A campaign to raise the minimum wage to a "living wage" has been waged in cities around the country with great success. Over 100 cities and counties have passed a living wage law of some sort. Generally, these laws require that businesses that have contracts with the city provide a specified wage and benefits package that is higher than the federal minimum (one city, Santa Fe, New Mexico, has gone further, adopting a minimum wage for all businesses with more than 25 employees). Living Wage laws tend to be the result of campaigns fought by community groups like ACORN, churches and labor unions. More

From the Homestead Act to the GI Bill to home mortgage deductions, Americans have recognized that it is good public policy to help people build assets. 

Like the distribution of assets in the U.S., however, the distribution of incentives is skewed. Ninety percent of the benefits of the two largest asset-building programs in the country – home mortgage interest deduction and tax-free retirement savings – go to the wealthiest 55 percent of Americans. More

Proponents of caps on medical malpractice awards frequently cite California's Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975 as evidence that caps hold down insurance rates. In fact, the state's rate increases were the same as the national average until 1988 when voters passed Proposition 103, which requires insurance companies to open their books and justify rate increases. In 2003, the California Insurance Commissioner directed the state's second largest malpractice insurer to cut its proposed 15.6 percent increase to 9.9 percent. Physicians saved millions on additional premiums, and the insurance company remained profitable. More

Proponents of this idea say older drivers, women, lower income drivers, households with more cars than drivers and commuters will all benefit from the new auto insurance policy.

Preschool has been shown to increase students' performance in high school, increase test scores, decrease the likelihood of being arrested for a violent offense as a juvenile, and decrease the likelihood that a child will experience abuse and/or neglect.

An earned income tax credit (EITC) is a tax reduction and wage supplement for low- and moderate-income working families. To qualify, one's income must be earned; welfare benefits, interest on savings, or dividends on stocks don't count. More

One of the most effective ways to improve student achievement and curb school violence is to reduce the size of the nation's schools. Hundreds of studies have found that students who attend small schools outperform those in large schools on every academic measure from grades to test scores. They are less likely to dropout and more likely to attend college. More

Citizen-led efforts to institute more universal health care programs are cropping up across the country.

Some are very similar to the Canadian health care system. They call for a single-payer system, meaning that medical care would be paid for out of a single publicly administered pool of money, rather than by myriad managed care plans. In most plans the health insurance program would be administered by a health care "trust," governed by a combination of stakeholders, including health care advocates, providers, organizations and experts, taxpayer representatives, and state officials. More

Since 1971, all but five states have been sued over educational equity and adequacy in school funding. In twenty-seven of these states, the plaintiffs won. In this section we highlight model state policies that ensure schools in poor districts have access to financial resources at least equal to their more fortunate counterparts. More