg, released in October, found ing Philadelphia to other locales is Philadelphia behind other cities in educational to the public, and we learn preparing for the 2010 census. Phila- a lot from those reports. I’m in favor of City Hall, Philadelphia by Nancy Citrino (mono- delphia has been losing population type print with collage and gauche additions, an educated public, and I think infor- for decades, according to the Census 40” x 32”, 2000), from the 2001 exhibition “City mation coming from a good, credible Bureau, but many officials believe Hall at 100: A Celebration.” Courtesy of the artist. source makes a difference.” that the official figure is at least partly The Prolonged and Painful Process of a result of undercounting. The Philadelphia Research Initiative’s work is Federal aid is based on population, Balancing City Budgets, examined available at www.pewtrusts.org/philaresearch. and undercounting may be costing the the choices that 13 cities made and In addition to the reports and shorter studies, tried to make during what has been a you will find poll results of Philadelphians on key city millions of dollars. Other cities have city issues and on their assessment of the city as learned the power of maximizing local difficult time for the governments of a place to live. And you have access to a library response to the census and challenging many large American cities. of other authoritative documents and data on the city, downloadable as PDF files. figures that work against them. Gins- For updates on the initiative’s efforts, you can berg senses that the administration he continuing stream of subscribe to a news feed, or sign up for the initia- needs to work harder on getting a full reports is not what tive’s e-mails to receive an alert on the day that a report is released. count and that local foundations can help. Kimelman envisioned as Another recent study, Layoffs, Tthe initiative’s work. “We Pat Loeb is a writer and a Philadelphian. Her work Furloughs and Union Concessions: expected more of a stately progres- can be heard regularly on KYW radio. 24 Trust / Spring 2010 Lifting the Burden of Student Debt By Glee Holton

College debt can warp the career possibilities of new to employ their talent and education for the public good. Yet the very real graduates. The Pew-supported Project on Student burden of student debt can compli- cate the graduate’s motivations and Debt helped the public understand the problem and choices, and in response, some students will shy away from public service positions. also advanced common-sense, cost-effective policy Debt also affects the lives of those who ultimately do not earn a degree. solutions at the federal level to improve student Borrowers who drop out of college typically earn lower incomes and face loan programs. Here is an evaluation of the results, a high risk of accumulating unman- ageable debt that is likely to result in as well as an analysis of the project’s approach, forbearance, default or even bank- ruptcy. For these students, the debt potentially useful to other initiatives. burden and the inability to acquire a higher paying job compound each other. ollege graduation has long symbolized a major educa- n 2005, recognizing the public tional achievement for policy implications of such rapid youth and a critical first increases in borrowing, Pew’s

stepC to a productive future in the © Images.com/Corbis Health and Human Services work place. However, an increasing program—nowI known as the Pew number of graduates are leaving Health Group—helped launch the four-year colleges and universities Project on Student Debt, housed at with student loan debt, a financial the Institute for College Access and burden that they carry forward as they Success, an independent, nonprofit attempt to launch their careers and organization that works to make higher begin life as independent adults. education more available and afford- For nearly two decades, rising able for people of all backgrounds. college costs and limited grant aid The project has two goals: (1) to have combined to produce a large raise awareness among the public increase in the demand for loans by and policy makers on the need to students. Two-thirds (67 percent) of reduce the burden of student debt; all four-year college graduates now and (2) to develop and advance practi- have debt (compared with fewer than cal federal policy options—not by half in the early 1990s), and among advocating for one particular policy these students, the average amount solution, but by identifying an array of debt has more than doubled over of policy solutions that could be the 15 years from 1993 to 2008. achieved cost-effectively through As a result, the young graduate salary, a liability that is only likely to reducing inefficiencies in the student ventures into the real world armed with increase as interest builds year by year. loan program. a degree and filled with expectations, Recently, there has been an em- From 2005 to 2008, the institute yet shouldering a debt that could very phasis on the importance of public and its partners helped inform and well equal a sizable share of a year’s service, which encourages students advance several federal policy chang- Trust / Spring 2010 25 Lifting the Burden of

es on student debt. These included reduce the burden of student debt. themselves into the debate. (a) congressional action to close a It played •It built a successful coalition that Student Debt loophole by which student loan com- deployed a sophisticated commu- panies used a government-subsidy •a decisive role in educating policy nications strategy. program to earn a guaranteed 9.5 makers and the media on the prob- percent rate-of-return on student lem of student debt and highlight- he features of the project’s loans they issued (even as students, ed the long-term consequences of approach that the evalua- on the same loans, paid market inter- student debt on borrowers; tors cited as important est rates as low as 3.37 percent); •an important role in the 2005 contributors to the cam- (b) loan repayment reforms that legislation to close a federal sub- Tpaign’s success parallel those Pew include the creation of an income- sidy loophole through which stu- has observed from other effective based repayment program in the dent loan companies had exploited public policy efforts. These include 2007 College Cost and Reduction and the outdated government program (a) a knowledgeable, experienced Access Act; and (c) plans for simpli- guaranteeing a 9.5 percent return and credible project director; (b) a fying the free application for federal from the U.S. Treasury, regardless compelling reframing of the policy student aid by using Internal Rev- of the interest rates students actu- debate that attracts support from an enue Service data. They also made ally paid on those loans; and array of constituencies; (c) high- recommendations that were incorpo- •a decisive role in the enactment of quality and nonpartisan research rated into both the House and Senate income-based repayment legisla- conducted by respected experts that versions of the Higher Education tion in the College Cost Reduction addresses important questions and Reauthorization bill, which was later and Access Act of 2007. This legis- fills gaps in understanding; (d) new passed and signed into law. lation contained a new loan repay- and credible voices that bring fresh ment option for student borrowers perspectives to the discussions; and n 2008, at the request of the Pew that caps monthly payments based (e) a communications strategy that Health Group, the Planning on income and family size. For most raises the visibility of the issue and and Evaluation unit launched a borrowers, it would cap them at 10 informs key decision makers about review to examine the role of the percent of borrowers’ income and significant developments and advanc- ProjectI on Student Debt in improving forgive all remaining unpaid debt es in knowledge. federal programs that reduce the after 25 years. This is not to suggest that advocacy student-debt burden for post-second- work can be reduced to a simple for- ary students. The consulting team The evaluation identified several mula, i.e., when an initiative meets a consisted of Derek V. Price, Ph.D., of aspects of the project’s approach that particular set of requirements, suc- DVP-PRAXIS, a firm that assesses were fundamental to its success: cess is assured. After all, unanticipated and advises on organizational effec- developments in the real world far tiveness; and Fred Galloway, Ed.D., •The project effectively repositioned beyond a project’s control have the associate professor in the School of the policy debate away from the potential to undermine the best-laid Leadership and Education Sciences issues of rising college costs or plans, the efforts of talented leaders at the University of San Diego. the role of lenders—issues that had and even the most impressive execu- They conducted the review through formerly stalled policy conversations tion of strategy. interviews with stakeholders and by polarizing stakeholders—and Yet Pew has seen concrete and informed observers, representatives instead focused the debate on positive change happen as a result of its of higher education associations, student debt. work, suggesting that campaigns incor- lenders and Capitol Hill staff, and •It engaged a strong, experienced porating the key elements that guided they also examined records of project and respected project director who the Project on Student Debt and other activities and coverage in the national was accessible to the media and initiatives are crucial for success. media. had constructive relationships In sum, the evaluation concluded with Hill staff. For more information on Pew’s Planning that the project was a key participant •It used high-quality nonpartisan and Evaluation unit, click on “About Us” at www.pewtrusts.org. in the student-lending debate and had research to develop a range of a substantial part in informing and options for addressing student debt. Glee Holton is a senior officer in Planning advancing several policy changes to •It introduced the voices of students and Evaluation at Pew. 26ReturnTrust on Investment / Spring 2010

