Building a New America New America’s 2016 Annual Report NEW The Future of War: New Slowly But Surely: We studied the evolution of AMERICA 7 America partnered with 16 early learning in Indiana, a state where half of Arizona State University on the all children ages 0-5 live in low-income families, and Future of War project, bringing the state’s possibility of pre-K expansion in upcoming together experts to understand years. Mapping Seattle and address the changing nature of armed conflict and War and Tweets: We examined the importance 2 systematic violence. 17 of policies that support and encourage civic Walsh County resilience by taking a closer look at the Pulse nightclub Our Work 11 8 The Care Index: We published the Care Index, a shooting in Orlando, in a report, War and Tweets. Cumberland 11 data and methodology collaboration with To build a new America, our community Care.com, which illustrated the U.S.’s patchwork 18 How Everything Became War: Rosa Brooks’s 3 13 system of child care. Our subsequent Care Report book How Everything Became War and the of thinkers, writers, researchers, Essex County 11 Minneapolis humanized the data, focusing on four states as case Military Became Everything delved into the fading technologists, and activists are working Boston studies, and proposing thoughtful policy solutions. distinction between war and peace at the Pentagon. 1 8 on projects spanning the country that 9 How to Fix Remediation at Scale: We reviewed 19 Improving Federal Transparency on Drones: affect the lives of millions. Here are 11 how community colleges in Colorado, Georgia, We encouraged the Obama administration to be 8 14 Berks County 3 24 Indiana, Tennessee, and West Virginia revamped more transparent about the CIA’s drone strikes, helping some of the highlights: Chicago N23ew York City remedial coursework. to encourage the administration to release more 18 information about civilian casualties. Baltimore 5 10 Parallel Play in the Education Sandbox: 3 9 10 16Arlington Dover 1 Through case studies of Indiana and Oklahoma, Building Congressional Capacity: Lee Drutman Sacramento we investigated how Common Core—developed by a 20 launched a bipartisan effort with R Street 1 San Francisco Oakland 1 Indianapolis Denver Washington DC bipartisan coalition—became a hot-button issue. to encourage Congress to reinvest in its own staff Honolulu San Jose 4 Springeld Charleston capacity. 1 7 19 20 21 Weather Eye: A data visualization project, led by 4 9 11 St. Louis 9 11 Fresno Sharon Burke and Emily Gallagher, identified 21 Building a Tech-Savvy Sedgwick 11 15Magon County Bertie County 22 the ten U.S. counties at especially high risk of severe Federal Government: 4 weather to better understand how communities are TechCongress, a fellowship 10 11 dealing with weather disasters. program incubated at the Open Technology Institute, Nashville Los Angeles 12 Leading Technology Conversations at SxSW: embedded its first fellows 8 Tulsa 1 11 9 New America drove the conversation around in congressional offices 6 policy and technology at the 2016 SxSW conference working on healthcare and Oklahoma with Travis Moore, Greta Byrum, and Rebecca cybersecurity. Tempe Albuquerque City Caddo Atlanta MacKinnon all speaking at the event. If You Build It: Our popular film screenings in Why Pre-K and the Early Stronger Teaching and 11 1 8 9 1 4 7 Pluralism on the Prairie: Conor P. Williams 22 2016 included If You Build It, which follows two Grades are Different: Through Caregiving for California’s 13 a blog series, we explored teacher Youngest: We studied communities Tarrant County 11 reviewed the best practices of Minnesota’s designer-activists working with high schools in North evaluation in seven states, and how in Fresno, Oakland, and East San Jose education policies designed to support Dual Language Carolina using a “build with, not for” approach to class classroom observations, student- as part of our research into teacher Learners, and what other states could learn from their design that elevates local voices. growth measures, and student surveys preparation. example. are being used in early grades. Austin Challenging the Unwarranted Use of Cell Site Boosting Retirement Savings Expanding to Chicago: In September, we 23 Simulators: We joined a complaint against the Promoting Fast, Affordable 5 for Millions: We proposed a 3 12 14 launched New America Chicago—the fourth Baltimore Police for using cell site simulators to track 2 Internet in Washington State: system of portable retirement accounts city in our growing National Network—to elevate new phones without a warrant, and called on the FCC to We partnered with the City of Seattle which California Gov. Jerry Brown Orlando voices solving public problems outside the Beltway. require police departments to obtain a license before to create an accurate map of residents’ signed into law in 2016, automatically using these devices. broadband quality to help inform future offering retirement savings accounts to 3 17 “The Real Reason broadband infrastructure investments. nearly seven million Californians. 