OSUN Economist Pavlina Tcherneva’s Work on the Job Guarantee Becomes Focus of US National High School Debate Topic

Thousands of high school students across the United States have been studying the work of Pavlina Tcherneva, Economic Democracy Initiative (EDI) project leader and Bard Professor of Economics, on the job guarantee as they prepare for their 2023–24 national debate tournaments, which focus on the theme of economic inequality.
 
The official resolution for the 2023–24 High School Policy Debate Topic reads: “The United States federal government should substantially increase fiscal redistribution in the United States by adopting a federal jobs guarantee, expanding Social Security, and/or providing a basic income.” Tcherneva’s book The Case for a Job Guarantee was included in the compilation of research, which the Library of Congress prepares each year, pertinent to the annually selected national debate topic.
 
The federal jobs guarantee policy, a key component of EDI’s research and convenings, has emerged as the overwhelming favorite policy for student debate teams on the affirmative. As a result, there are at least a few thousand students across the United States who have gotten very well acquainted with Tcherneva’s work over the past three months. 

“Personally, I can't think of a greater impact of my work than seeing young people engage with it, study it, and defend its principles,” says Tcherneva. After meeting with a group of high school student debaters this month, she adds, "The questions the students asked about the job guarantee were probing, well-informed, thoughtful, and inspired—with a keen focus on social justice. I hope that some of them will become policy makers.”

Inspired by this nationwide student engagement, Tcherneva has opened up spots in the Economic Democracy Initiative’s summer workshop on Public Finance and Economic Policy to select high-school debate students interested in going deeper into the job guarantee and Modern Monetary Theory. The five-day workshop taking place online June 17–21 is for undergraduate students interested in public policy that tackles economic instability and insecurity, and in understanding the financing capacity and policy space available to governments to pursue these aims. High school debate students can apply here until April 30.

Tcherneva and the EDI team also recently developed a resource tool, jobguarantee.org, with the support of OSUN, for anyone interested in learning more about the job guarantee policy innovation. The site provides a user-friendly description of the job guarantee policy and a deep repository of global news and research related to it. The site aligns with material presented in the OSUN Online and Network Collaborative Course "The Right to Employment." 

Post Date: 04-03-2024