Pew’s program investments seek to improve policy, inform the area five times greater than all U.S. national parks combined. public and stimulate civic life through operating projects, The Pew Arctic program plays a significant role in garnering which are managed by Pew staff; donor partnerships, public attention and political support for the plan. which allow us to work closely with individuals or foundations In addition, an Inuit organization signs a memorandum of and achieve shared purposes; and targeted grant making. understanding with the territory of Nunavut and the Canadian For fuller contexts, complete reports and other relevant government to begin work on a national marine conserva- materials, visit www.pewtrusts.org. tion area in Lancaster Sound, at the eastern edge of the The results of some recent work are highlighted here; Northwest Passage. The agreement, strongly supported by not repeated are accomplishments described in other sto- Pew’s Oceans North Canada campaign, paves the way for ries in this issue, including the report on the clean energy a joint feasibility study that will recommend boundaries and economy, the studies of Pew’s Philadelphia Research Initiative management of the sound, home to enormous schools and the Nobel Prize won by a Pew Biomedical Scholar. of Arctic cod, most of the world’s narwhals and 40 percent of the world’s beluga whales.

The Obama administration places a moratorium on commercial fishing in virtually the entire Arctic Ocean. The landmark Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett establishes a Arctic Fishery Management Plan, which is crafted by Coral Sea conservation zone in territorial waters east of the regional fishery management council in Alaska, bans the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, comprising some 1 million fishing in approximately 150,000 square miles of ocean, an square kilometers of ocean. Having moved to protect these waters, the Australian government will now consider whether to create one or several new marine reserves in the region, with a decision expected in late 2010. These developments are supported by the Pew Environment Group, Global Ocean Legacy and other partners. In addition, Garrett and two indigenous ranger organiza- © Paul © Souders/Corbis Paul tions announce the establishment of two globally significant conservation reserves in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as the Djelk and Warddeken Indigenous Pro- tected Areas, the reserves span 7,889 square miles, an area twice the size of Yellowstone National Park. And the Western Australian government establishes a 4,000-square-kilometer marine park at Camden Sound, one of the Kimberley Coast’s largest bays and a key humpback- whale breeding site. Both steps are influenced by the Wild Australia Program, a partnership of the Pew Environment Group and The Nature Conservancy.

The New England Fishery Management Council votes to have 19 fishermen-run, community-based cooperatives fish by using scientifically based annual catch limits for cod, haddock, flounder and other groundfish, beginning in May 2010. It is the first time in 30 years that the council has voted to manage groundfish with a hard catch limit, rather than by the number of days a boat can spend at sea, and the decision is taken after an 18-month effort by the Pew Environment Group to end overfishing, rebuild fish stocks and help New England’s historic fishermen regain profitability.

The Canadian province of Manitoba creates a trust to support the establishment of a World Heritage Site covering Dawes Glacier in Alaska, at a moment of calving, when a piece breaks off and falls into the sea. Trust / Spring 2010 27

