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  • US Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy by Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard H. Clarida

    October 18, 2019

    US Economic Outlook and Monetary PolicyRichard Clarida

    Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard H. Clarida

    At “Late Cycle Investing: Opportunity and Risk” Fixed-Income Management 2019, a conference sponsored by the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts

    Watch Live

    The U.S. economy is in a good place, and the baseline outlook is favorable. The median expectation from Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) participants’ most recent Summary of Economic Projections is for GDP growth to be around 2 percent in 2019, for growth to continue near this pace next year, and for personal consumption expenditures (PCE) inflation to rise gradually to our symmetric 2 percent objective.2 The unemployment rate, at 3.5 percent, is at a half-century low, and wages are rising broadly in line with productivity growth and underlying inflation. There is no evidence to date that a strong labor market is putting excessive cost-push pressure on price inflation.

    But despite this favorable baseline outlook, the U.S. economy confronts some evident risks in this the 11th year of economic expansion. Business fixed investment has slowed notably since last year, exports are contracting on a year-over-year basis, and indicators of manufacturing activity are weakening. Global growth estimates continue to be marked down, and global disinflationary pressures cloud the outlook for U.S. inflation.

    U.S. inflation remains muted. Over the 12 months through August, PCE inflation is running at 1.4 percent, and core PCE inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is running at 1.8 percent.

  • VA Health Care, Revoked Licenses, Patient Neglect and More: VA Health Care Actions Needed to Ensure Provider Qualifications and Competence

    VA requires that its medical centers review doctors’ qualifications and practice history before deciding whether to hire or retain them. However, we’ve found that some VA medical centers inadvertently overlooked information that would disqualify a doctor from being hired — such as having a revoked license.

    If medical centers are concerned about or have disciplined a doctor, they are required to report to state licensing boards or a national database as appropriate. But some medical centers didn’t make these reports.

    This testimony is based on reports with 11 recommendations, including that VA better oversee how its medical centers review doctors.

    VA Medical Center building

    What GAO Found

    The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) needs to take action to ensure its health care providers have the appropriate qualifications and clinical abilities to deliver high quality, safe care to veterans, as GAO recommended in its February 2019 and November 2017 reports. Specifically, GAO found the following:

    VA medical centers took action against some providers who did not meet VA licensure requirements, but overlooked others. In its 2019 report, GAO found that some VA medical centers took administrative or disciplinary actions against these providers, such as removing them from employment, after becoming aware of disqualifying information in the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). The NPDB is an electronic repository that contains information on providers who have been disciplined by a state licensing board, among other information. However, in some cases VA medical centers overlooked or were unaware of disqualifying information in the NPDB. For example, officials told GAO they inadvertently overlooked a disqualifying adverse action and hired a provider whose license had been revoked for patient neglect. GAO found three reasons for this inconsistency: lack of mandatory training for key staff, gaps in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) policies, and inadequate oversight.

    Selected VA medical centers’ reviews of providers’ clinical care were not always documented. The five selected VA medical centers that GAO included in its 2017 report were required to review 148 providers’ clinical care after concerns were raised about their care from October 2013 through March 2017. However, officials at these medical centers could not provide documentation to show that almost half of these reviews had been conducted. GAO found two reasons for inadequate documentation of these reviews: gaps in VHA policies and inadequate oversight of the reviews.

    Selected VA medical centers did not report providers to the NPDB or to state licensing boards as required. The five selected VA medical centers that GAO included in its 2017 report had reported one of nine providers to the NPDB that they were required to report from October 2013 through March 2017. None of these providers were reported to state licensing boards, as required by VHA policy. These nine providers either had adverse privileging actions taken against them—actions that limit the care providers can deliver at a facility or prevent the providers from delivering care altogether—or resigned or retired while under investigation before such an action could be taken. GAO found two reasons providers were not reported: lack of awareness or understanding of VHA policies and inadequate oversight of this reporting.

