News
Taking a Hard Look at a Campaign Critical of a Fiduciary Rule
by Daniel Dudis and Bartlett Naylor
06.09.16 Last week, the United States Chamber of Commerce was among a number of groups that sued Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez to block a new fiduciary rule. The fiduciary rule requires money managers who advise tax-advantaged plans like 401(k)'s to put client interests ahead of their own financial interests when recommending investment products. The White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates that as a result of this conflict of interest, workers saving for retirement lose $17 billion a yea… Continue Reading
Paul Ryan’s anti-poverty plan isn’t the ‘better way’
by Steve Benen
06.08.16 House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) must have been a little frustrated yesterday afternoon. The Republican congressman has been eager to unveil his six-part policy agenda - which he's marketing as the GOP's "Better Way" plan - and the first part was scheduled for release yesterday afternoon at a struggling area in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately for Ryan, his timing wasn't ideal: the political world was focused on Donald Trump's overt racism yesterday, and when the Speaker unveiled his new anti-… Continue Reading
A resurgence of resegregation
by Editorial Board
06.05.16 LAST YEAR, Rep. Paul A. Gosar, an Arizona Republican, explained why he disliked an Obama administration plan to build affordable housing - as a means of helping minorities and poor people - in mainly white, middle-class neighborhoods. "Instead of living with neighbors you like and choose, this breaks up the core fabric of how we start to look at communities," Mr. Gosar told the Hill newspaper. "That just brings unease to everyone in that area." Yes: "Unease" at the prospect of neighborhood int… Continue Reading
The Families That Can’t Afford Summer
by KJ Dell’Antonia
06.04.16 WHAT are your kids up to this summer? Sounds like a casual question. But for working parents at this time of year, it's loaded. What have you managed to pull together that will keep your kids engaged, healthy, happy and safe, while still allowing you to keep feeding and clothing them? For most parents, summer, that beloved institution, is a financial and logistical nightmare. Tolanda Barnette is hoping for "a miracle" for her 6-year-old son: The 41-year-old day care worker can't afford to enrol… Continue Reading
Pell Grant Program Projected to See $7.8 Billion Surplus Next Year
by Melissa Korn
06.02.16 The Pell Grant program, a federal financial aid offering earmarked for the neediest college students, is expected to have a $7.8 billion surplus next year. The fight is on to claim that money. Reps. Robert Scott (D., Va.) and Rubén Hinojosa (D., Texas) sent a letter Thursday urging leaders of the Senate and House appropriations subcommittees that deal with education and human services to keep the funds in the Pell program for fiscal 2017. "We are concerned there will be proposals to rai… Continue Reading
Ending poverty starts with school lunches
by Rep. Barbara Lee
05.30.16 This month, congressional Republicans will once again try to take food out of the mouths of hungry kids. All across the country, low-income children rely on their neighborhood schools for healthy and filling meals. In urban, suburban and rural communities, schools are on the front lines ensuring students get enough to eat. Six years ago, we expanded school meals to millions of low-income children by ending burdensome reporting requirements. Now, this program is at risk from House Republicans w… Continue Reading
Feed the Children
by Houston Chronicle Editorial Board
05.24.16 "Hunger Games" is the title of a dystopian novel for young adults and a popular movie series. It's also what Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, dubbed a bill on child nutrition. It's an apt name, as the bill - which just passed out of congressional committee last week - would make it harder for schools to feed needy students. The bill would leave thousands of students hungry and eating less nutritious meals. Hungry, desperate children be… Continue Reading
America's schools are still segregated by race and class. That has to end
by Rep. Bobby Scott (VA-03)
05.19.16 This week marks the 62nd anniversary of the landmark supreme court ruling in Brown v Board of Education, which concluded that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal", and compelled states to provide for educational opportunity that is "available to all on equal terms". Thanks in large part to federal intervention in the decades following Brown, students experienced indisputable academic and social benefits inherent to racially and socioeconomically diverse learning environments… Continue Reading
Black And Latino Students Lose Out To White Peers. And It’s Getting Worse.
