NEW YORK — Bill Gates thinks climate change is a serious problem but it won’t be the end of civilization. He thinks scientific innovation will curb it, and it’s instead time for a “strategic pivot” in the global climate fight: from focusing on limiting rising temperatures to fighting poverty and preventing disease.
A doomsday outlook has led the climate community to focus too much on near-term goals to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that cause warming, diverting resources from the most effective things that can be done to improve life in a warming world, Gates said. In a memo released Tuesday, Gates said the world’s primary goal should instead be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions in the world’s poorest countries.
If given a choice between eradicating malaria and a tenth of a degree increase in warming, Gates told reporters, “I’ll let the temperature go up 0.1 degree to get rid of malaria. People don’t understand the suffering that exists today.”
The Microsoft co-founder spends most of his time now on the goals of the Gates Foundation, which has poured tens of billions of dollars into health care, education and development initiatives worldwide, including combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. He started Breakthrough Energy in 2015 to speed up innovation in clean energy.
He wrote his 17-page memo hoping to have an impact on next month’s United Nations climate change conference in Brazil. He’s urging world leaders to ask whether the little money designated for climate is being spent on the right things.
Gates, whose foundation provides financial support for Associated Press coverage of health and development in Africa, is influential in the climate change conversation. He expects his “tough truths about climate” memo will be controversial.
“If you think climate is not important, you won’t agree with the memo. If you think climate is the only cause and apocalyptic, you won’t agree with the memo,” Gates said during a roundtable discussion with reporters ahead of the release. “It’s kind of this pragmatic view of somebody who’s, you know, trying to maximize the money and the innovation that goes to help in these poor countries.”
Every bit of additional warming correlates to more extreme weather, risks species extinction and brings the world closer to crossing tipping points where changes become irreversible, scientists say.
University of Washington public health and climate scientist Kristie Ebi said she thoroughly agrees with Gates that the U.N. negotiations should focus on improving human health and well-being. But, she said, Gates assumes the world stays static and only one variable changes — faster deployment of green technologies — to curb climate change. She called that unlikely.
Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, called the memo “pointless, vague, unhelpful and confusing.”
“There is no reason to pit poverty reduction versus climate transformation. Both are utterly feasible, and readily so, if the Big Oil lobby is brought under control,” he wrote in an email.
Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field said there is room for a healthy discussion about whether the current framing of the climate crisis is typically too pessimistic.
“But we should also invest for both the long term and the short term,” he wrote in an email. “A vibrant long-term future depends on both tackling climate change and supporting human development.”
Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer said he doesn’t dispute the principle of making human well-being the primary objective of policy, but what about the natural world?
“Climate change is already wreaking havoc there,” he wrote in an email. “Can we truly live in a technological bubble? Do we want to?”
Gates is clear in his memo that every tenth of a degree of warming matters: “A stable climate makes it easier to improve people’s lives.”
A decade ago, the world agreed in a historic pact known as the Paris agreement to try to limit human-caused warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. The goal: to stave off nastier heat waves, wildfires, storms and droughts.
Breakthrough Energy focuses on areas where the cost of doing something cleanly is much higher than the polluting way, such as making clean steel and cement. Gates concluded his memo by saying governments should work toward driving this difference to zero, and be rigorous about measuring the impact of every effort in the world’s climate agenda.
Gates said the pace of innovation in clean energy has been faster than he expected, allowing cheap solar and wind energy to replace coal, oil and natural gas plants for electricity and averting worst-case warming scenarios. Artificial intelligence is helping accelerate advances in clean energy technologies, he added.
At the same time, money to help developing countries adapt to climate change is shrinking. Led by the United States, rich countries are cutting their foreign aid budgets. President Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax.
Gates criticized the aid cuts. He said Gavi, a public-private partnership started by his philanthropic foundation that buys vaccines, will have 25% less money for the next five years compared to the past five years. Gavi can save a life for a little more than $1,000, he added.
Vaccines become even more important in a warming world because children who aren’t dying of measles or whooping cough will be more likely to survive when a heat wave hits or a drought threatens the local food supply, he wrote.
Health and prosperity are the best defense against climate change, Gates said, citing research from the University of Chicago Climate Impact Lab that found projected deaths from climate change fall by more than 50% when accounting for the expected economic growth over the rest of this century.
Under these circumstances, he thinks the bar must be “very high” for what’s funded with aid money.
“If you have something that gets rid of 10,000 tons of emissions, that you’re spending several million dollars on,” he said, “that just doesn’t make the cut.”
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AP Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
SALEM — The Salem Pantry will soon lease a 20,000-square-foot warehouse with five times the food storage capacity of the organization’s current warehouse with the help of a $2 million grant.
The new warehouse, strategically located on Highland Avenue at the border of Peabody and Lynn, will provide warehouse space, cold storage, and distribution infrastructure for up to 20 additional emergency food distribution partners in lower Essex County, according to the Greater Boston Food Bank.
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Tesla held its third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, and CEO Elon Musk seemed particularly focused on getting his $1 trillion payday. But before the world’s wealthiest man made the case for why he deserves to be the first trillionaire, he wanted to make sure you understand one thing: He’s going to help abolish poverty.
“We’re excited about the updated mission of Tesla, which is sustainable abundance,” Musk said on the call.
“So going beyond sustainable energy to, say, sustainable abundance is the mission, where we believe with Optimus and self-driving, that you can actually create a world where there is no poverty, where everyone has access to the finest medical care. Optimus will be an incredible surgeon, for example. And imagine if everyone had access to an incredible surgeon.”
To be clear, Optimus, Tesla’s robot, is nowhere near ready to be a “surgeon.” But Musk went on, tossing in a caveat about safety.
“So I think there’s… you know, of course, we make sure Optimus is safe and everything, but I do think we’re headed for a world of sustainable abundance. And I’m excited to work with the Tesla team to make that happen,” said Musk.
Musk’s utopian vision isn’t new
The billionaire has long teased the idea that the future will be filled with so many robots and so much automation that nobody will have to work. It’s an idea that was incredibly popular in the 20th century, not just in science fiction but among serious academics. Back in the 1960s, it was just taken as a given that people of the year 2000 would only work maybe 20 hours per week. And beyond that, by the mid-21st century, no one would have to work at all.
