Why Not A Rational Policymaking Process?
The recent passing of an academic icon, Professor Alfred Kahn, has prompted me to consider a simple question for this column: Why can’t we find our way to a more reasoned and rational policy approach to the solution of rural challenges? Kahn, who died at the age of 90 after a distinguished 57-year career at the Columbia University School of Social Work, spent his academic life trying to bring good research to solving social issues. I knew Professor Kahn well. He served on the Institute for Research on Poverty’s (IRP) National Advisory Committee from 1967 to 2002 while I was an affiliate of IRP (starting in 1975) and served as the IRP Associate Director from 1994 to 2001. Professor Kahn was not only a superb scholar, but also a man who passionately cared about the well-being of America’s most vulnerable citizens. He was always seeking effective policies and programs, those supported by research evidence, to help address social problems; this is a search addressed at length in a recent b
