Abigail Swisher, Rural Impact Fellow at FAS, served in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. She was part of the team who developed the policy strategy, Raise the Bar, Lead the World.
We are pleased to announce the release of three new policy briefs from the U.S. Department of Education: Raising the Bar for Rural. These briefs outline key policy levers that state and local education leaders can use to make a difference on critical issues for rural students, as well as highlighting bright spots from rural communities nationwide. Organized around the Department’s Raise the Bar, Lead the World agenda, the briefs cover strategies to accelerate learning, end the educator shortage, increase access to comprehensive & rigorous coursework for all students.
- Accelerating Learning for Every Student
- Comprehensive and Rigorous Education
- Eliminating the Educator Shortage
These fellows will be working to turn ambitious ideas into actionable policy – from improving how frontier AI models are evaluated for government use to strengthening biosecurity protections and building the workforce needed to keep AI systems safe.
AI’s high-stakes outputs directly shape American economic, industrial, and technological outcomes. They must not be accepted entirely on the basis of institutional faith rather than verifiable evidence.
The clearinghouse will also neutrally mediate the assignment of auditors to audits—strengthening independence, trust, and ethical governance across the AI ecosystem.
Soft law was never meant to be a permanent solution. Treating it as one, and letting the sandcastle stand in for the skyscraper indefinitely, is how we end up with a decade of voluntary commitments and no enforceable accountability to show for it.