That vision for the future didn’t work out, of course. Granted, much of the U.S. workforce became George Jetson-style button pushers in the sense that we have a large information-based economy where many people sit at keyboards typing. But the ability to just sit at home and not work while robots do everything is still a fantasy. And it’s a fantasy because the problem isn’t technological, it’s political.
There is no way to ever deliver a leisure society where everyone gets paid to do nothing unless you create a political and economic system that delivers that. The “free market” will not just cause that to happen by magic. When Amazon uses robots to streamline its operations—replacing workers and sorting packages more efficiently—the online retailer doesn’t give the money it saves to workers. That money goes to shareholders. And it’s unclear how many people actually believe that Musk’s robots would somehow deliver what he dubs a “universal high income” in the future, above and beyond a universal basic income.
Musk doesn’t understand poverty
In reality, Musk does not give a fuck about poverty. To guys like Musk, people who are poor are just getting what they deserve. And all it takes is a quick search of his X account to see how often he says things to degrade homeless people.
“In most cases, the word ‘homeless’ is a lie,” Musk tweeted on Dec. 10, 2024. “It’s usually a propaganda word for violent drug addicts with severe mental illness.”
In most cases, the word “homeless” is a lie.
It’s usually a propaganda word for violent drug addicts with severe mental illness. https://t.co/Vwp8L7tNzd
You may notice that Musk’s tweet was sent a month following the 2024 presidential election, after Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris, but before Trump was sworn in for his second term on January 20.
Musk would soon join Trump’s government as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he helped unlawfully abolish the foreign aid program USAID and ran riot through just about every federal agency, destroying programs he didn’t like and hoovering up personal data along the way. What gave him the legal authority to do that? Nothing. But Musk did it anyway with the blessing of President Trump, until the two men predictably had a falling out.
Who deserves a good life?
Musk believes that the U.S. is built on meritocracy, where people who have billions of dollars obviously deserve that money, and people who are poor deserve to stay poor. He demonstrated that time and again with DOGE, claiming that he was rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. The “fraud,” as he saw it, was people who were undeserving of the government benefits they received, whether it was food stamps or Social Security, a program he called a Ponzi scheme.
Remember when Musk went to CPAC in February and swung around a chainsaw, symbolic of the government programs he was going to cut? Those programs are what would be necessary to deliver money and services to people in order to make sure no one is poor. Why on Earth would anyone believe that he cares about poverty after such a ridiculously over-the-top display of his power?
Musk frequently insists that America’s homelessness problem is the fault of those on the streets.
“The vast majority of those on the streets are there due to severe drug addiction and/or mental illness,” Musk tweeted on Nov. 9, 2024. “The issue not that they got a little behind in their mortgage payments and would be back on their feet if someone just offered them a job.”
But Musk doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The billionaire quite literally doesn’t see the people who are struggling as he gets shuttled around the world. The majority of people who are homeless “have no mental health or substance use disorder,” according to the United States Interagency on Homelessness. Somewhere between 40-60% of people who lack homes also have a job.
As the agency explains on its website: “Today, only 37 affordable homes are available for every 100 extremely low-income renters. As a result, 70% of the lowest-wage households spend more than half theirincome on rent, placing them at high risk of homelessness when unexpected expenses (such as car repairs and medical bills) arise.”
Elon doesn’t believe in charity
Musk has repeatedly said that he doesn’t really believe in charity. The CEO insists that he’s doing enough good in the world through his private companies. When the head of the UN World Food Program noted in 2021 that Musk could end world hunger with just 2% of his wealth, Musk balked at the idea.
Instead of giving $6 billion to end hunger for 42 million people, as the UN had proposed, he gave $5.7 billion to an undisclosed charity. Forbes reports the most likely recipient was a donor-advised fund (DAF), which “behaves like a philanthropic bank account.” Forbes doesn’t even count DAF donations as charitable contributions when tracking billionaires because the money can just sit in the account indefinitely.
Forbes also notes that donating to a DAF gets Musk a huge tax break. So it seems pretty obvious what’s happened there. Musk’s private foundation hasn’t donated the legally required 5% of its assets for three years in a row, more evidence that any “giving” he does is mostly for tax reasons.
Musk’s promises about fixing poverty are PR
Investors vote on Musk’s $1 trillion pay package on Nov. 6, calling the people who oppose it “corporate terrorists” during his call on Wednesday. And he knows full well that he needs to pay lip service to those struggling financially right now, since he’s accumulating an obscene amount of wealth.
But Musk has to know that his utopian pitch for Optimus will not deliver a work-free society. And selling robots has nothing to do with creating that perfect world; it’s about making more money for him. Same as it ever was.
The writer seems to think that Donald Trump isn’t up to the task of dealing with the problems in the Middle East because he went to business school, not the School of Foreign Service. Well, all of those people who went to the right schools don’t seem to have done very well in the Middle East.
On the face of it, things haven’t changed that much, but it’s apparent that significant change is now possible. In league with Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump has quieted the Iran threat for now. Trump then talked Netanyahu into stopping the firing of further missiles into Iran unnecessarily. Then Trump persuaded Netanyahu to publicly apologize to the leader of Qatar.
Any progress could disappear as quickly as another Oct. 7 event takes place, but at least this is a promising step in the right direction.
Daniel Mauthe Livermore
U.S. should help the poor, not the 1%
How do we justify pulling support from life-saving measures in order to save billionaires money?
Certain members of Congress support our president in punishing poor people in our country and around the world, because they were not lucky enough to have a father who could give his son a real estate empire.
Donald Trump has taken SNAP (food vouchers) and Medicaid from working families, and also fired people who work for the government. He destroyed foreign aid that supports worthwhile programs like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, which have saved over 70 million lives and billions of dollars of medical care since its inception.
I believe we should help the poor people in the U.S. and the world, not the richest people who could not have made their fortunes without healthy, educated workers who make a living wage.
Bill Nicholson Martinez
Prop. 50 a childish ploy for dominance
How do you tell the difference between people acting like mature adults or like overgrown children? Mature adults accept that things don’t always go the way we want them to go and that other people have the right to have things the way they want them, at times, even when it’s not the way we like them.
When President Biden took office, there were Democrats who proclaimed that “the adults were back in charge,” but I see plenty of Democrats acting childishly these days, with Proposition 50 being a prime example. Most Democrats today seem to think that “preserving democracy” equals dominance by Democrats on all levels. (And, yes, many Republicans wrongly seek GOP dominance.) But either would actually be the destruction of democracy. And many seem to think that even the courts should always rule the way they think they should rule. Sorry, people, but that is childishness.