more than 10 million acres of pristine boreal forest—a victims in Washington, D.C., who share their support for global treasure ranked by scientists as one of the world’s legislation that would strengthen the ban on shark finning top conservation priorities. Known as Pimachiowin Aki, the in U.S. waters and encourage shark conservation around proposed site would be eight times larger than the United the world. States’ Grand Canyon National Park. Pew’s boreal cam- In interviews, the survivors note that recent reports classify paign has now secured protection of 125 million acres of 38 percent of all shark species as “threatened” or “near- the world’s largest, most intact old-growth forest, an area threatened” with extinction, and that sharks’ disappearance stretching from Labrador to Alaska that surpasses the Amazon could disrupt the ocean ecosystem, which represents 70 rainforest in size, ecological integrity and carbon storage. percent of the planet. The participants praise the Shark An additional 200 million acres in Manitoba, Ontario and Conservation Act of 2009, which previously is passed by Quebec are expected to be designated as parks and refuges the House of Representatives and introduced in the Senate. pending the fulfillment of previously made government com- In a separate action regarding sharks, Palauan president mitments. When these areas are protected, the campaign Johnson Toribiong, addressing the United Nations General will be nearly two-thirds of the way toward achieving its Assembly, declares that the waters surrounding his ultimate goal of preserving at least 500 million acres in country will become the world’s first national shark perpetuity. sanctuary. While Palau is among the world’s smallest countries, its territorial waters cover 240,000 square miles, an area roughly the size of Texas. Pew establishes a partnership with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation to support its conservation work, in particular preserving Canada’s boreal forest and pressing Legislation supported by both Republicans and Democrats for measures to stop the destruction of the world’s oceans. who represent a quarter of the Senate and nearly half of the “The oceans and the forests play an important role in climate- House of Representatives is submitted to codify into law change mitigation. It is through strong institutional partner- the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which ships that together we can improve this situation,” says would protect 60 million acres of national forests from road- Prince Albert II in announcing the alliance during a speech building, logging and other development. at the National Press Club commemorating the 50th anniver- In particular, the Pew Environment Group and its campaign sary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty. partners generate more than 200,000 messages opposing an effort by the State of Colorado to undercut the policy with a plan that would open up 4.4 million acres of pristine As part of a recently launched national forests to industrial activity, including coal mining campaign to stem the rapid and oil and gas development. This effort is complemented decline of the world’s sharks, by a statewide “Don’t Sell Colorado Short” tour, also sup- the Pew Environment Group ported by Pew, calling for protections that measure up to gathers nine shark-attack the national rule.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization com- pletes a treaty to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing globally. Ninety-one PewGroup Environment nations participate in drafting the agreement, which is adopted in November and takes effect when 25 countries ratify it. Once in force, governments will be obliged for the first time to inspect fishing vessels and close their harbors to those operating outside the law. In advance of the treaty’s completion, the Pew Environ- ment Group provides United Nations delegates with legal analysis, scientific information and research documenting the need to strengthen existing measures to combat illicit fishing. Pew’s research is now helping to guide regional fisheries management organizations as they begin to imple- ment the provisional treaty. Shark survivors as seen on Discovery News, a channel of Discovery Communications, and accessible on YouTube. Inset: Survivor Debbie Salamone, of the Pew Environment Group’s Ending Overfishing in the Southeast campaign. 28 Trust / Spring 2010

The European Union Fisheries Council reaches agreement analysis shows to be Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, on a regulation that will strengthen penalties to counteract New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, in addition illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing. While to California. The center hosts a Pew Perspectives event at previous measures were often so lenient that fishermen Pew’s Washington, D.C., offices to discuss the report. would simply add fines to their assumed operating costs,

the new rules will ban boats after four infractions and im- Corbis/Jupiterimages © pose fines on governments that fail to adequately enforce restrictions. The agreement represents a major victory for the Pew Environment Group, which works closely with EU member states, the European Commission, members of the European Parliament and the media to raise awareness of the damages of overfishing. According to Pew estimates, such fishing was on track to cost EU member states $15 billion in lost catches and $12 billion in lost fishing stock value by 2020.

For the first time, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council approves a measure that sets precautionary science- based limits to end overfishing of nine imperiled species of snapper and grouper, including two that are critically endangered and one that is vulnerable to extinction. The new plan, sent to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce for final approval, gives these species a strong chance at recovering from decades of overfishing. Thanks in large part to the Public Safety Performance Project’s It also represents a significant victory for the Pew Environment work to craft a package of sentencing and parole re- Group’s Campaign to End Overfishing in the Southeast, forms that will reduce the prison population, Michigan which has worked closely with the council and embarked on Governor Jennifer Granholm’s administration proposes to extensive community and media outreach to coalesce public close eight corrections facilities, a step that would save support. Following this success, the campaign will continue $118 million in taxpayer funds annually. its efforts to ensure passage of a long-term red snapper Following Arizona and Kansas, California becomes the recovery plan, including a soon-to-be-completed report that third state to adopt the funding model offered in the project’s will outline the economic benefits of rebuilt fisheries. Policy Framework to Strengthen Community Corrections. The state plans to establish an incentive fund to reward counties that reduce the number of adults who are sent to The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act prison because of probation revocations; the counties will becomes law and includes a provision incorporating key receive a portion of the incarceration costs avoided by the recommendations from the Pew Center on the States’ No state and apply the grants to develop evidence-based com- Time to Vote report. In accordance with Pew’s recommen- munity corrections practices such as intensive probation dations, the legislation will expedite the transmission of ab- supervision and risk and needs assessments. In addition, sentee ballots to military personnel and civilians abroad to the Illinois legislature passes the Crime Reduction Act of provide more time for them to vote in U.S. elections and 2009, which includes aspects of the Policy Framework. return their ballots in time to be counted. At the federal level, two bills emerge that would establish funding streams to advance many of the sentencing and corrections reforms that the Public Safety Performance The Pew Center on the States releases a report demon- Project has recommended. The first, the Criminal Justice strating that some of the same pressures that led to Reinvestment Act of 2009, is introduced in both the Senate California’s current economic difficulties are also af- and House. Inspired by the success of Pew and its partners fecting a number of other states, with potentially damag- in states such as Texas and Kansas, this bipartisan legisla- ing consequences for the entire country. The report, Beyond tion creates a significant grant program to support states in California: States in Fiscal Peril, looks at all 50 states, focus- developing and implementing data-driven, fiscally responsi- ing primarily on the top 10 most troubled, which Pew’s ble sentencing and corrections strategies. Trust / Spring 2010 29

