Public Policy "NEWS"

Many other sacred cows graze in the pasture of failed policies, and a similar story may be told about each of them.  But show me a government policy that clashes with the interests of a substantial number of powerful government officials and their resourceful supporters in the private sector, and I’ll show you a policy that can be abandoned overnight. Read more

If you suspect your child may be the  victim   of   bullying   ask him or her to tell you what's going on. You can help by providing lots of opportunities to talk with you in an open and honest way. It's also important to respond in a positive and accepting manner. Let your child know it's not his or her fault, and that he or she did the right thing by telling you. If your child is aware of someone who is being bullied, encourage him or her to notify someone and get help.  Other specific suggestions include the following: Ask your child what he or she thinks should be done. What's already been tried? What worked and what didn't? Seek help from your child's teacher or the school guidance counselor. Most bullying occurs on playgrounds, in lunchrooms, and bathrooms, on school buses or in unsupervised halls. Ask the school administrators to find out about programs other schools and communities have used to help combat bullying, such as peer mediation, conflict resol

  For most of us, the idea of young children working in dangerous jobs with no legal protection belongs to the past, consigned to the pages of history and Dickens novels.  EPI shines a light into the dark corners of our labor market to expose injustice. Please help EPI spread the word by sharing this chart with your networks and, if you are able, please consider making a gift to support EPI’s important work.

On Monday, Rachel Maddow praised Indivisible activists for doing “some of the most practical, strategically interesting organizing in the country.”

The Biden-Harris Administration today released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The Budget details a blueprint to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out, lower costs for families, protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security, and reduce the deficit by ensuring the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share—all while ensuring no one making less than $400,000 per year pays more in taxes.  "Still, the scope of the budget—which includes significant funding for the climate, childcare, democracy, education, healthcare, housing, violence prevention, and more, made possible in part through tax hikes for wealthy individuals and corporations—was celebrated by the likes of Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities" (CBPP). For more information on the President’s FY 2024 Budget, please visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/ .

Asthma is a condition where the airways become constricted or narrow. The inflammation in the area will keep the airways from being open, thus triggering breathing issues. The body will produce mucus that can stick in the airways and will be hard to cough up.  PHI’s Regional Asthma Management and Prevention (RAMP) program advanced two critical Medi-Cal policies to provide coverage for home-based asthma education, environmental trigger assessments and asthma remediation supports. "Both policy wins have major implications for increased access to home visiting services for people with poorly controlled asthma, which will improve health outcomes, reduce asthma disparities, and decrease healthcare utilization costs," said RAMP director Anne Kelsey-Lamb. Read more here

School districts use vouchers to enable white students to attend private schools, which could (and still can) limit admission based on race. As a result, the schools that served those white students were closed, and schools that served black students remained chronically underfunded. Education savings accounts are a kind of super-voucher. While traditional vouchers give parents a chunk of taxpayer money that they could use for tuition at the school of their choice, an ESA gives parents a chunk of taxpayer money that they can spend on private school tuition or a variety of other educational expenses. Jersey Jazzman: "Kingdom Gain" Through School Vouchers: It's Already Working ESAs, like vouchers, have proven to be a way to use public tax dollars to fund private religious schools. In fact, in states where voucher programs exist, vouchers  primarily fund religious schools  (particularly Catholic ones). While the separation of church and state, when it comes to education, is