    GAO made 11 recommendations in its 2019 and 2017 reports to address the deficiencies identified. VA implemented two of these 11 recommendations, and provided action plans to address the other nine recommendations.

    Why GAO Did This Study

    Nearly 165,000 licensed health care providers, such as physicians and nurses, provide care in VHA’s VA medical centers and outpatient facilities. Medical center staff must determine whether to hire and retain health care providers by reviewing and verifying information about their qualifications and practice history. The NPDB is a key source of information about a provider’s clinical practice history.

    Medical center staff must also investigate any concerns that arise about the clinical care their providers deliver. Depending on the findings from these reviews, medical centers may take an adverse privileging action against a provider. VA medical centers are required to report providers to the NPDB and state licensing boards under certain circumstances. Failing to adhere to these requirements can negatively affect patient safety.

    This testimony is primarily based on GAO’s 2019 and 2017 reports on VHA processes for reviewing and reporting quality and safety concerns about VA providers. It addresses VA medical centers’ implementation and VHA’s oversight of (1) reviews of adverse information about providers in the NPDB; (2) reviews of providers’ clinical care after concerns are raised; and (3) reporting of providers to the NPDB and state licensing boards. For the 2019 report, GAO reviewed a nongeneralizable sample of 57 VA providers who had an NPDB report. For the 2017 report, GAO reviewed providers whose clinical care was reviewed after a concern was raised about that care at a nongeneralizable selection of five VA medical centers.

     

  • Ferida Wolff’s Backyard: Caring for Our Climate and Our Earth; Inside and Outside; NASA’s New Spacesuit for Artemis Generation Astronauts

     

    Caring for Our Climate and Our Earthacorns and fall leaves

    This is strange autumn. Mother Nature seems confused. The temperature is bouncing up and down, sometimes zooming into the 90s. Our tulip tree, which usually loses all of its leaves by the end of August, still is partially green. The backyard normally is awash in leaves by now but the maple trees are only reluctantly shedding their foliage. It is October, right?  

    We do have acorns, though. Lots of them. We can hear them crunch underneath the cars that pass by and under our feet as we take our usual after-dinner walk. There seems to be more than ever dropping from the oak tree in front. At least the squirrels will have some good meals this winter.

    If Mother Nature is confused, how are we to understand what is happening around us? We were up in the Alps not long ago and the temperature plus humidity soared to over 105 degrees! It’s hard not to take the concept of climate change seriously when the climate is changing all around us.

    Other than observing our own tiny part of the world, how do we know this is happening? NASA* helps inform us. Our kids need to know what’s happening, too. Earth is an incredible place. I hope that we can preserve its beauty and function and remember that we are visitors here.

    Let’s be good guests and care for our climate and ultimately our planet. 

     

    Inside and Outside 

    african violets

    I have two pots of African violets sitting on my kitchen windowsill. Most of the time they just have fuzzy green leaves and no flowers but I like them anyway. This summer they started to bloom. Each little stem carried three or four beautiful flowers and more stems kept blooming. It has been a real treat for me to see every time I go to the sink and look up. 

    I also love the hibiscus plants outside my kitchen window. They have two blossoming times, one in the beginning of summer and the other at the season’s end. Their vibrant red flowers are riveting. 

    Today I looked at the African violets as I was pouring water into my teapot and was drawn to look outside at the hibiscus flowers. I gasped with pleasure. The inside flowers were beautiful. The outside flowers were beautiful. It made me suddenly aware of how beauty exists in both areas. We are amazing beings inside ourselves, full of intelligence and diversity. But we also are part of the outside world, interacting with what nature and other humans offer. If we can just remember that everything is part of the whole perhaps we can allow our inside and outside worlds to coexist in peace. Yogi tea tag: “Be kind to others, but always be compassionate to yourself.” 