Christopher Andrus Dublin
Climate change won’t wait for solutions
Climate change threatens our planet through extreme weather, melting ice and rising sea levels, all stemming from excessive greenhouse gases.
This environmental degradation endangers resources, with rising temperatures leading to droughts that harm crops and water supplies. NASA reports a 1-degree Celsius temperature increase since the late 19th century, causing significant impacts. Climate change also intensifies extreme weather events, displacing communities and causing economic damage.
The direct cause is burning fossil fuels, while deforestation and unsustainable farming practices indirectly contribute. A key solution involves investing in renewable energy, such as solar and wind power. Governments, businesses and individuals must act to promote clean energy policies and reduce carbon footprints.
I urge support for climate-change solutions to protect our planet for future generations.
If you are wondering how to vote on Proposition 50 gerrymandering, look no further than who is funding the “yes” campaign. Billionaires Tom Steyer and George Soros are pouring millions of dollars into it. These are far-left-wing elites.
They are not interested in the people or what is good for the state of California. They are only interested in increasing their stranglehold over voters. They are the power-hungry force behind all the terrible policies that are destroying California.
Gov. Gavin Newsom conjured up this gerrymandering scheme. He has created this costly special election, hoping that turnout will be low and that people won’t care.
We do care. We need to say no. Vote no on Proposition 50.
My first reaction to this news was, “Who the hell cares what this guy thinks?” Do only billionaires’ voices matter? If Donald Trump rigs future elections, is peaceful protesting the only power we have? Not by a long shot.
Even as Trump tries to sabotage the power of the vote, we have the power of the purse. It worked on Disney during the Jimmy Kimmel fiasco. It will work on any company that sells to consumers. Www.goodsuniteus.com tracks corporate political donations. When, collectively, people stop shopping and subscribing to the brands that do not share their values, companies notice in a hurry. Trump may not listen to us, but he does listen to his billionaire buddies.
It may be time to start keeping corporate leaders up at night, watching their market shares tank. It may be time to remind billionaires that the money that drives this country comes from us.
Janice Bleyaert El Sobrante
Cal must do more to support students
UC Berkeley is regarded as the No. 1 public university. However, the students who make Berkeley great are facing hunger at an unacceptable rate. The 2022 UC Basic Needs Report shows that 47% of UC students have faced food insecurity.
I’m grateful for the opportunities this university has presented to me. However, a reason I and many other students hesitated in committing to Berkeley is due to the city’s basic cost of living. Attending Berkeley for most will be their greatest investment, so it should be on the university to support students contributing to the legacy of such an institution.
Currently, students can only visit Berkeley’s Basic Needs Center once a week, which is not enough for the students who rely on this resource the most. Working to expand on this resource could make a significant difference in the lives of thousands of the great minds we have at Berkeley.
Kennedy Jones Berkeley
Medical community must loudly denounce RFK Jr.
After eight months of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doing his best to unravel decades of advances in medicine and the development and use of tested and proven vaccines and medications that have saved millions of lives, saved millions of people from years of suffering, and prevented epidemics of many deadly and debilitating diseases — culminating in Donald Trump’s unhinged and unsubstantiated medical advice to America’s pregnant mothers not to take Tylenol because it causes autism in their children — I have one question: Where the hell has the medical community been?
The medical community in this nation has to stand up loudly to condemn and stop this devastation of what has allowed us all to live longer and healthier lives.
Leo probably doesn’t envision Jesus in a MAGA hat. Photo: Maria Grazia Picciarella/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images
Donald Trump and his team are currently working overtime to convince Americans that anyone who opposes his agenda represents a “radical left” full of “terrorists” who hate America, and for that matter, Christianity. The MAGA movement can’t be happy that one of the world’s oldest and most conservative institutions, the Roman Catholic Church, remains hostile to his mass-deportation program, his efforts to cut government assistance to poor people, and his militant opposition to climate-change initiatives.
During the tenure of the late Pope Francis, Trump allies and many traditionalist Catholics viewed the pontiff as fundamentally misguided (in all but his hard-line position opposing abortion). They hoped his American-born successor would be more “reasonable,” from their point of view. Indeed, as the Washington Postreports, Leo IV “has comforted traditionalists by embracing formal vestments and other reverent trappings of his office more than Francis did.” But in the last week he’s sent a series of signals that he shares Francis’s position on many of the issues that grated on MAGA Republicans, as the Post notes:
At an Oct. 1 Vatican summit, Leo condemned deniers of global warming and issued a blunt call to climate action. And last Sunday, in St. Peter’s Square, he declared a new “missionary age” against the “coldness of indifference” to migrants.
On Wednesday, he met privately with Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, a critic of the Trump administration’s migrant crackdown, along with other U.S. pro-migrant activists, to receive letters and testimonies from those living in “fear” of detention and deportation in the United States.
Leo “was very clear that what is happening to migrants in the United States right now is an injustice,” said Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Texas-based Hope Border Institute, who attended the meeting. “He said the church cannot remain silent.”
In the middle of this drumbeat of events, the pontiff intervened in an American church dispute over the proposed presentation of an award to pro-choice Catholic Senator Dick Durbin, with these words:
“Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” he said Tuesday. “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
Then today, the pontiff released his first major teaching document, an “apostolic exhortation,” as the National Catholic Reporterexplains:
“In a world where the poor are increasingly numerous, we paradoxically see the growth of a wealthy elite, living in a bubble of comfort and luxury, almost in another world compared to ordinary people,” the pope wrote. “We must not let our guard down when it comes to poverty.” …
While the document’s pastoral tone urges a renewed spiritual concern for the marginalized, it also carries sharp edges. For example, it denounces people who internalize indifference by placing their faith in the free market instead of allowing themselves to be consumed by compassion for their neighbor.
[The papal document] calls out Christians who “find it easier to turn a blind eye to the poor,” justifying their inaction by reducing faith to prayer and teaching “sound doctrine,” or by invoking “pseudo-scientific data” to claim that “a free market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty.”
Sounds “radical left” to me, or perhaps even communist.