The second, the Honest Opportunity Probation with Enforce- dentists, states have turned to these medical providers to ment (HOPE) Act, is introduced in the House. It authorizes deliver important dental health services such as fluoride ap- appropriations and creates competitive grants for pilots that plication, oral health assessments and parent education. replicate Hawaii’s innovative and successful HOPE proba- tion program, which uses swift, certain and appropriate PosterAdministrationCollection Projects Congress/Work of Library sanctions to respond to those who violate the conditions of The U.S. House of Repre- their community supervision. Research has shown that this sentatives Energy and approach significantly cuts new arrests, drug use and the Commerce Committee use of prison space to house violators. unanimously passes the At the request of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, staff Food Safety Enhance- of the Pew Center on the States brief senior federal officials ment Act of 2009, a bi- on how sentencing and corrections reform in the states partisan bill that embod- could apply at the federal level. Holder praises Pew’s work ies virtually all of the core as “potentially transformative.” principles advocated by Pew and its food safety coalition. The bill is the Even in these difficult economic times, Pre-K Now advocates first on comprehensive are successfully preventing drastic cuts to pre-kinder- food safety reform to pass garten funding. President Obama proposes a budget with a congressional commit- Food diligence in 1937. Safety checks, of course, must begin long before measures to improve and increase early education opportu- tee in more than 50 the food reaches the shelves. nities nationwide. years. Pre-K Now’s report Votes Count: Legislative Action on Pre-K In public statements, both Democratic and Republican Fiscal Year 2010 demonstrates that, even when facing bud- committee members mention the victims of food-borne illness get gaps of up to 35 percent, legislators in 29 states and who have spoken at the launch of the Make Our Food Safe the District of Columbia vote to increase or protect funding coalition, established by the Pew Health Group’s Food for pre-kindergarten in 2009. Safety Campaign. The report also shows that dollars added for existing and new programs create a modest national net gain in funding. In Tennessee, for example, the legislature votes to maintain The Physician Payments Sunshine Act, the pharmaceutical- previous levels of support for the state’s voluntary pre- industry disclosure bill that is a key deliverable of the Pew kindergarten program with general fund dollars, instead of Prescription Project, is included in a major health reform bill less reliable lottery funds. passed by the U.S. Senate. The provision requires pharmaceu- tical and medical-device companies to publicly report their gifts and payments to physicians and other health-care entities. The The Pew Center on the States and Capitolbeat, the associa- project’s staff work closely with congressional offices to fine- tion of statehouse reporters and editors, co-sponsor a series tune the legislative language. of regional forums designed to inform journalists The 2009 iteration of the PharmFree Scorecard is issued. about current and long-term economic and fiscal It is a joint project of the Pew Prescription Project and the challenges facing the states. American Medical Student Association that assesses medical The first two forums, held in Indianapolis, Indiana, and schools for policies ensuring that medical education, training Pew’s office in Washington, D.C., attract several dozen top and patient care are free of commercial bias. The scorecard reporters and feature expert presentations on topics such as shows that most U.S. medical schools still lack strong the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and national policies that would create a barrier between training and and regional economic forecasts. commercial entities. (Only seven of 150 schools evaluated receive grades at the A level).

More than 350 participants from 49 states and the District of Columbia attend a webinar hosted by the Pew Children’s In its continuing effort to direct public and policy-maker atten- Dental Campaign, which focuses on a state policy innova- tion to the size and scope of federal subsidies, the Pew Eco- tion that enables medical providers to be reimbursed nomic Policy Group’s Subsidyscope project disseminates for preventive dental care. Because most children see an analysis of Amtrak’s financial performance on 44 doctors and nurses earlier and more often than they see routes nationwide. Using a formula that includes depre- 30 Trust / Spring 2010

ciation and overhead when of adults look online for health information. This figure calculating loss or profit represents a dramatic increase from 2000, when only 25 per passenger on each of percent of adults did so. The report draws significant inter- its rail lines (an accounting est from health care professionals, including representatives practice used in other cap- from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for ital-intensive industries), Disease Control and Prevention, who request advance Subsidyscope determines briefings on the findings.

that 41 of the 44 routes Abbott/www.jbabbott.comJim lost money in 2008. Ac- cording to the report, the rail line averages a loss of

© David Wasserman/Brand Wasserman/Brand X © Pictures/JupiterImages David more than $32 per pas- senger, a figure four times higher than projections us- ing Amtrak’s calculations. Subsidyscope also launches a comprehensive, searchable database of all taxpayer-funded subsidies to the transporta- tion sector. This first-of-its-kind online tool allows users to explore and sort federal assistance according to parameters such as grant recipient, state and government program.

After nearly three years of developing the most comprehensive facts, figures and trends about mobility and opportunity in The Berlin Wall in 1990, a few months after it “fell.” the United States, the Economic Mobility Project releases Renewing the American Dream: A Road Map to Enhanc- ing Economic Mobility in America. The report makes Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the popula- more than 25 recommendations to improve education and tions of former Soviet Bloc nations generally look back workforce development outcomes (human capital), strengthen approvingly at the fall of Communism, according to a survey the bonds of family and community (social capital) and en- released by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes hance Americans’ ability to build assets (financial capital). Project. Majorities in most former Soviet republics and Eastern European countries endorse the emergence of multiparty democracies and capitalist economic systems. Old age is neither as difficult as younger people However, the initial widespread enthusiasm about these think it will be nor as rewarding as older adults would developments has diminished significantly over time, and in like, according to the Pew Research Center’s Social and many nations, significant percentages of those polled now Demographic Trends Project. Its report, based on a survey say that most people were better off under Communism. For of nearly 3,000 people, finds that on a series of negative example, in Russia, a majority agree that it is a great misfortune benchmarks—including memory loss and struggles with that the Soviet Union no longer exists. loneliness and depression—seniors fare better than younger adults expect they will when they grow old. At the same time, older adults report experiencing fewer The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life presents a com- of the benefits of aging that younger adults expect to enjoy prehensive demographic study on Islam, which finds in their senior years, such as engaging in hobbies, spending that there are 1.57 billion Muslims of all ages living in more time with family or doing volunteer work. than 200 countries, representing 23 percent of an estimated The report’s finding that 79 percent of those surveyed world population of 6.8 billion. These findings lay the founda- believe there is a generation gap—the highest figure since tion for a 2010 report that will estimate growth rates among 1969—draws particular media attention. Muslim populations worldwide and forecast population growth for the future. A similar study of global Christianity is scheduled for 2010. According to a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Both projects will be funded in part by a $3-million grant Project and the California HealthCare Foundation, 61 percent from the John Templeton Foundation for the Pew-Templeton Trust / Spring 2010 31

Global Religious Futures Project, a major new initiative Since the inception of the Cultural Data Project, an online that aims to increase people’s understanding of religion management tool to strengthen arts and culture organiza- around the world. tions, Pew raises more than $9.5 million for state-specific Toward that end, the project releases Global Restrictions efforts and $2.2 million to expand the project’s national on Religion, the first quantitative study to measure how reach. Recent donations include a second three-year grant governments and private individuals, organizations and social of $1 million from the Irvine Foundation to support the proj- groups infringe on religious beliefs and practices around the ect in California and $1.2 million from the Kresge Foundation world. The analysis, based on an extensive number of to support nationwide expansion. sources that cover 198 countries and self-administering ter- ritories representing more than 99.5 percent of the world’s population, finds that about one-third of countries have high or very high restrictions on religion. However, because some of the most restrictive nations are very populous, nearly 70 percent of the world’s 6.8 billion people live in areas with high restrictions on religion, the brunt of which often falls on religious minorities.