    ©2019 Ferida Wolff (2) for SeniorWomen.com

     

    * SeniorWomen.com’s Editor’s Note: We couldn’t resist including this portion of NASA’s website considering Ferida’s mention of the Agency:

    A New Spacesuit for Artemis Generation Astronauts

    At NASA Headquarters on Oct. 15, Administrator Jim Bridenstine and spacesuit engineer Amy Ross introduced the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (Xemu) and Orion Crew Survival System suit which will be will be worn by first woman and next man as they explore the Moon as part of the Artemis program.

     

  • Poll: Democrats Say They Are Hearing Enough From Presidential Candidates About Medicare-for-All and Expanding Coverage, But Want Them to Talk More about Health Costs and Women’s Health Care

    More Seniors Trust Democrats than Republicans on Medicare, Drug Costs and Other Health Issues; Large Majority of Public Initially Favors Government Drug Price Negotiations, But Counterarguments Dampen Support

    Heading into tonight’s Democratic primary debate, most Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say the candidates are spending the right amount or too much time talking about ways to provide coverage to more Americans and Medicare-for-all, two topics that have dominated health care discussions in the past three rounds of Democratic debates, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll* finds.

    In contrast, large shares of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say that the presidential candidates are spending too little time on other health care issues such as women’s health care, including reproductive health services (58%), surprise medical bills (52%), and lowering the amount people pay for health care (50%).

    Chart: Democrats and Dem-Leaning Independents Want To Hear More from Candidates on Women's Health Care, Cost Issues

    Medicare-for-all and other approaches to expand public coverage have gotten substantial attention at prior debates, and critics have focused their attacks on Medicare-for-all, which would create a single government health plan that would cover all Americans. 

    Amidst this attention, the new poll finds about half (51%) of the public now favors a Medicare-for-all plan, down 5 percentage points since April. Nearly as many (47%) now oppose a Medicare-for-all plan, up significantly since April (38%).

    The poll also finds more than seven in 10 (73%) now favor a government-run “public option” plan available to all Americans that would compete with private health insurers, while one in four (24%) are opposed.

    More Americans, Including Seniors, Trust Democrats than Republicans on Health Care

    President Trump warned seniors in an Oct. 3 speech in Florida that Democrats would harm their health care. Fielded after the President’s speech, the poll finds more seniors trust the Democratic Party than the Republican Party on health care overall (45% v. 35%), as well as on making sure seniors can get needed care (49% v. 33%), and lowering drug costs (46% v. 34%).

    The broader public also trust Democrats more than Republicans on health care overall (44% v. 29%), as well as on the future of Medicare (47% v. 35%), making sure seniors can get needed care (51% v. 32%), and lowering drug costs (49% v. 30%).

    Not surprisingly, majorities of partisans trust their own party to do a better job on each of these issues. Independents are more likely to trust the Democrats than Republicans, though about a third (32%) say they don’t trust either party when it comes to handling health care.

  • STIs Are Contributing to the Public Health Crisis as Cases of Gonorrhea, Syphilis and Chlamydia Are All On the Rise

    Colorized scanning electron micrograph of Gonorrhea bacteria

    Colorized scanning electron micrograph of Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria, which causes gonorrhea.  NIAID  and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, suggest that the biomedical research community must refocus its commitment to STI research to surmount this growing global health crisis


    Globally, more than 1 million new STI cases are diagnosed each day. In a new article in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, experts from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, suggest that the biomedical research community must refocus its commitment to STI research to surmount this growing global health crisis.
     
    The perspective piece was written by NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Robert W. Eisinger, Ph.D., special assistant for scientific projects in NIAID’s Immediate Office of the Director, and Emily Erbelding, M.D., director of NIAID’s Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.  The authors note that a variety of STIs are contributing to the public health crisis as cases of gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia are all on the rise. Left untreated, many STIs can cause serious complications. Congenital syphilis can cause stillbirths and health complications in newborns, and gonorrhea and chlamydia can contribute to life-threatening ectopic pregnancies (when a fertilized egg grows outside the uterus). Gonorrhea and syphilis, which are increasing among men who have sex with men and bisexual men, also are associated with an increased risk for HIV transmission and acquisition. Moreover, increasing antimicrobial resistance will make STIs only more difficult to treat, as many existing drugs will become less effective against the microbes that cause gonorrhea and other STIs.
     
