Education, Public Safety, What We Stand For and More

Posted on May 17, 2023

School Spending Disclosure Act: In many high-poverty schools, a huge portion of instruction has become little more than test prep, with multiple pre-tests, test-driven curricula and homework, testing consultants, and shaming of students with test results. The School Spending Disclosure Act requires an itemization of spending on standardized testing, so policymakers can know what’s going on.

Progressives need to frame the political narrative: Liberals, lefties, Democrats—all progressive types—suffer from negative stereotypes. Some were invented by the right-wing messaging machine, and others are self-inflicted. We need to shape the political debate about what progressives stand for, or our opponents will successfully misrepresent us. For more, see the latest IdeaLog, our blog intended to raise eyebrows and engage minds.

Have state legislatures gone rogue? This question is posed by the New Yorker’s Political Scene Podcast in light of numerous discriminatory and anti-democratic acts by right wing legislators.

Driver’s Licenses for All Make Roads Safer for Us All: In March, Minnesota became the 19th state to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. As a Governing column explains, this policy both improves public safety and increases community engagement.

Incarceration and correctional supervision by state: This very interesting report by the Prison Policy Initiative compares incarceration to probation and parole, state by state. For example, Louisiana has the highest per-capita rate of incarceration while Georgia has, by far, the highest probation rate.

What We Stand For in Twelve Words: This evergreen IdeaLog column suggests a simple way to explain what you, and all progressives, stand for.

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