The Vatican acknowledged that preparation of this document began under Francis, and those who didn’t like its tone and scope probably hope it was more of a tribute to Leo’s predecessor rather than a statement of his own views. But as the Postnoted, there’s another possibility:
Leo holds Peruvian nationality from his years as a missionary there in addition to U.S. citizenship. His critique of market capitalism in particular suggests that in key ways, those who thought they were getting the first American pope are actually getting the second Latin American, one whose stances, like Francis, echo perceptions common in the Global South.
Vatican hostility to Trump could have a limited effect on American Catholics, who, after all, widely disregard church teachings on contraception and other matters. But one of the under-discussed success stories of the president’s 2024 campaign is that he carried self-described Catholics by a 12-point margin over Kamala Harris after splitting this vote right down the middle with Joe Biden four years earlier. Regular criticism from a pontiff who is (so far) wildly popular in the U.S. won’t help Trump’s own flagging popularity. And it’s particularly noteworthy that for the most part America’s conservative-leaning Catholic bishops are in lockstep with the Vatican on the duty owed to immigrants even if they disagree on other issues. Vice-President J.D. Vance was very isolated in his effort to provide a Catholic doctrinal defense of his administration’s mass-deportation effort. And Francis, near the end of his earthly journey, pretty much handed Vance’s ass to him in an exchange on the subject.
As Trump’s armed and masked agents begin assaulting Pope Leo’s home town of Chicago in search of brown people to terrorize or deport, they might want to keep in mind the Vatican is watching and isn’t particularly afraid of MAGA.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced its 2025 class of fellows on Wednesday, a prize often called the “genius award.”
The MacArthur fellows receive a $800,000 prize paid out over five years that they can spend however they choose. The foundation selects fellows over the course of years and consider a wide range of recommendations. Fellows do not apply for the recognition or participate in any way in their selection.
The 2025 fellows are:
Ángel F. Adames Corraliza, 37, Madison, Wisconsin, an atmospheric scientist whose research deepened knowledge about what drives weather patterns in the tropics.
Matt Black, 55, Exeter, California, a photographer whose black and white images investigate poverty and inequality in the United States.
Garrett Bradley, 39, New Orleans, a filmmaker who leverages many types of material, including archival and personal footage, to tell almost lost and intimate stories, especially about the lives of Black Americans.
Heather Christian, 44, Beacon, New York, a composer, lyricist, playwright and vocalist who creates complex, immersive musical theater performances that interweave the sacred and mundane.
Nabarun Dasgupta, 46, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, an epidemiologist who helped create tools to identify unregulated substances in street drugs and designed other harm reduction interventions.
Kristina Douglass, 41, New York, an archaeologist whose research revealed new understandings of Indigenous conservation practices in places sensitive to climate variability.
Kareem El-Badry, 31, Pasadena, California, an astrophysicist who developed new approaches to understanding existing datasets that have revealed new knowledge about how stars form and interact.
Jeremy Frey, 46, Eddington, Maine, an artist whose mastery of Wabanaki basket weaving both carries on traditional practices and finds new possibilities in the materials and techniques.
Hahrie Han, 50, Baltimore, a political scientist whose research illuminated what helps people participate in civic life and how to help them connect across differences to solve collective problems.
Tonika Lewis Johnson, 45, Chicago, a photographer and activist who created participatory projects that reveal the consequences and legacy of segregation in her neighborhood of Englewood on the city’s South Side.
Ieva Jusionyte, 41, Providence, Rhode Island, a cultural anthropologist whose diverse ethnographies investigate the ethical and practical issues that national border policies create for workers and communities who live in border regions.
Toby Kiers, 49, Amsterdam, an evolutionary biologist whose research helped document how plants, microbes and fungi cooperate to trade the resources that each need to survive.
Jason McLellan, 44, Austin, Texas, a structural biologist whose research into viral protein structures helped advance the understanding of viruses and helped to develop new vaccines.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen, 49, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a multidisciplinary artist whose projects in film and sculpture draw on personal testimonies and community archives to document and heal from histories of war and displacement.
Tommy Orange, 43, Oakland, California, a fiction writer whose books illuminated the experiences past and present of Native Americans in the Oakland area.
Margaret Wickens Pearce, 60, Rockland, Maine, a cartographer whose maps document the relationships of Indigenous people in North America to their land and that narrate histories, incorporate knowledge and detail the ongoing dispossession of Native people.
Sébastien Philippe, 38, Madison, Wisconsin, a nuclear security specialist whose research revealed that past nuclear testing by France and the U.S. exposed many more people to radiation than was previously documented.
Gala Porras-Kim, 40, Los Angeles and London, an interdisciplinary artist whose exploration of museum collections challenged conventions of curation and often highlight what is lost or unknown about cultural artifacts.
Teresa Puthussery, 46, Berkeley, California, a neurobiologist and optometrist who identified a type of cell in the retina that helps clarify how humans process visual information.
Craig Taborn, 55, Brooklyn, New York, a musician and composer known for his improvisations and collaborations and whose performances reveal the full range of the piano’s capacity as an instrument.
William Tarpeh, 35, Stanford, California, a chemical engineer who developed techniques to extract valuable minerals from wastewater that can be turned into fertilizers or cleaning products.
Lauren K. Williams, 47, Cambridge, Massachusetts, a mathematician whose research is in algebraic combinatorics and also contributed to solving problems in other areas through interdisciplinary collaborations.
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
A political scientist who studies what helps people connect across differences. A novelist whose books about Native American communities in Oakland, California, sparked a passionate following. A photographer whose black and white images investigate poverty in America.
Hahrie Han, Tommy Orange and Matt Black are among the 22 fellows selected this year by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and announced Wednesday. It’s a recognition often called the “genius award,” which comes with an $800,000 prize, paid over five years that fellows can spend however they choose.
The foundation selects fellows over the course of years, considering a vast range of recommendations, largely from their peers.
“Each class doesn’t have a theme and we’re not creating a cohort around a certain idea,” said Marlies Carruth, director of the MacArthur Fellows program. “But I think this year, we see empathy and deep engagement with community figures prominently in this class.”
Through different methodologies, many of the fellows “boldly and unflinchingly” reflect what they see and hear from deep engagement with their communities, she said.
Because fellows don’t apply or participate in anyway in their selection, the award often comes as a shock and sometimes coincides with difficult moments. Nabarun Dasgupta, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina, had just left a team meeting where he shared that a longtime collaborator in harm reduction work had died when he saw multiple missed calls from a Chicago number, which then called again. It was the MacArthur Foundation.