by Rebecca Klein
05.17.16 It has been 62 years since Brown vs. Board of Education made segregated schools unconstitutional. Yet the number of black students attending separate and unequal institutions is on the rise, according to a new U.S. watchdog agency report. The Government Accountability Office released its report on Tuesday, the 62nd anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. The study is the result of a 2014 request from Reps. Robert Scott (D-Va.), John Conyers (D-Mich.) and former Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.… Continue Reading
Public schools are 'resegregating,' Dems say
by Tim Devaney
05.17.16 Schools are "resegregating at an alarming rate" more than a half century since the Civil Rights Movement, Democrats warned Tuesday. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new study Tuesday that found racial isolation in public schools nearly doubled to 16 percent between 2000 and 2014. The findings reveal that many African American and Hispanic students are stuck in low-income schools, where they enjoy fewer education opportunities. "Our nation's schools are, in fact, lar… Continue Reading
Report finds segregation in education on the rise
by Jennifer C. Kerr
05.17.16 WASHINGTON (AP) - Six decades after the Supreme Court outlawed separating students by race, stubborn disparities persist in how the country educates its poor and minority children. A report Tuesday by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found deepening segregation of black and Hispanic students at high-poverty K-12 public schools. These schools often offered fewer math, science and college prep classes, while having disproportionally higher rates of students who were held back in n… Continue Reading
62 years after Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, U.S. schools are becoming more segregated
by Joy Resmovits
05.17.16 Sixty two years after the Supreme Court ruled that America's schools must be integrated, campuses across the country are becoming increasingly segregated by race and income. A report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office shows that the number of schools segregated along racial and financial lines more than doubled over a 13-year period ending in the 2013-14 school year. In the 2000-01 school year, 7,009 public schools were both poor and racially segregated. That number climb… Continue Reading
Mississippi School District Considering Appeal to Desegregation Order
by Meghan Keneally
05.17.16 The Mississippi district that was ordered to desegregate its schools is fighting back. The move comes amid a newly released government report that suggests that segregation in public schools may be increasing. The town of Cleveland, Miss., was ordered on Friday to desegregate two middle schools and two high schools that remain racially segregated. In a statement, the Cleveland School District argues that its proposed plans of open enrollment allow students to attend the school of their choice … Continue Reading
Mississippi District Ordered to Desegregate Its Schools
by Christine Hauser
05.17.16 A federal court has ordered a town in Mississippi to desegregate its high schools and middle schools, ending a five-decade legal battle over integrating black and white students. The ruling by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, made Friday but announced Monday, means the middle and high school programs in the Cleveland School District, in the western part of the state, will be combined for the first time in their century-long history. In her decision, Ju… Continue Reading
62 years after Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, U.S. schools are becoming more segregated
by Joy Resmovits
05.17.16 Sixty two years after the Supreme Court ruled that America's schools must be integrated, campuses across the country are becoming increasingly segregated by race and income. A report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office shows that the number of schools segregated along racial and financial lines more than doubled over a 13-year period ending in the 2013-14 school year. In the 2000-01 school year, 7,009 public schools were both poor and racially segregated. That number climb… Continue Reading
On the anniversary of Brown v. Board, new evidence that U.S. schools are resegregating
by Emma Brown
05.17.16 Poor, black and Hispanic children are becoming increasingly isolated from their white, affluent peers in the nation's public schools, according to new federal data showing that the number of high-poverty schools serving primarily black and brown students more than doubled between 2001 and 2014. The data was released by the Government Accountability Office on Tuesday, 62 years to the day after the Supreme Court decided that segregated schools are "inherently unequal" and therefore unconstitution… Continue Reading
Judge orders Mississippi school district to desegregate, 62 years after Brown v. Board of Education
by Emma Brown
05.16.16 A federal judge has ordered a school district in the Mississippi Delta to desegregate its middle and high schools, capping a legal battle that has dragged on for more than five decades. The Cleveland School District is divided by railroad tracks that separate white families, who largely live west of the tracks, from black families, who largely live to the east. Its secondary schools reflect that division: There is one all-black middle school, for example, and one all-black high school. Just ove… Continue Reading
EEOC Issues Final Rules on Wellness Plan Incentives
by Kevin McGowan
05.16.16 Employers can offer limited financial incentives to encourage employees and their spouses to participate in workplace wellness plans and remain in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, the EEOC said in two final rules issued May 16. The agency rules amend existing GINA regulations and create new ADA regulations that detail how employers can offer inducements for wellness plan participation while ensuring they don't coerce employees or… Continue Reading
The troubling shortage of Latino and black teachers — and what to do about it
by Valerie Strauss
05.15.16 According to government estimates, students of color are now the majority in U.S. public schools. But as the percentage of students of color grows, the same isn't true for teachers of color. In fact, as this post argues, it is past time for the country to put a new focus on recruiting and retaining teachers of color. The author,Travis J. Bristol, explains why it matters to have a diverse teaching force and provides recommendations for how to accomplish it. Bristol is a former high school Englis… Continue Reading
Feds: Insurers can't discriminate on LGBT Obamacare coverage
by Jayne O'Donnell
05.13.16 Insurers and hospitals can't discriminate against patients because of their gender identity under theAffordable Care Act, federal officials said Friday, but patient groups complained the rule doesn't go far enough. The Department of Health and Human Servicesfinalized a rule that prohibited discrimination in health care based on a long list of characteristics ranging from race to pregnancy, gender identity and "sex stereotyping." It doesn't mean insurers have to cover all treatments associated … Continue Reading