The source for actionable policy ideas to spur innovation.
About the Policymaker's Toolbox
This tool provides policymakers access to actionable ideas that will create a better economy and improve our quality of life. We include not only all policy ideas from ITIF but also ideas from other organizations that we think are worthwhile. Please contact us if you have a recommendation for us to feature.
10 Most Popular Policy Ideas
Congress should allow states to require out-of-state sellers to collect sales tax, but it should only grant this authority under a framework that ensures that states create and maintain a fair and simple tax system that does not unduly burden out-of-state sellers. States rightly argue that tax laws need to evolve to allow them to require out-of-state sellers without nexus to collect and remit...
The Secretary of Energy should establish a program that supports public-private clean energy research consortia and should make grants of $10-30 million annually for up to three years to three or more consortia. Eligible consortia should consist of two or more research universities or governmental research facilities and at least three other private sector firms engaged in research, development,...
When a country like China is committed to winning in key innovation-based
industry and is willing and able to engage in a wide array of mercantilist practices, some of which violate various global trading agreements, no matter how good the innovation policies of places are, they will not lead to innovation activity. Only if the federal government takes aggressive and sustained action to combat...
If our current climate trajectory has us hurtling towards a world of substantial warming, aggressive reductions of soot, methane, and other non-CO2 climate “forcings” (i.e. nitrogen oxides and fluorinated gases) should be a central component of any climate policy strategy. These are the “fast acting” efforts that can yield critical near-term reductions in warming while delivering substantial co-...
Lower-tier economies should participate in discussion forums for continuous assessing and monitoring of the cutting-edge innovative regulatory tools and best practices that leader economies have explored in the hope of surmounting the challenges.
They include:Reforming the ICT sector in an economy-specific framework of change management; Establishing a separate telecom/ICT regulator; Among 21...
While college students today have the opportunity to choose among an astounding array of majors, too few are equipped with the analytical skills that are necessary in virtually any job. Moreover, if students are only learning to recite a series of facts, grade point average is a weak indicator of whether or not a college graduate will make a good employee. A baseline standardized test that all...
Moving STEM undergraduate and graduate education towards a more interdisciplinary model would not only attract more students to STEM, but also improve the quality of STEM education. For truly transformative change to a more interactive, interdisciplinary model of STEM education, NSF and NIH should allocate grants of up to $10M/year for institutional transformation.
Each year, the National Survey of Student Engagement asks freshmen and seniors at participating schools to answer questions about their educational experiences – their classroom participation, interaction with faculty, and time spent on various enriching activities, for example. The survey helps universities know where they rank compared to other schools and where improvements are most needed....
Traditional universities, taught and administrated by traditional staff rarely deviate from conventional methods of teaching, yet as the needs of the modern workforce become focused on broad skill sets such as logic, writing and thinking and less on learning specific facts, such teaching methods have become anachronistic. Instead, governments, foundations or wealthy individuals ought to fund...
Modeled after a proposed initiative in Minnesota, a state-level NewSchools organization would be established as a 501(c)3 non profit to raise and direct public, as well as private, resources to spur the establishment of new school bureaucracies for the application of innovative pedagogy to middle and high schools.
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