They were awarding him the fellowship in recognition of his work, which includes helping to start a testing program for street drugs to identify unregulated substances and helping to overcome a shortage of naloxone, which reverses an opioid overdose.
To make sense of the intense moment that mixed deep loss and recognition, Dasgupta wrote the following in a journal.
“We are surrounded by death every day. Sometimes, you have to give yourself a pep talk to get out of bed. Other mornings, the universe yells in your ear and tells you to keep going because what we’re doing is working.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, he added, “I feel like this couldn’t have been any clearer of a signal that the work has to go on.”
Other fellows were contacted by the foundation through email asking to speak with them about potential projects. Tonika Lewis Johnson, a Chicago-based artist, planned to take the call in the car. The foundation representatives tried to get her to pull over before breaking the news, but she declined.
“They were definitely worried about my safety,” she said laughing, and she did then stop driving.
Johnson’s projects are rooted in her neighborhood of Englewood, located on Chicago’s South Side. She has photographed the same addresses in north and south Chicago, beautified residents’ homes and made predatory housing practices visible. All together, her work reveals the very specific people and places impacted by racial segregation.
“This award is validation and recognition that my neighborhood, this little Black neighborhood in Chicago that everyone gets told to, ‘Don’t go to because it’s dangerous,’ this award means there are geniuses here,” Johnson said.
For Ángel F. Adames Corraliza, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the award is also a recognition of the talent and grit coming from Puerto Rico, where he is from, despite the hardships his community has endured. His research has uncovered many new findings about what drives weather patterns in the tropics, which may eventually help improve forecasting in those regions.
Adames said usually one of his classes would be ending right when the foundation would publish the new class of fellows, so he was planning to end the lecture early to come back to his office. He said he’s having trouble fathoming what it will be like.
“I am low-key expecting that a few people are just going to show up in my office, like right at 11:02 a.m. or something like that,” he said.
Before getting news of the award, Adames said he was anticipating having to scale down his research in the coming years as government funding for climate and weather research has been significantly cut back or changed. He said he had been questioning what was next for his career.
The prize from MacArthur may allow him to pursue some new theoretical ideas that are harder to get funded, he said.
“I think people do care and it does matter for the general public, regardless of what the political landscape is, which right now is fairly negative on this,” he said about climate and weather science.
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
At a time when communities across America are grappling with rising costs, attacks on democracy, and deep inequality, Bishop William J. Barber II is clear: America’s future depends on whether we can turn shared pain into shared power — and whether our leaders will dare to lift all of us, not just some of us.
In this conversation with Word In Black’s deputy managing director, Joseph Williams, at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 54th Annual Legislative Conference, Rev. Barber gets straight to the point. Poor and low-wage people, he says, are the most powerful — and the most ignored — voting bloc in America.
His warning to the Democratic Party: Ignoring the poor would be “at your own political demise.” Barber cites recent data showing that nearly 19 million people who supported Biden-Harris in 2020 didn’t turn out in the midterms — largely because they didn’t hear a clear plan to tackle poverty and low wages.
“51% of our children, even before Trump, were in poverty,” he says. And millions of Americans are either uninsured or underinsured, so offering a bold economic vision can’t be optional.
Some say America needs another Martin Luther King Jr. to lead us forward. But Barber, who serves as president of Repairers of the Breach, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, and architect of the Moral Monday movement, rejects that narrative.
“Martin Luther King never said he was the leader,” he says, noting that the March on Washington happened because of broad coalition work.
“I don’t think in any period of history it’s just a person. I think that’s a misstatement of history,” he says. Real change, he insists, comes from the ground up — from organizing in communities, states, and local movements that add up to national transformation.
Demetrus McDaniel, principal of Renaissance West STEAM Academy, speaks last month about how she is changing things at the school.
Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez
mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
Despite her 29-year tenure with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Demetrus McDaniel would tell you that it was never her aspiration to be an educator.
A career in education didn’t come with money, she said. But her grandmother’s seeing her natural connection with children pushed McDaniel toward it and, in turn, helped her find riches in a new way.
When she stepped in as Renaissance West STEAM Academy’s newest principal last October, the stakes were high. The academy, one of the highest poverty schools in North Carolina, had just received its first ‘C’ ranking in the state report card after years of low performance. Before this, the school spent three consecutive years ranked as an ‘F’ before rising to a ‘D’ in the 2022-2023 school year.
And the former principal, Dwight Thompson, who brought stability to the school — located at the intersection of West Boulevard and Billy Graham Parkway — had just left to take a leadership position in Connecticut. Thompson cultivated a culture of high expectations that has carried on in his absence. As the new leader, McDaniel wanted to give the students opportunity, exposure and experience — a chance to see themselves as more than their long-struggling neighborhood and the lingering perceptions of its past.
“Unfortunately they think you gotta be a rap star. You gotta be a ball player to be rich. I said, ‘No, that’s wealth. I’m rich… I’m rich because I get to be with y’all every day,” she’d say to her students. “That’s what life is really about. I had to learn the hard way, but I learned that life is really about when you sit in your purpose.”
After a shaky first few years, Renaissance West STEAM Academy — the centerpiece to a community initiative aimed at ending intergenerational poverty — has found its stride. For the second year in a row, the school has obtained a ‘C’ score while showing growth from the year before.
It’s no small feat for a school that has also had to overcome challenges in its eight years — loss of funding, high staff turnover and high poverty. And the implications of the school’s growth are bigger than Renaissance West STEAM Academy, community leaders say. It has the potential to bring much needed investment to a long overlooked West Boulevard corridor.
Every day on the announcements and in the school’s hallways, McDaniel said she is constantly reminding students that they are 11 points from moving from a ‘C’ school to a ‘B’. Crossing that line would mean everything, she said.
“It would allow them to see themselves, it would allow them to change their trajectory,” she said. “… It would allow them to see their purpose, because I’m able to see mine now.”
Demetrus McDaniel, principal of Renaissance West STEAM Academy, says the school’s improvement has the potential to improve the community. Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
Shaky starts
The K-8 Renaissance West STEAM Academy is more than just a school. It’s the cornerstone of a community effort to revitalize the neighborhood. One of its top priorities is to create a “cradle to career’ education model that supports a child’s development from infancy to adulthood.