In another poll, the Pew Forum finds thatmany Americans mix multiple faiths, engaging in multiple religious prac- tices and mixing elements of diverse traditions. Many also blend Christianity with Eastern or New Age beliefs such as reincarnation, astrology and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects. And sizeable minorities of all major U.S. religious groups say they have experienced supernatural phenomena, such as being in touch with the dead or with ghosts. The Pew Forum finds that one-third of Americans say they regularly (9 percent) or occasionally (26 percent) attend Jamara Griffin and Anthony Mackie star in Night Catches Us. Courtesy religious services at more than one place; most of these of Tanya Hamilton. (24 percent of the public overall) indicate that they some- times attend religious services of a faith different from their Night Catches Us, a film written and directed by Tanya own. Aside from their participation in special events such as Hamilton, 2004 Pew fellow in the arts, is chosen for view- weddings and funerals or periods of traveling, 3 in 10 Prot- ing in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, a major showcase estants attend services outside their own denomination, and for independent American cinema. She has worked on the one-fifth of Catholics say they sometimes attend non-Cath- project for more than a decade. An early draft of the screen- olic services. play won the top screenwriting award at the Urbanworld Film Festival in 1999. The plot is described as focusing “on the eventful return of a young man to the race-torn Philadel- Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center’s phia neighborhood where he grew up during the Black Power Project for Excellence in Journalism, testifies before Con- movement.” gress’s Joint Economic Committee hearing on “The Future of Newspapers: The Impact on the Economy and Democracy.” Rosenstiel discusses the newspaper in- The Elmina B. Sewall Foundation gifts $2.6 million for dustry’s financial struggles and at times challenges popular four land trust projects, all in the state of Maine and all misconceptions. within the Northeast Land Trust Consortium. These funds For example, while many people believe that audience will help to preserve several coastal islands within reason- declines are the primary cause of the industry’s woes, able reach of the mainland, the 37,000-acre Katahdin Iron Rosenstiel points out that, if both print and online editions Works property and the nearby Moose River parcel in the are taken into account, many newspaper companies are North Woods, as well as the Piscataquis Preserve, a seeing their audiences grow. Online growth, however, is not 1,200-acre tract of conifer and deciduous forest in the generating sufficient revenue to compensate for steep de- Penobscot River Basin that includes a one-of-a kind grove clines in print advertising. of American chestnut trees. 32PerspectivesTrust / Spring 2010

Carol W. Greider, Ph.D., a 1990 delayed. This is the case in cancer benefits of their research for society. Pew scholar in the biomedical sciences cells, which can be considered to Begun in 1985, the program has in- and now professor of molecular biol- have eternal life. Certain inherited vested more than $125 million to fund ogy and genetics at the Johns Hopkins diseases, in contrast, are character- more than 460 individuals. Scholars University School of Medicine, received ized by a defective telomerase, result- have won three Nobel Prizes as well as the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology ing in damaged cells. The award of MacArthur fellowships, Albert Lasker or Medicine, sharing the award with the Nobel Prize recognizes the dis- Medical Research Awards and other Jack W. Szostak of Massachusetts covery of a fundamental mechanism honors. General Hospital and Elizabeth H. in the cell, a discovery that has stimu- Greider was featured in the sum- Blackburn of the University of Cali- lated the development of new thera- mer 2007 issue of Trust, which also fornia at San Francisco. peutic strategies.” contained an article on the biomedi- The three scientists solved the biol- More remains to be known, Greider cal scholars program as a whole. At ogy question of how chromosomes, says—for instance, how the telomeres www.pewtrusts.org, you can access which contain DNA molecules, can be maintain their length, or “length equi- the magazine from the menu on the copied in a complete way during cell librium,” since telomeres that are either home page. For more about the division and how they are protected too long or too short can cause damage. program, click on Emerging Science against degradation. They showed, as Following the early-morning notice under Health in the left-hand column. the Nobel Assembly put it, that “the (she was folding laundry and getting solution is to be found in the ends of her two children off to school when the Marc Brodzik knows a good idea the chromosomes—the telomeres—and Nobel Committee called), the editor- when he sees it. For instance, the in an enzyme that forms them—telom- in-chief of Nobelprize.org asked Greider senior citizens who caught his atten- erase.” what attracted her to the telomerase tion during his regular breakfasts at Blackburn and Szostak “discovered question, “Curiosity,” she said, “drove Sulimay’s Restaurant in the Fishtown that a unique DNA sequence in the me there.” area of Philadelphia. telomeres protects the chromosomes” “Was it a difficult question to “I would see these three characters and then Greider and Blackburn answer?” talking, and they were like the stars at “identified telomerase, the enzyme “It was really unknown. It wasn’t Sulimay’s,” he says. “You see that quality that makes telomere DNA. These clear whether it was going to be dif- in people, and you can’t help but laugh discoveries explained how the ends of ficult or not,” she said, adding, “It was into your pancakes.” the chromosomes are protected by the just, you know, diving into the un- Brodzik, a 2009 Pew fellow in the telomeres and that they are built by known.” arts, had just started working on Web- telomerase,” the assembly noted. The Pew Scholars Program in the based video projects a couple of years “If the telomeres are shortened, Biomedical Sciences provides support ago, when he had an idea for a show cells age. Conversely, if telomerase that enables scientists in health fields that would feature senior citizens activity is high, telomere length is to take calculated risks and follow reviewing cutting-edge music. He maintained, and cellular senescence is unanticipated leads to maximize the discussed the concept with his pro- ducer and later approached the trio in the diner. They agreed. The result is the viral phenomenon Breakfast at Sulimay’s, which airs weekly on Brodzik’s Web sites, Scrapple TV (www.scrapple.tv) and Woodshop Films AP/Wide World World AP/Wide Photos (www.woodshopfilms.com) and is available on YouTube, where the most popular episode has over 100,000 views. Joe Walker, 84, Bill Able, 75, and Ann Bailey, 66 (who replaced an original member who found early on that show biz was just not for him), are the capable stars of the show. They are filmed in short episodes, listening through ear buds to music—the latest in heavy