    NIAID Anthony Fauci, right
    anthony Fauci

    Unfortunately, the authors note, STI research efforts have not adequately addressed the ongoing spread of these diseases. To address this public health threat, biomedical research programs need to be refocused on developing innovative diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for STIs. Healthcare providers need access to faster, low-cost diagnostics to identify both active and asymptomatic STIs. The STI vaccine pipeline also needs to produce effective new candidate vaccines for syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia. As for STI therapeutics, the authors note that research efforts must focus on drug-drug interactions, toxicities and side effects, while keeping ahead of spreading antimicrobial resistance.

    NIAID has launched an initiative involving six new STI Cooperative Research Centers that will work to develop vaccines for syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. NIAID also has funded a large clinical trial examining doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis against STIs in groups at high-risk for HIV and has supported additional novel research efforts. No single entity, however, can tackle the growing public health problem posed by STIs. As the authors note, cooperation among biomedical researchers in the public and private sectors, together with the efforts of community clinics and healthcare providers, will be key to curbing STIs in the years to come.

    Article

    RW Eisinger, E Erbelding and AS Fauci. Refocusing research on sexually transmitted infections (link is external). The Journal of Infectious Diseases DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiz442 (2019).

  • John Singer Sargent’s Charcoal Portraits, Records of Artistic and Cultural Friendships, as Well as Networks of Patronage

    John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was one of the greatest portrait artists of his time. While he is best known for his powerful paintings, he largely ceased painting portraits in 1907 and turned instead to charcoal drawings to satisfy portrait commissions. These drawn portraits represent a substantial, yet often overlooked, part of his practice, and demonstrate the same sense of immediacy, psychological insight, and mastery of chiaroscuro that animate Sargent’s sitters on canvas. The Morgan Library & Museum is proud to present the first major exhibition to explore these expressive portraits in charcoal,  John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal, on view now through January 12, 2020.

    Duchess of Carmodely

    Recognizing the sheer scale of Sargent’s achievement as a portrait draftsman, this exhibition comprises over fifty drawings, including important international loans, from both public and private collections. The drawings showcase Sargent’s sitters, many of them famous for their roles in politics, society, and the arts. Sargent’s charcoal portraits are remarkable not only for their quantity — they number over 750 in total — but also for their vivid portrayal of the men and women who sat for him. The portraits become telling records of artistic and cultural friendships, as well as the networks of patronage that underpinned Sargent’s practice as a portrait  draftsman in Edwardian Britain and Progressive Era America. These writers, actors, politicians, musicians, artists, patrons, and friends shaped not only Sargent’s life, but also the social and cultural fabric of the United States and Great Britain in the early twentieth century.

    Above:  John Singer Sargent, Sybil Sassoon, later Marchioness of Cholmondeley, 1912, charcoal, Private Collection

    Important portraits in the exhibition include a drawing of Sybil Sassoon, a leading light of London society and a close friend of the artist. Sargent had known Sassoon since she was a girl, and his sensitive drawing portrays her on the threshold of adulthood. Another of Sargent’s sitters and closest friends included in the exhibition is the author Henry James. James had championed the young Sargent’s work, and the two Americans moved in the same transatlantic intellectual and cultural circles. Sargent also sought out sitters who interested him and offered to make their portraits, as with his drawing of Ethel Barrymore. Sargent’s striking charcoal captures the soulful eyes and commanding stage presence for which the American actress was known.