Along with the school, the Renaissance West Community Initiative consists of a childcare center, a senior living community and several hundred mixed-use apartments.
But before it was the Renaissance West Community Initiative, the area was home to a public housing development called Boulevard Homes. Opened in 1970, Boulevard Homes offered 300 public housing units just east of Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
In 2007, the Charlotte Housing Authority, now known as Inlivian, identified Boulevard Homes as its most dilapidated and troubled property, according to WFAE’s timeline of the property.
Two years later, the housing authority said the conditions were beyond repair and dragging down the neighborhood. In response, it applied for a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to replace the housing and bring in a school.
When Renaissance West STEAM Academy finally opened in 2017, the school immediately faced challenges. Only a third of kindergarten students arrived with the skills they needed. And at the end of that school year, only 28% of older students passed the state reading exams, WFAE previouslyreported.
It can be easy to assume that all schools are starting off on equal footing, UNC Charlotte Professor of Urban Education Chance Lewis said. But for many, especially high poverty schools, this isn’t the case. In the 2023-2024 school year, 76% of students at Renaissance West STEAM Academy were considered economically disadvantaged, according to state data.
With economic hardship come life circumstances that can affect a child’s school performance, Lewis said. These things, unlike proficiency or comprehension, can’t be measured in traditional ways. Some children come to school hungry or miss school because they have to help out at home.
“Schools really work hard to try to alleviate those issues as much as they can, so the kid could be in a position for learning, but you (have to) factor in the traumatic pieces of what goes on in a high poverty situation as well,” Lewis said.
Moving up the ranks
When a school like Renaissance West STEAM Academy does move up the ranks despite the challenges and complications that poverty may place on students’ lives, it’s an indication of a concerted effort from both the school and community, Lewis said.
Much of that groundwork was laid by Thompson, the school’s third principal. When he took over in 2021, the majority of his teaching cohort had less than three years of experience and high turnover, WFAE reported. After intensive recruiting, more than 70% of the school’s teachers are now considered experienced, according to the most recent state data.
Renaissance West STEAM Academy has raised its overall grade from an ‘F’ to a ‘C’, with the intention to continue improving toward a ‘B’. Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
As a continuation of Thompson’s work, McDaniel has focused on ensuring children have quality teachers and don’t fall behind. She’s introduced small group instruction — a method she saw work at other “turnaround” schools. Struggling students will engage in study sessions with other students and their teachers to help them master the material, she said.
Each student will also have a data notebook that shows them how they scored on previous testing and a plan of execution to improve, she said.
“Kids need to know where they are to know where they’re going,” she said. “It cannot be on just the adults, because we’re not the ones taking the test. We have to make sure that they know exactly what’s expected from them and this is how they’re going to get there.”
The efforts within the schoolhouse have been paired with support from the Renaissance West Community Initiative and other community support. After-school programs align students with their interests and expose them to new experiences. With the help of community partners, students are able to attend college tours or, for example, immerse themselves in fashion programming, McDaniel said.
But despite the school’s growth, there’s a double edged sword — both success and failure come with their own sets of challenges.
Over the past few years, Renaissance West STEAM Academy has lost at least $1 million, the Renaissance West Community Initiative said. The funding loss did not come from traditional CMS or state allocations but the loss of three public grants. Two of the grants — COVID-19 funding and a three-year state Innovative Partnership Grant — expired. Another grant was lost because the school improved in its academic performance.
McDaniel declined to comment on that loss, but in a statement the school district expressed appreciation for community funding support.
“Renaissance West Community Initiative and other community partners have provided important supplemental support over the years, and the level and type of that support can vary. We are grateful for the continued partnership and the positive impact this support brings to our students and staff,” Jourdyn Grandison, a CMS spokesperson, said.
Lewis said often when schools begin to improve, property values increase, giving schools a new revenue source to tap into. Because of this, grants or private funding is allocated to another school that may be struggling and could use the additional support.
“It’s a balancing act that schools have to play with. Success brings on new things that you have to deal with,” Lewis said. “But at the center of it …if we’re making the growth for those particular students. That’s what we ultimately want.”
For the corridor
In a place such as Charlotte where 157 people are moving in each day, highly ranked schools are not only a draw for families trying to find their place in the Queen City. High-achieving schools can become the epicenter of neighborhood transformation, leaders say.
For years, the West Boulevard corridor was seen as a place you’d just pass through, neighborhood activist Rickey Hall said. But a high-performing school could help the corridor spur some of the economic investment groups like the West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition, where Hall is the board chair, have been wanting to see for years.
Investment like banks, pharmacies or even a grocery store — an amenity the corridor hasn’t been afforded in three decades.
“It bodes well for initiatives that organizations like the West Boulevard Coalition and others have championed for years,” Hall said of the school’s progress. “We’re starting to see those efforts bear fruit that will improve quality of life, improve access, improve living conditions, and serve as a model for how children who come from a lower economic status are actually given the opportunities to learn, grow and be successful.”
Taking the school from a ‘C’ to a ‘B’ would allow the students to walk the halls with pride and to know despite where they come from, what they’ve gone through or what has been said about their community, they were a part of a change that had deep waves in their neighborhood.
“Imagine when we can stand before the Board of Education and Dr. (Crystal) Hill and say the Renaissance West STEAM Academy is a B School,” McDaniel said. “… It changes the narrative. Which then will give people a different perspective on who my babies are, who my families are, who this community is.”
Briah Lumpkins is the emerging news reporter for the Charlotte Observer. In this role, she finds important and impactful enterprise stories impacting the Charlotte-metro region. Most previously, Briah spent time in Houston, Texas covering underrepresented suburban communities at the Houston Landing. Prior to that, she spent a year at the Charleston Post and Courier for an investigative reporting fellowship through FRONTLINE PBS. When she’s not at work you can find her binge reading on her kindle or at the movie theater watching the latest premieres.
A single mother who relied on federal food assistance lost her benefits in 2020 after Kentucky investigators concluded she’d committed fraud.
The state alleged she had made multiple same-day purchases, tried to overdraw her account a few times, entered a few invalid PINs and sometimes made “whole-dollar” purchases that are unlikely during typical grocery runs.
The woman from Salyersville in Appalachian Kentucky had an explanation: She worked at the store. She would sometimes buy lunch there and then get groceries after work. Her child would also occasionally use her card.