Carol Greider receives the Nobel Prize medal from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Trust / Spring 2010 33

Anahi Baca Anahi edge. But while others struggle to advertising school to avoid the military imagine the future of journalism, he as a career, Brodzik never studied art seems to have been there already and history. “I am the common guy,” he is back to tell the rest of us about it. claims. “I started exploring art, looking In his large studio space in the North- at it from the common perspective and ern Liberties section of Philadelphia, a just re-spitting it out with my own slant.” team of interns is shooting and edit- It is exactly this flair for showing us ing videos destined for Scrapple TV. something new in the everyday that The Pew fellowship will provide the has made Breakfast at Sulimay’s the start-up capital, but he expects to sustain Internet sensation it is. the operation with advertising revenue. “I have the ability to connect with In its current state, Scrapple TV is people, no matter who they are,” says an assortment of video clips. Some of Brodzik. “I see the star in everyone.” his early work satirized mass consum- Anahi Baca erism through a series of mock adver- tising campaigns. Even when he is Last summer, the Victims of Commu- irreverent, however, his magic ingre- nism Memorial Foundation, based in dient is the compassion with which he Washington, D.C., launched an online Marc Brodzik: a star who sees the star approaches his subjects, perhaps most Global Museum on Communism, in everyone. evident in his 2006 film Hard Coal: and in a subsequent letter to Pew presi- Last of the Bootleg Miners, a documen- dent and CEO Rebecca Rimel, Lee metal, electronic dance music, what- tary about family-owned anthracite Edwards, Ph.D., the foundation’s chair- ever else is hot—after which they give coal mines in Pennsylvania. man, described the launch and initial their honest, and often unexpected, Brodzik came into contact with the impact of the Pew-supported project. opinions (“This is music?”). miners when he rode dirt bikes in “In less than two years,” he wrote, Breakfast at Sulimay’s is both comi- small Pennsylvania towns and felt a “the museum moved from an ‘inspired cal and refreshing, and while it seems deep and immediate connection. “At idea’ to a world-class Internet platform natural that it’s been covered locally first I didn’t even realize it was coal I that will help educate this and future in The Philadelphia Inquirer and was riding on,” he recalls. “I would generations about the history, philoso- Philadelphia Weekly, Brodzik is a bit talk to [the miners] and relate to phy and legacy of communism. The surprised at just how far and wide the them, and they would tell me their museum has the potential to reach show’s notoriety has spread. It was hardship stories.” and teach people every hour of every recently featured on National Public With a partner, he was able to make day, regardless of where they are in Radio’s All Things Considered and has the film on a shoestring budget. It the world.” even garnered notice in England, with has been screened at seven film festi- The site can be found at www mentions in Time Out London, the vals, winning Best Feature Documen- .globalmuseumoncommunism.org. It Guardian and The Independent. tary Award at the 2009 DIY Film Festi- contains global maps, timelines and Despite its popularity, Breakfast is a val in Los Angeles, and is being essays as well as photographs, videos small part of Brodzik’s repertoire of considered for a reality-based show. and audio recordings. Major sections shows. All of them are part of Scrapple While Hard Coal is an example of include exhibitions arranged by TV, a Web site he calls his “pirate TV Brodzik at his most subdued, there is nation, a Gallery of Heroes, a Hall of station,” growing, he says, to fill the gap something unsettling behind the humor Infamy and a Victims Registry, telling in local news coverage as local printed of his early pieces based on commer- “the heroic stories of everyday people weeklies continue to downsize. The cial imagery. Aside from his consider- who suffered under, and ultimately Web is the future of journalism, he is able talent in figurative painting, there triumphed over, communist regimes,” convinced. His interns “don’t read is a message to his art: People should Edwards noted. newspapers. They might look at maga- trust in themselves, not in canned In September, Communication Arts zines, but it’s rare,” he says, adding, information or advertising campaigns magazine chose the site as a “Web pick “My children, who are 4 and 7, won’t provided by mass media. of the week,” and Edwards pointed know what a newspaper was.” Brodzik’s feel for art is largely self- out that since opening, the museum With his grizzly beard and denim developed. A graduate of a vocational has received more than 50,000 unique overalls, Brodzik may not look cutting- high school who says he went to visitors from over 100 countries. 34 Trust / Spring 2010