    Henry James

    By the time Sargent switched his portraiture practice almost entirely to charcoal, he had developed a consistent format for his portrait drawings. Before he set to work, Sargent seemed to have a clear image in his mind of what he wanted to achieve. He focused on the head and shoulders of each sitter, depicting them a little less than life-size. After establishing key proportions and masses, he would develop the drawing in stages, elaborating details at the end. Often set against a dramatic dark background, these subjects have a powerful presence.

    Many sitters recounted the speed and confidence with which Sargent worked; he finished most of these charcoals in less than three hours. The artist would often invite friends to drawing sessions to keep the sitters entertained and also to help enliven their features. The finished charcoal portraits are valuable testaments to Sargent’s prodigious skill as an artist and draftsman.

    John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925), Henry James (1843-1916) 1912, Charcoal. Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019

    Sargent had little interest in promoting his career as a portrait draftsman, and these charcoal drawings were rarely exhibited. While many of the portraits were commissions, a number were gifts from the artist to his sitters, tokens of Sargent’s admiration and affection for talented performers and valued friends. The portraits often remained in the private collections of the sitters and their descendants. This exhibition is the first in recent times to assemble such a wide selection of Sargent’s drawn portraits, and many of the works have never been publicly exhibited before.

  • What is Sex Discrimination? That Was the Question Before the Supreme Court on October 8

    discrimination protest at the supreme Cout

    The Supreme Court heard three separate cases concerning Title VII protections, including a Michigan case dealing with a transgender worker and two others, from New York and Georgia, about LGBT workers. Photo by Amy-Xiaoshi DePaola/Cronkite News

    By Jo Freeman

    Several hundred people protested in front of the Supreme Court on October 8 as it heard oral argument on the issue of exactly what is sex discrimination in employment. At the end of the rally 132 people were arrested for blocking the street in planned civil disobedience.

    “Sex” is one of the protected categories in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in employment. At that time, same-sex relations were a crime in every state except Illinois. Transgender wasn’t even a word. Much has happened in 55 years.

    The Court agreed to hear three cases on whether Title VII protects gay, lesbian and transgender employees after three Circuit Courts of Appeal made conflicting decisions.

    In Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia the Eleventh Circuit found that Title VII does not include sexual orientation. The opposite conclusion was reached by the Second Circuit in Altitude Express v. Zarda.  In Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC the complaint was filed by a person, but the defendant was the federal agency that found in her favor. Anthony Stephens had worked for a funeral home for six years. After he informed his employer that he was transitioning into a women, Aimee was fired. The EEOC found sex discrimination, the District Court disagreed, and the Six Circuit reversed.

    Supporters of LGBTQ rights came from all over. Eddie Reynoso flew in from San Diego on Friday, October 4. He camped out on the sidewalk in front of the Court in a chair. Others joined him on Sunday, where they watched the anti-Kavanaugh demonstration without leaving their place in line. Each day the Court is in session it allows the first fifty people in line to take seats inside to watch the proceedings as long as they like. Those who come afterwards are allowed in to watch for a few minutes before another group is brought in.

    Rev. Andrew Bennett and Rev. Wendy von Courter drove from Massachusetts. He is the youth pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Lynn, MA. She is the senior pastor at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead, MA. He came to provide support. She came to be arrested.

  • New Mexico: A Sense That You Have Landed Not in Another State But in Another Country

    By Sonya ZalubowskiPainting of Taos Art Colony

    The first thing that hits you after landing in New Mexico is the vastness of the blue sky, a panorama that surrounds you amid the state’s rough high desert and mountainous landscape.  The next thing is this sense that you have landed not just in another US state but in another country.  All without having to use your passport.

    Right, Helmut Naumer, Sr. (1935–36), Taos Pueblo; Wikipedia

    Perhaps that sky with all its limitlessness, including the unrealized possibility of finding more of the gold they found in Mexico, is what first attracted  the Spanish to settle this area.  Their influence dating all the way to the 16th century plus the large indigenous native American presence color the area’s flavor to this day. Over 40 percent of the population identifies as Hispanic. 

