Students from less wealthy backgrounds are more likely to attend schools where learning a foreign language to GCSE is considered optional – and not necessarily even encouraged – new research shows. The University of Cambridge study of 615 state schools in England found that poorer students are disproportionately concentrated in schools that deprioritise language learning. This significantly reduces their chances of learning a foreign language after the age of 14. The research identified a seven percentage point gap between the proportion of disadvantaged students at schools where languages were optional at GCSE, and at schools where they were considered ‘core’. It then found an enormous difference, exceeding 50 percentage points, in the average proportion of students at these schools who studied a language to GCSE. These findings suggest that disadvantaged students have been worst affected by the national decline in language study since 2004, when GCSE languages ceased to be compulsory.

We are honored to announce that the Municipal Finance Journal (MFJ) has joined the Chicago Journals publishing program. The journal is published in partnership with the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

WASHINGTON—Too many children and adults living with congenital heart disease (CHD) are being left behind by a system that doesn’t adequately value their care. That’s the message of a new policy statement from the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) that highlights broken reimbursement models, undervalued procedures, and barriers to device innovation.  

The statement, “Economic Barriers to Interventional Cardiology Care for Adults and Children With Congenital Heart Disease and Potential Policy Solutions,” was published today in JSCAI. It calls for Medicaid payment parity, fairer valuation of CHD procedures, new compensation models, and faster pathways for pediatric device approval.