An administrative hearing officer kicked her off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) regardless, based solely on the allegedly suspicious shopping pattern. She sued — and won.
“It is draconian to take away SNAP benefits from a single mother without clear and convincing evidence that intentional trafficking was occurring during a time when food scarcity is so prevalent,” Franklin County Judge Thomas Wingate said in his 2023 decision.
A surge of disqualifications
Over the last five years, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services has brought hundreds of fraud cases that are heavily reliant on transactional data with the goal of revoking people’s food benefits.
Judges, lawyers and legal experts said in interviews and in court documents that such evidence proves little. Kentucky Public Radio reviewed dozens of administrative hearing decisions and court documents from the last five years in which the cabinet relied on shopping patterns to prove a person had “trafficked,” or sold, their benefits.
Kentucky is so aggressive in disqualifying people from SNAP benefits that the state is second in the nation for per-capita administrative disqualifications, behind Florida, according to the most recent federal data from 2023.
In the last decade, disqualifications in Kentucky rose from fewer than 100 in 2015 to over 1,800 in 2023. And more than 300 others have been accused of selling or misusing their benefits since January 2024, according to records obtained by Kentucky Public Radio.
Another Franklin County judge in 2023 ordered the cabinet to stop disqualifying individuals based solely on transactional data, but since the decision, at least three lawsuits allege the health agency continues to bring such cases.
Transactional data alone cannot prove intent to commit fraud nor show the actual result of any individual transaction, University of Kentucky law professor Cory Dodds said, adding, “I’m not saying that folks didn’t do it, didn’t commit the fraud, but I don’t think the cabinet in a lot of these cases has met their burden of proof, either.”
Facing punishment, recipients are pressured to waive their hearings
Kentuckians receive notice of their alleged suspicious activity through mailed letters, in which they’re asked to voluntarily waive their right to a hearing and automatically accept the punishment. On first offense, that’s generally a one-year SNAP ban. They’re also required to repay the full amount the state says they misused.
Often, these cases involve a relatively small amount of money. Records show that more than 900 people have been kicked off for “trafficking” or misuse for less than $1,000 since 2022. The lowest amount alleged was 14 cents.
The state has leaned heavily on administrative hearing waivers since 2015, and by 2023, almost a quarter of all disqualifications were via waiver. Some lawsuits allege individuals did not fully understand the consequences of the waivers and were encouraged to sign by officials.
Kentucky Public Radio reviewed more than two dozen cases since 2020 in which the cabinet accused an individual of trafficking using only spending patterns, despite the participants’ denial or lack of response — and with no other evidence or interviews presented, according to administrative hearing decisions.
Kendra Steele, a spokesperson for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, declined to schedule an interview with cabinet officials after multiple requests. Steele said in an email that “we have never” brought trafficking cases based solely on transactional data and acknowledged it would not be sufficient to prove intent.
In response to a different question, Steele wrote the investigation into fraud allegations consists of looking into income, living situations “and patterns of spending that are indicative of trafficking.” She did not indicate how any of those factors could be used to prove intentional misuse or selling of SNAP benefits, or how it differs from relying on transactional data — which is inherently a pattern of spending. Steele said in another email that they also interview vendors and SNAP recipients.
‘It’s our fellow Kentuckians who are going hungry’
Roughly 4 in 25 Kentuckians suffer from food insecurity, similar to the national rate of about 14%, according to an Associated Press analysis of U.S. Census Bureau and Feeding America data.
In the last fiscal year, 1 in 8 Kentuckians benefitted from SNAP, formerly called food stamps. Food insecurity in Kentucky’s rural areas is even more stark, and legal representation harder to come by.
“The people who benefit from these programs are some of the folks that we need to be helping the most in this country,” Dodds said. “It’s our fellow Kentuckians who are going hungry as a result of baseless allegations of waste, fraud and abuse.”
The cabinet denied KPR’s request for case notes on individual fraud accusations starting in early 2024 that would include the evidence used in the accusations. But administrative hearing decisions reviewed by KPR from 2020 through 2023 included evidence the cabinet relied on; hearing officers would frequently say a person had trafficked their benefits based on shopping patterns the state deemed suspicious.
Expert say officials overrely on purchase data
National legal experts who specialize in SNAP access say an overreliance on transactional data isn’t unique to Kentucky. Transactional data was initially meant as a tool to identify potential fraud cases — not as a means to prove it, Georgetown law professor David Super said.
He’s studied SNAP disqualifications for decades, and has seen many cases where he believes transactional data is misconstrued as direct evidence of wrongdoing, instead of requiring a state to build cases with witnesses, affidavits, video evidence and plea deals.
In one redacted 2023 state administrative hearing decision, a hearing officer decided a woman in the eastern Kentucky city of McKee had trafficked her benefits because she had made eight back-to-back transactions in a year. The decision also said she’d checked her balance several times, made a few insufficient fund attempts and had incorrectly entered her PIN number a few times.
She lost her SNAP benefits for a year. In an appeal, the woman told the state she has two kids and had recently discovered she was pregnant.
“Everyone forgets to get something and has to go back in the store and get it,” she wrote, defending her back-to-back purchases.
She received another hearing, but the outcome didn’t change.
Cabinet officials acknowledged in cross examinations during a 2023 case that back-to-back transactions and whole-dollar purchases aren’t forbidden under SNAP rules, nor are recipients told that the cabinet considers them suspicious.
But all of these things are used as evidence — sometimes the sole evidence — that a person misused their benefits.
Kristie Goff, an AppalRed legal aid lawyer in Prestonsburg in southeast Kentucky, used to see many of these cases, though they’ve declined in the last year.
“There have been very few instances in cases I have handled, where a client was not able to give me a perfectly reasonable explanation for those transactions, and none of it was trafficking,” Goff said. “There are no receipts, there’s no video footage to show that someone’s doing anything wrong. It’s just a number written on a paper.”
While saying purchasing history is insufficient to prove trafficking, Kentucky judges have stopped short of demanding that the state change how it trains employees or conducts its SNAP investigations.
State training materials focus almost entirely on purchase patterns
In response to an open records request, the cabinet provided KPR with documents used to train investigators on intentional program violations. They appear to almost exclusively discuss transactional data, including investigating back-to-back payments, large transactions and whole-dollar purchases.