    All of it combines with Anglo influences in a mosaic that is celebrated throughout the year with regular festivals.

    As do most tourists, I flew into New Mexico’s main airport in Albuquerque, the north central city flanked by the Sandia Mountains that’s home to more than one-fourth of the state’s two million people.

    A cab-ride away, I arrived at my destination, the bed and breakfast inn known as the Bottger Mansion of Old Town.  The home is one of the few Victorian era constructions left in Albuquerque, just steps away from the main Plaza.

    Albuquerque was founded as a Spanish colonial outpost along the Rio Grande River.  The city to this day retains its old town in the traditional Spanish fashion with a central square or plaza with its church, the  San Felipe de Neri. The area retains its historical character with its flat-roofed adobe buildings featuring original roof timber vigas and kiva fireplaces.

    Native American Indians make up nearly ten percent of the state population and have their own system of 19 self-governing pueblos based on tribal affiliations.  That culture is celebrated at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.  The facility features a teaching garden with native plants, a restaurant with native food and exhibits featuring native art.  Live performances of Indian dancing are held on a regular basis.Sandi Mountains

    Sandia Mountains, G. Thomas, Wikipedia

  • The Pros and Cons of ‘Free College’ and ‘College Promise’ Programs: What the Research Says

     

    free college promise tuition financial aid research

    Students at the University of Michigan which takes Kalamazoo Promise scholarships. (Daryl Marshke, Michigan Photography, University of Michigan)

    By , Journalist’s Resource, Harvard Kennedy School; Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy

    More than 19.9 million students are taking classes at colleges and universities across the United States this semester, up from 14.9 million two decades ago, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

    As enrollment has swelled, so has the price of college. The average combined cost of undergraduate tuition, fees, room and board at four-year schools has doubled since 2000. The average cost of attendance for full-time students living on campus at an in-state, public college or university during the 2017-18 academic year totaled $24,320. It totaled $50,338 at private institutions.

    Heavy student debt loads created America’s student loan crisis. A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that outstanding student loan debt topped $1.6 trillion in the U.S. during the second quarter of 2019.

    State and federal lawmakers and 2020 presidential candidates have put forward a range of plans aimed at reducing college costs to curb student debt and encourage more Americans to pursue degrees. Most programs and proposals focus on eliminating tuition at community colleges and state universities. But some also aim to cover educational costs such as mandatory student fees, which schools charge to help pay for student events, health services and other campus offerings.

    These initiatives often are referred to as “free college” — even when they only cover tuition — and as “tuition-free” programs. A number of cities, counties and states have introduced “college promise” programs, which also pay students’ tuition and, sometimes, other expenses at two- and four-year institutions.

    Recent research indicates there are hundreds of college promise programs in the U.S. Some are small, serving students in a city or public school district. Others are open to students across a state. In 2015, Tennessee became the first state in the country to offer free tuition at all of its community colleges and technical schools with its Tennessee Promise Scholarship. Earlier this month, officials in San Antonio announced AlamoPROMISE, which will allow students who graduate from one of 25 local high schools to receive 60 credits worth of free tuition at five area community colleges starting in fall 2020.

    New York’s Excelsior Scholarship, launched in 2017, is the nation’s first statewide program to provide free tuition at state-funded two- and four-year colleges. The program is open to New York residents who have a household income of $125,000 or less and agree to live and work in New York for the same amount of time they receive the scholarship.

    To help journalists understand the implications and impacts of these efforts, we’ve gathered and summarized a sampling of research on “free college,” “tuition-free” and “college promise” programs. Because most programs are relatively new, scholars are continuing to study them. We will add new research to this collection as it is published or released.

    Also check out these five tips for reporting on free college and college promise programs from Laura Perna, an education professor at the University of Pennsylvania who’s also executive director of its Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy.

    Merit Aid, College Quality, and College Completion: Massachusetts’ Adams Scholarship as an In-Kind Subsidy
    Cohodes, Sarah R; Goodman, Joshua S. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2014.

