The accountability crisis in higher education

The accountability crisis in higher education

Author: Laura Arnold May 3, 2021 Duration: 28:11

Nearly two out of every five students who start a full-time, four-year undergraduate program drop out. This is especially true for part-time students, low-income students and students of color.  The U.S. higher education system is clearly broken, yet solutions have remained elusive because of a lack of data needed to answer basic questions about a school's performance. 


Sky-high drug prices, mass incarceration, and predatory lending are just the visible signs of much deeper structural problems. Deep Dive with Laura Arnold moves past the headlines to examine the root causes of these persistent issues. Host Laura Arnold, Co-Chair of Arnold Ventures, guides each conversation with a clear focus on evidence and solutions. She brings leading researchers, policymakers, and practitioners into a dialogue that is both rigorous and accessible, dissecting complex failures in health care, criminal justice, education, and public finance. This isn't about partisan soundbites; it's a detailed exploration of what the data actually says and which interventions might genuinely work. Each episode feels like sitting in on a crucial, focused discussion you won't hear elsewhere, one dedicated to understanding how systems fail and how they can be redesigned to work better for everyone. The podcast, grounded in the work of the Arnold Ventures philanthropy, offers a unique blend of depth and clarity, making complicated policy matters tangible and urgent. Tune in for conversations that challenge assumptions and highlight the practical pathways toward meaningful reform.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 19

Deep Dive with Laura Arnold
Podcast Episodes
'A Firestorm of Polarization' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:41
Laura Arnold sits down with former presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Stanford professor Larry Diamond, a leading scholar in democracy reform, to discuss the crisis eating away at American democracy and potential sol…
A Lifetime Sentence to Poverty [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:00
America's criminal justice system has exploded in scope over recent decades and the punishment for these individuals does not always end when they leave prison or jail. In this episode of Deep Dive, Laura Arnold sits dow…
Has the Gun Reform Debate Reached a Tipping Point? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:28
Recent mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado have spurred cries for change, including President Biden's effort to ban assault rifles. But will this moment be any different? In this episode, Laura Arnold sits down with f…
Confronting racism in policing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:38
The video of police officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee into George Floyd's neck for approximately 9 minutes served as the spark that ignited a tinder box of demonstrations calling for police reform. We examine the r…
Democracy in Crisis [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:33
Systemic failures in the nation's electoral and legislative systems have led to extreme polarization and partisan rancor, raising questions about whether American democracy is still working. This episode examines three p…
Money Bail in California [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:54
Voters in California have a historic issue in front of them on election day: whether to become the first state to abolish money bail and replace it with a system centered on safety, not money, or stick with the status qu…
The Impact of COVID-19 on Reform [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:40
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on families, individuals, and organizations around the world. The global health crisis has touched virtually every aspect of our lives, from the way we interact with o…
Your Money or Your Freedom [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:21
Right now in the United States, there are almost 500,000 people being held behind bars who have yet to receive their day in court. In the vast majority of those cases, the defendant is being held simply because they cann…
The Dire State of America's Organ Donation System [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:07
There are 115,000 Americans on an organ transplant waiting list, and their future health hangs on several different factors — age, blood type, condition — that play a key role in determining who gets placed next in a pot…
"Dollar Signs in Uniform" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:14
For 75 years, the GI Bill has provided military service members with invaluable educational opportunities. And for just as long, for-profit colleges and universities have sought to gain and maintain access to that fundin…