On the Record For context and specifics, go to www.pewtrusts.org

“When Peter Benchley wrote Jaws, when modernize their registration systems to “Presidents since Theodore Roosevelt Steven Spielberg turned it into a film ensure that these highly mobile voters have recognized that the Grand Canyon, more than 34 years ago, and when those receive ballots and voting information at America’s national icon, must be pre- of us who acted in it helped create the the correct address.” served for future generations to enjoy. first summer blockbuster, nobody imag- Rear Adm. (Ret.) James J. Carey, senior policy Now it’s time for Congress to safeguard ined the unintended consequences that adviser, Pew Center on the States, and founding the Grand Canyon from threats posed by would follow. chairman, National Defense Committee, in an the 1872 mining law and permanently “Jaws intensified the public’s already op-ed in The Washington Times. protect this natural wonder.” existing fear of sharks, fueling mispercep- Jane Danowitz, director, Pew Environment Group’s tions that have given cover to an industry “All of our meetings confirmed that U.S. Public Lands Program, after the Department of the which kills vast numbers of these magnifi- Denmark’s swine industry is successful Interior received 98,355 messages for such action. cent creatures each year, thereby deplet- and growing post-ban [i.e., the ban of the use ing a keystone predator that helps maintain of antibiotics in healthy food animals]. The “We’re standing at an important crossroads the health of our oceans. . . . pork producers and those who represent for public health in the United States. “We can write a new chapter in the them are fiercely proud of how they raise Chronic diseases such as asthma and relationship between people and sharks, their pigs. diabetes are increasing, and health-care one based on an accurate portrayal of “Contrary to U.S. agribusiness claims costs are increasing along with them. . . . these creatures and the vital role they about the ban, the average number of pigs “We now know that the social, environ- play. When Peter Benchley fully realized produced per sow per year has increased mental and economic conditions in com- the plight of sharks, he devoted much from 21 to 25 (this is an important indicator munities are important drivers of health. effort toward the end of his life in trying of swine health and welfare, according to If we’re going to address chronic disease, to alter their image in the public eye. Peter veterinarians). we need to create the conditions in com- was right. Rather than fearing sharks, we “Most important, total antibiotic use munities where everyone can be healthy.” should fear for them.” has declined by 51 percent since an all-time Aaron Wernham, M.D., director, Health Richard Dreyfuss, actor, and Joshua Reichert, high in 1992. Plus, the Danish industry Impact Project, a collaboration of the managing director, Pew Environment Group, in an group told us that the ban did not increase Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew op-ed in the Miami Herald. the cost of meat for the consumer.” Charitable Trusts, on YouTube. Laura Rogers, project director, Pew Campaign on “At a certain point, if you keep cutting Human Health and Industrial Farming, in an online “People two, three or four years apart are and cutting, you start eating away at the op-ed at the Huffington Post. having completely different experiences fabric of what makes your city your city, with technology. College students scratch what makes it different than other cities, “[F]or a while, we were all told that deficits their heads at what their high school what makes it a good place to live. There didn’t matter. As we’ve learned, they do siblings are doing, and they scratch their obviously is a tipping point.” matter. We may have not been able to heads at their younger siblings. It has Larry Eichel, project director, Pew’s Philadelphia avoid deficits in the past two years as the sped up generational differences.” Research Initiative, in an article on budget cuts in government tried to fix the economy, but Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Phoenix, Ariz., in The Arizona Republic. I’m not worried about two years. I’m worried Internet & American Life Project, about the path that our debt is on, even quoted in The New York Times. “We need to extend the MOVE [Military after the economy gets better.” and Overseas Voter Empowerment] Act’s Former U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm, co-chairman, “Our nation’s highway system benefits improvements to state and local elections Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform all Americans, even those who are not and fix an outmoded voter registration and the Committee for a Responsible Federal drivers. However, in recent years, user system that has failed to keep pace with Budget, in an op-ed in the Ft. Worth, revenues are paying for a smaller share Texas, Star-Telegram, upon release of the technology. Overseas voters—just like of the pie. That means the broader commission’s report Red Ink Rising: A Call to population is paying a bigger share.” their neighbors at home—deserve a system Action to Stem the Mounting Federal Debt. that works no matter what races are on Marcus Peacock, director, Pew Economic Policy the ballot. Group’s Subsidyscope, upon release of an analysis “Minnesota is a couple of years ahead of showing the funding sources of U.S. highways. “As states implement the changes a wave of activity across the states. It’s an required by the MOVE Act, they should idea that is sweeping the country.” make it easier for military and overseas Shelly Gehshan, director, Pew Children’s Dental voters to cast state and local ballots as Campaign, in the St. Paul Pioneer Press about a new well. At the same time, states should Minnesota program to license dental therapists. Trust / Spring 2010 35

In reply, Rimel described the special interest that one of Pew’s founders “State after state has looked at the data would have had in the museum. “Much and made sensible investments in pre- of the history documented by your new kindergarten education. Now, federal virtual exhibitions was yet to unfold lawmakers have a chance to make a new when J. Howard Pew succeeded his important investment in children’s father as president of the Sun Company earliest learning years.” in 1912. He could have imagined neither Susan K. Urahn, managing director, the horrors nor the heroism that would Pew Center on the States, in a Forbes commentary on strengthening the pending accompany the rise and fall of com- Early Learning Challenge Fund bill in Congress. munisms around the world over the next century. “I spent 30 years in the U.S. Senate work- “Indeed, his strong commitment to ing on behalf of our men and women in advancing the cause of individual liberty uniform serving our country and on the and free markets would be forged in issues related to the impact of climate the midst of this drama. His life and changes on their future military roles and legacy were devoted to supporting missions. Leading military and security political freedoms that encourage experts agree that, if left unchecked, global open competition in enterprise and warming could increase instability and individual involvement in civic affairs.” lead to conflict in already fragile regions Mr. Pew would surely have been A Latino millennial considers the possibilities: self- of the world. portrait by Ignacio Guajardo. Courtesy of the artist. “We ignore these facts at the peril of one of the museum’s unique visitors, our national security and at great risk to Rimel said: “He would have been those in uniform who serve this nation.” deeply moved by its content and these young Latinos become will help Former Sen. John Warner on panel especially pleased by its universal shape the kind of society America discussions of the Pew Project on National availability.” becomes in the 21st century. Security, Energy and Climate. The data are mixed, the study The Pew Research Center has begun indicates. Young Latinos are satisfied “What’s really exceptional at this stage of a year-long series of original reports with their lives, optimistic about their Obama’s presidency is the extent to which exploring the behaviors, values and futures and value education, hard the public has moved in a conservative opinions of today’s teens and twenty- work and career success. Yet they are direction on a range of issues. . . . Pew somethings—the so-called millennial much more likely than other American Research surveys throughout the year generation. The premise is that youths to drop out of school and to have found a downward slope in support both for an activist government generally generations, like people, have per- become teenage parents. They are and for a strong safety net for the needy, sonalities, and their collective identi- more likely than white and Asian in particular.” ties can be seen when they reach the youths to live in poverty. And they Andrew Kohut, president, Pew Research Center, age when they can act on their have high levels of exposure to gangs. cited in The Weekly Standard. values, attitudes and world views. These are attitudes and behaviors The series will raise such questions that, through history, have often been “Poetry has given people solace for about the millennials as: Who are they? associated with the immigrant experi- thousands of years, entertained and How are they different from, and simi- ence, the report says. But most Latino nurtured them, but these days it seems lar to, their parents? How is their mo- youths are not immigrants, it notes. odd to many of us. It doesn’t affect the ment in history shaping them? And how Two-thirds were born in the United stock market, and it can’t change the might they, in turn, reshape America? States, many of them descendants of course of a war. Why read poetry?” The first report came from the Pew the big, ongoing wave of Latin Ameri- Jeanne Murray Walker, 1998 Pew fellow Hispanic Center in December. Latinos can immigrants who began coming to in the arts, discussing her latest book of poems, New Tracks, Night Falling, in the are the largest and youngest minority this country around 1965. Wilmington, Del., News Journal. group in the United States (never before The report explores the attitudes, in this country’s history has a minority values, social behaviors, family ethnic group made up so large a share characteristics, economic well-being, of the youngest Americans). By force educational attainment and labor- of numbers alone, the kinds of adults force outcomes of young Latinos. 36 Trust / Spring 2010