    This study examines a Massachusetts program that offers tuition waivers to high-achieving students who graduated from Massachusetts public high schools. The waivers, a key component of the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship Program, cover the cost of tuition for up to eight semesters at any Massachusetts state college or university.

    The key takeaway: While the scholarship induced some of these students to remain in Massachusetts for college — a primary goal of the program — it reduced college completion rates, find the authors, Sarah Cohodes, an associate professor of economics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Joshua Goodman, an associate professor of economics at Brandeis University. After the program started, about 200 fewer Massachusetts high school graduates per year earned college degrees.

    Cohodes and Goodman find that each scholarship, valued at less than $7,000, encouraged students with high test scores to attend in-state public colleges and universities, which “were of lower quality than the average alternative available to such students.” Going to a lower quality school is associated with higher odds of dropping out, possibly because public institutions spend substantially less on instruction than private, non-profit colleges, the authors suggest. They analyzed a variety of data on Massachusetts students who graduated high school between 2005 and 2008, tracking them through 2012.

    “The scholarship, though relatively small in monetary value, induced substantial changes in college choice,” Cohodes and Goodman write. “College completion rates decreased only for those subsets of students forgoing the opportunity to attend higher quality colleges when accepting the scholarship. We describe the magnitude of this response as remarkable because the value of the scholarship is dwarfed by estimates of the forgone earnings of attending a lower quality college or failing to graduate.”

  • Jo Freeman: Kavanaugh Redux: “Unfit to Sit”

     

    Reclaim the Court

    by Jo Freeman

    Exactly one year after Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as the newest Justice on the Supreme Court, about three hundred of his opponents came to DC for one more demonstration.  This time the theme was Reclaim the Court.

    Sponsored by WomensMarch, Demand Justice and the Center for Popular Democracy, they rallied in front of the Supreme Court after noon on October 6.  Their signs were less concerned with sexual harassment than last year (though that was still a theme) and more with Kavanagh as a man “Unfit to Sit.”

    Before the rally began numerous people posed for photo ops in front of the court. One of the most vocal groups came from Maine to promote their opposition to the re-election of Sen. Susan Collins. One of the last progressive Republicans, Collins has served since 1997. Because she has long supported women and women’s issues, she was expected to vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation. When she didn’t it raised a lot of ire. 

    Some seventy participants spent three hours in a morning training session before walking to the Supreme Court. A good deal of that training focused on the legal consequences of planned civil disobedience. Of the different possibilities, it was obvious that the crowd wanted most to mount the steps to the doors of the Supreme Court, as they had done at the end of the 2018 demonstrations.

    When they reached the Court, they quickly saw that that was not going to happen.

    The Court has its own police force, one of many in the District of Columbia. Its jurisdiction is the one city block on which the Supreme Court building rests, plus the people in it. The Court is closed on Sunday, even to tourists, but most of its 125 police officers were working this Sunday. Their primary task was to keep all protestors off of the Court plaza and steps. Toward that end they put up barricades and kept everyone else off as well.

    The closest the protestors could come to occupying the court steps was to wrap yellow hazard tape around the barricades with #RECLAIMTHECOURT printed on it. 

    After two and a half hours of speeches by women from many different organizations, about a hundred protestors flowed into the street in front of the Court. While the DC police kept cars away, they sat and chanted.

    To end they day, they marched to the nearby home of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R KY), and wrapped his door with  hazard tape.

    Reclaiming the court is not a task for one demonstration, or even a lot of them. There is a process by which federal judges are chosen, based more on convention than law. The right-wing learned long ago how to game the system. It looks for those with conservative views it can groom for appointment to the federal bench and raises them through the system. The Federalist Society in particular identifies and lobbies for conservative judges and justices. Kavanaugh is just one of five current Justices who rose with its support. Until the Left understands the long game, it will do more ranting than winning.

    © 2019 by Jo Freeman for SeniorWomen.com