NEW EPI BOOK
Rethinking High School Graduation Rates and Trends
Scholars and educators disagree on the rate of graduation in U.S. high schools, and some new, widely reported statistics seriously understate minority graduation rates, failing to reflect the tremendous progress in the last few decades in closing the black-white and the Hispanic-white graduation gaps. Rethinking High School Graduation Rates and Trends analyzes the current sources of available data on high school completion and dropout rates and finds that, while graduation rates need much improvement, they are higher than in the past and getting better. Also to be found on EPI.org: a statement from Paul E. Barton, senior associate and former director of the Policy Information Center at Educational Testing Service; audio from a recent debate on high school completion featuring author Lawrence Mishel; and answers to some of the questions that have arisen in the public discussion of the issues raised in the book.

Misleading White House statements about the economy
Read the four-part EPI Snapshot series on the White House's misleading statements regarding income growth and median earnings, unemployment, and international comparisons of economic and employment growth. (Download the entire series as a PDF.)

EPI Issue Guide on offshoring updated
Check out EPI's recently revised Issue Guide on Offshoring. White-collar offshoring—the movement out of the United States of well-paid jobs that were once insulated from foreign competition—has been widely discussed in recent months as the information technology sector has experienced continued labor market slack. This guide is a downloadable online resource that includes data, charts, fact sheets, and links to other resources on the topic of offshoring.

Bush's new assault on retirement security and health benefits
Despite the Bush Administration's failed run at dismantling Social Security, it hasn't abandoned its attempts to shift the risks and costs of retirement savings onto some retirees. To add insult to injury, it has also announced that it will no longer reimburse health benefits for employees of its private contractors unless those benefits are "market based." Read EPI's Policy Memos, Bush's Latest Assault on Retirement Security and Bush Administration Forces Companies to Negotiate Worse Benefits, for a quick overview.

• In April, press attention always turns to taxes, and this year, EPI's Max Sawicky provided an insightful book, Bridging the Tax Gap, and testified on the issue before the House Small Business committee. An editorial in the Detroit Free Press quoted Sawicky's analysis of how much tax is owed, but not paid. Marketplace radio, CNBC, three local TV news shows, and a dozen different publications covered the tax analysis offered in the book. Sawicky's book points out that the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid is well north of $300 billion a year, an amount comparable in size to the federal budget deficit for the fiscal year that began last October.
  
  
• EPI was pleased to have contributed to the New Yorker's extensive article on poverty, (April 3, 2006, Relatively Deprived: How Poor is Poor? by John Cassidy). The article refers to the disconnect between the official poverty line and the actual cost of living: "Bernstein and Mishel argue that in some cities the poverty thresholds should be twice their current level."
  
  
• The immigration bill in Congress sparked intense interest in the economic impact of immigration, and EPI was often called on for analysis. Economist Jared Bernstein penned an op-ed for the Athens (Ga.) Banner Herald in which he asserted that "a hard look at the labor market suggests immigrant workers are not a threat to natives."
  
  
• EPI's point that insufficient job creation, not immigration, is the more-pressing problem was made in 20 newspapers, including the Baltimore Sun and the Dallas Morning News, as well as Dallas ABC affiliate, WFAA-TV. Other EPI analysis of the issue was picked up by National Public Radio, Reuters, The Associated Press, Knight-Rider news service, and 28 newspapers, including the Washington Post and the New York Times, and 46 television news shows in cities that include San Francisco, Austin, Syracuse, and Memphis.
  
  
• EPI challenged the accepted statistics on high school graduation rates in the new book, Rethinking High School Graduation Rates and Trends. By analyzing data from different, more accurate sources, the book reveals a far less disparaging picture of high school dropout rates. The book, and its challenge to previously accepted statistics, was covered in Education Week and 21 daily newspapers, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Washington Post.
  
  
• EPI and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities collaborated on a study showing there was no positive long-term economic effect from Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) legislation. The Associated Press, Gannett News Service, six newspapers, and a local ABC affiliate in Reno covered the results of the studies, which offer lessons for other states considering rigid TABOR-like spending limits.
  
  
• The Global Class War, by EPI founding president and distinguished fellow Jeff Faux, is on Foreign Affairs magazine's bestseller list and is already in its third printing. The book has garnered reviews in the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, Financial Times, and other publications. Faux is appearing in cities all over the country, speaking about the book (book tour schedule).

The mission of the Economic Policy Institute is to provide high-quality research and education in order to promote a prosperous, fair, and sustainable economy. The Institute stresses real world analysis and a concern for the living standards of working people, and it makes its findings accessible to the general public, the media, and policy makers.