Weekly Writers Round-Up: The Opioid Crisis, Shifts in Higher Education, and the Importance of Student Visas

Each week, we’ll be featuring the work of the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. For more information on how the program can help launch your career in writing, see here. And if you’re interested in meeting program staff, alumni, and other writers and editors in the DC area join us on March 29 for our Spring happy hour.

To Succeed, Beto Needs to Fix His Bad Understanding of the Opioid Crisis by J. J. Rich (Fall 2018) in The Washington Examiner
Last Tuesday, Beto O’Rourke held a small rally at Keene State College in New Hampshire. The memorable topic of discussion was the drug war, as O’Rourke pandered to racial disparities in drug prosecutions and the recent explosion of opioid overdoses in New Hampshire.

He is reasonable for promoting marijuana legalization to address racial injustice, but his characterization of the opioid crisis is terribly uninformed…

Trump Administration Is Right to Push Students to Choose Trade Skills over Impractical Liberal Arts Degrees by Brad Polumbo (Summer 2018) in USA Today
The $1.5 trillion student loan bubble will likely burst eventually, but if this administration has anything to say about it, that won’t happen under President Donald Trump’s watch.

The White House on Monday offered up a sweeping new higher education reform proposal that would put limits on the amounts students can borrow, and allow young people to use federal student aid in skills-oriented vocational programs…

Secret Weapon: Immigrants Help America Keep Its Technological Edge by Sam Peak (Spring 2018) in The National Interest
Leading nations around the world are enacting strategies for artificial intelligence (AI) and, after much pressure, the United States is finally getting in on the action. President Donald Trump has vowed to maintain and strengthen America’s AI leadership with an Executive Order, dubbed the “American AI Initiative,” calling for prioritizing investments in AI research, enhanced data sharing, and training programs in science, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). “Continued American leadership in AI is of paramount importance to maintaining the economic and national security of the United States,” the order read…