Letters

Journalism becomes the story what citizens would know and not know from traditional media—most of them I just received my [vol. 12, no. 1] copy about where they live? newspapers. These stories then tended to of Trust. And, although I have not fully The questions are becoming increas- set the narrative agenda for most other read this edition, I am glad to see you have ingly urgent. As the economic model that media outlets. an article on journalism in America [“Bleak has subsidized professional journalism House”]. A serious and timely subject. collapses, the number of people gathering The editor adds: I have read many an You “guys” do such a wonderful job news in traditional television, print and editor’s farewell message but never seen and have such credibility! Keep up the radio organizations is shrinking markedly. one added to a reader’s letter. Yet this wonderful work. What, if anything, is taking up that slack? seems as good a place as any for me— DAVID BANNER The answers are a moving target; even who will retire in March—to say goodbye, West River, Maryland trying to figure out how to answer them since the context involves two elements is a challenge. But a new study by the Pew that have so often made my day. Research Center’s Project for Excellence One prompted Mr. Banner’s letter and The editor responds: You may also be in Journalism, which takes a close look at many others through the years: Pew’s interested in the recent How News Hap- the news ecosystem of one city, suggests thorough, relevant and pragmatic work pens: A Study of the News Ecosystem of that while the news landscape has rapidly on issues that matter—and (as seen in One American City by the Pew Research expanded, most of what the public learns my remarks above) the way that Pew’s Center’s Project on Excellent in Journal- is still overwhelmingly driven by tradi- initiatives, after they make their mark, ism, found at www.journalism.org. This is tional media—particularly newspapers. can keep the ball rolling. from the report’s introduction: The study, which examined all the The other has been the privilege of Where does the news come from in outlets that produced local news in conveying all that good stuff to readers in today’s changing media? Baltimore, Md., for one week, surveyed the most inviting way that I and my Who really reports the news that most their output and then did a closer exami- colleagues, plus a design firm and many people get about their communities? What nation of six major narratives during the other freelancers, could imagine. role do new media, blogs and specialty week, finds that much of the “news” people As Trust’s founding editor, I have had news sites now play? receive contains no original reporting. this credo: The magazine should stand as How, in other words, does the modern Fully 8 out of 10 stories studied simply tall in its world as Pew’s projects are in news “ecosystem” of a large American city repeated or repackaged previously pub- their fields. That Trust has indeed served work? And if newspapers were to die—to lished information. as a publication the organization holds the extent that we can infer from the current And of the stories that did contain new high is a sweet memory to carry into landscape—what would that imply for information, nearly all, 95 percent, came retirement. Marshall Ledger

The full report, Between Two The group recommends that to reach that figure in eight years. Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Congress and the White House The Peterson-Pew Commission on Age in America, can be accessed Budget Reform is a partnership of the at http://pewhispanic.org. All of •adopt an ambitious, but achievable Peter G. Peterson Foundation, The the Pew Research Center’s reports target that would reduce the public Pew Charitable Trusts and the Com- on millennials are available at debt to 60 percent of the gross mittee for a Responsible Federal http://pewresearch.org/millennials. domestic product by 2018; Budget. It does not endorse specific •negotiate a specific package of tax and spending policies but aims to The national debt stands at $7.6 spending reductions and tax in- build bipartisan consensus for a core trillion and is growing fast, rising by creases that are gradually phased set of reforms. nearly $2 trillion in 2009—an unsustain- in to protect the recovering econo- The commission comprises former able rate and a threat to the economy, my; and members of Congress, including co- according to the report Red Ink Rising: •create an automatic enforcement chairs Bill Frenzel, Tim Penny and A Call to Action to Stem the Mounting mechanism to keep revenues and Charlie Stenholm, as well as former Federal Debt, issued in December by spending on target. heads of the Office of Management the Peterson-Pew Commission on and Budget, the Congressional Bud- Budget Reform. The commission calls The commission followed this report get Office and the Government Ac- on policy makers to enact both spend- with Budget Blueprint: Paths to 60%, countability Office, plus other fiscal ing cuts and tax increases to shift our which demonstrates the types and experts. To access all of its work, go nation’s fiscal course. magnitude of policy changes needed to http://budgetreform.org. Photography by Adam Wallacavage for the for Mural ArtsWallacavage by Adam Photography Program © City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program

An art exhibition you can see from The murals were supported by the an elevated train—that is Love Pew Center for Arts and Heritage Letter, a series of murals along through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Market Street in West Philadelphia, Initiative and completed with the and probably best seen by the El that city’s permission (and that of busi- goes up and down that route. nesspeople and building owners The project includes 50 rooftop along the corridor), in partnership and street-level paintings, each with the city’s Mural Arts Program, depicting a love letter from one which is supported in part by Pew’s person to another, from an artist to Culture program and the Pew Fund his hometown and from local resi- for Health and Human Services in dents to their West Philadelphia Philadelphia. neighborhood. Sometimes a single More than 30 artists participated. In message “jumps” from one building addition, Powers recruited residents wall to another, with the El rider to help, and the Mural Arts Program following it as the train moves on. offered a course in vinyl art painting, The collection, which garnered with students creating new signage for articles in The New York Times, The businesses on Market Street. Philadelphia Inquirer and the Wall Love Letter is slated to be docu- Street Journal, is the brainchild of mented in two books, a film and a Steve Powers, Philadelphia native gallery exhibition. To download a map and former graffiti writer (known as of the project so that you can take the Espo), who has become an estab- tour, visit www.aloveletterforyou.com or lished gallery artist, illustrator and www.muralarts.org. You can also follow Fulbright scholar; he now lives in the project on Twitter@aloveletter4u. New York City. Emily Cheramie Walz NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID CINNAMINSON, NJ One Commerce Square 2005 Market Street, Suite 1700 PERMIT NO. 579 Philadelphia, PA 19103-7077

FSC LOGO HERE Jupiter Images Unlimited Images Jupiter

Why should credit cards—an economic conven- ience—pose a risk to one’s health and well-being? In helping right a wrong, the Pew Health Group didn’t settle for “business as usual.”