15 Middle America Should Developing Community-Owned Wireless be Angry”: A cover story 24 Networks in New York City: We helped design Elementary Principal’s Corner: Putting Cybersecurity on in the Washington Monthly and build community-owned and operated networks 3 school principals from 6 the Big Screen: Peter Singer, told St. Louis’s story of in six New York City neighborhoods affected by five different cities shared their Emefa Agawu, and UCLA convened deindustrialization, and how Superstorm Sandy. recommendations with us about what Hollywood writers, producers, and should take place in pre-K and early executives in Los Angeles to workshop the city fell prey to predatory grade classrooms, and how school representations of cybersecurity in monopoly because of decisions districts can build principals’ expertise. media. made in Washington. Contents 1 Letter from the President 6 2 New America’s National Network 9 3 Our 2016 Annual Conference 14 4 The Shifting Definition of Work 16 5 Better Life Lab 18 6 Bretton Woods II 23 7 Cybersecurity Initiative 25 8 Education Policy 28 9 Family-Centered Social Policy 35 10 Fellows 37 11 Future Tense 41 12 International Reporting Project 42 13 International Security 43 14 Open Markets 49 15 Open Technology Institute 51 16 Opportunity@Work 57 17 Political Reform 59 18 Resilient Communities 61 19 Resource Security 63 20 The Weekly 65 21 Board of Directors 66 22 Our Donors 69 23 Financial Summary 78 New America By the Numbers 2,048 890 18 Media Published Citations in Citations Op-Eds News Editorials 444 Steps from the White House itations and C Op ia -E ed d Financial Times M s 4 citations New York Times 12 op-eds & articles 60 citations 32 op-eds & articles Slate 37 citations Washington Post 79 op-eds & articles 83 citations 22 op-eds & articles The Atlantic 22 citations Wall Street Journal 21 op-eds & articles 26 citations 7 op-eds & articles Politico 83 citations +90+288137100+4 a+79 11 op-eds & articles Views of our new Views of Rebecca website, launched in MacKinnon’s July TED May, representing a Talk on internet freedom 70% annual increase Views of Better Life Lab’s Care Report within two weeks of its publication Livestream views of our Cybersecurity Pageviews of our for a New America Weekly article on conference 2.4m military spouse unemployment 1m 900k 400k 100k 82k 83k 53k k 10k 20 2k 1k 650 100 55 0 J F M A M J J A S O N D Attendees Pageviews of at our Future our Terrorism in Measurement of War America project Lab tests run conference in June per day Monthly views of the Political Reform Media citations program’s Polyarchy for Better Life blog on Vox Lab’s Care Report 1 Letter from the President Anne-Marie Slaughter addresses the 2017 class of fellows and supporters at the annual welcome event. Photo: Erick Gibson New America’s 2016 Annual Report 7 Dear friends and supporters: We need a new America, now more than system and transfer government funds to ever. The upheaval of the 2016 election colleges and universities rather than to continues, with Americans deeply divided students. They propose that federal funding and seemingly less and less capable of seeing should be conditional on how well colleges and hearing each other as fellow citizens. have set up their recent graduates for We are responding to the deeper forces of success. technology, demography, and geography that have upended traditional ways of life in so • Lee Drutman of our Political Reform many communities across the country. And yet program team makes the case for “political from that division and those forces comes great dynamism.” He rejects the utopianism of opportunity for creativity and renewal. ridding ourselves of interest and faction and argues that the cure for what ails our New America was founded in 1999 precisely politics is “more politics,” driven by citizen to grapple with the economic, social, and participation and political entrepreneurship. cultural upheaval that we knew the Digital Age would bring about. Digital technology • Our Better Life Lab is changing the frame makes so many things possible that have never for work and family issues by focusing been possible before. But it also renders many on gender-neutral child care policy. In livelihoods and lifestyles obsolete. Vast wealth September we issued the New America is created, but how should it be distributed? Care Report and the Care Index—a data and Virtual connection is instant and ubiquitous, methodology collaboration with Care.com but how can we restore physical connection? which ranks states across the country on The people at the top have the world at their the accessibility, affordability, and quality of fingertips; the people at the bottom and in the childcare.