In 2020, Michigan appellate judges decided transactional data alone is never sufficient to prove that a business — or person — fraudulently used SNAP benefits.
Dodds believes that should be the standard for all states, including Kentucky.
He is in the early stages of systematically reviewing thousands of SNAP benefit trafficking hearing decisions between 2020 and 2023. Data from about 700 decisions in 2020 alone already shows that many Kentuckians have been denied benefits before the state presents what he considers real evidence of guilt.
“There are maybe a handful of cases that I would say there was real evidence that they had done something wrong,” Dodds said. “There was one where a woman was on the phone with the hearing officer while she was actively trying to sell her benefits. … But cases with non-transactional data are exceedingly rare.”
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Associated Press data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this report.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The Philadelphia region’s immigrant population has increased over the last decade, spurring economic growth and social prosperity, a new report says.
The report from The Welcoming Center says this influx of immigrants has allowed the region to stave off population decline and coincided with increases in household income and educational attainments, and a decrease in poverty.
The report, which covers Philadelphia and its four collar counties, concluded that immigration contributes positively to the region’s economy and the well-being of the population, but that opportunity gaps still exist for foreign-born people.
Anuj Gupta, president of The Welcoming Center, a Philly organization that promotes economic opportunities for immigrants, said he hopes the report’s findings can reshape the way people view immigration in the region and inform thoughtful policies.
“What we’re seeing is the story of collective prosperity while immigration has accelerated in the region, which kind of defies everything that’s being said about immigration right now,” Gupta said.
“In the suburbs, there is an opportunity deficit that’s not being met. There are immigrants that are highly skilled, highly trained, possibly with bachelor’s or graduate-level education that are underemployed.”
For Gupta, who grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, one of the most surprising regional trends was the decline of native-born populations against steadily increasing foreign-born populations.
Philadelphia’s foreign-born population rate grew from 12.69% in 2013 to 15.09% in 2023, the report shows, citing U.S. Census Bureau data. Similarly, the foreign-born population rate in the suburban counties grew from 9.09% to 10.66%. This growth allowed the region’s population to marginally grow over that same span despite native populations declining due to lower birth rates and moving elsewhere, the report says.
Additionally, as the native population has grown older, immigrants have made up a larger percentage of the region’s working-age population — those ages 25-54. The percentage of foreign-born workers in the region rose slightly from 2013 to 2023 as the percentage of native-born workers fell by 2 percentage points, the report shows.
“If not for the relatively recent uptick in immigration to all four of the collar counties, you would be talking about a region in decline, population loss and bigger workforce gaps than we already have,” Gupta said.
The report also shows that the region’s poverty rate has fallen as median household incomes and educational attainment levels have risen.
The average median incomes of foreign-born households surpassed that of native-born households in 2022. As of 2023, the average median income of foreign-born households was $101,321, slightly above the $99,114 made by native-born households, the report shows.
In Philadelphia, the poverty rates for foreign-born and native populations each decreased by about 4 percentage points from 2013 to 2023. The poverty rates in the suburbs fell slightly, but immigrants remain more likely to be impoverished — a deficit that Gupta said speaks to a “fundamental lack of understanding” of the economic opportunities that immigrants can provide.
“While immigrants are spread across a wide range of industries, they are also often working in jobs that do not fully match their skills and qualifications and highlights the need for policies that better match skills with opportunity,” the report reads. “Addressing these gaps is critical to fully leveraging the skills and supporting community resilience.”
The report shows that the region’s foreign-born population has long been more likely to hold at least a bachelor’s degree, though that gap has narrowed in recent years.
As the federal government cracks down on immigration, Gupta said he hopes the report’s data can be used for productive dialogue at the local level.
“We put the real information out, so if people want to make policy choices that still run contrary to the contributions that immigrants are making … it will not just damage individuals and families and our social fabric, but our economy,” he said. “I do believe that at the local level we can change the direction of thinking and discussion.”
The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, better known as SNAP, looks a little different in Pennsylvania this month.
Work requirements for the program, which provides low-income households with food assistance, changed on Sept. 1 after the passage of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill. Recipients now must provide an exemption or proof that they’re working on average 20 hours a week to continue to qualify. If they don’t, they’re limited to three months of SNAP benefits for a three-year period. Approximately 42,000 Philadelphians could lose their benefits under the new requirements.
Louise Hayes, a supervising attorney at Philadelphia’s Community Legal Services, said this “time limit” tying benefits to work requirements was actually part of a 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. But the expansiveness of this is unlike anything that’s come before.
“It’s been around a long time, it’s just never been implemented in Philadelphia before,” Hayes said. “And then the huge reconciliation bill that was passed at the beginning of July makes the time limit apply to a lot more people.”
At CLS, Hayes said the main priority is getting exemptions for residents so the changes don’t apply to them, which she hopes will help more recipients keep their benefits. Pennsylvanians making more than $217.50 per week are considered exempt. Once an exemption is in place, it’s good for a year. Other exemptions include people who are caregivers, pregnant, on unemployment, in a drug or alcohol treatment program, homeless or if they have a medical conditions that reduce their ability to work.
Hayes said SNAP recipients should have gotten an exemption screening form in the mail last month. If not, they need to notify their social worker or local County Assistance Office.
“A bunch of these exemptions, people have to raise their hand and let the County Assistance Office know,” Hayes said. “We are very worried about their capacity to handle all this influx of new work.”
For those who don’t meet any exemptions but do comply with the 20-hour per week rules, Hayes said they’ll have to submit paystubs or some other proof that they’re meeting the requirement twice per year. However, she noted that people can comply through volunteering, as well.
According to the state, people who have reached the time limit, haven’t notified the state of an exemption or don’t meet the work requirements will get a notice in the mail saying their eligibility will end. Hayes said if people appeal a ruling within 15 days of the notice, benefits should continue until a hearing, and they can prove eligibility in that time.
A round of changes for the immigrant community is schedules for Nov. 1. Refugees, asylum-seekers and other humanitarian immigrants will no longer be eligible unless they have a Permanent Resident Card, aka a green card. There are fewer exemptions for these cuts, although Hayes said some people might have a green card but had no reason to report it to SNAP until now. Cuban and Haitian immigrants will remain eligible.
The policy bill will also reduce spending for Medicaid, which is expected to cut off assistance to nearly 8 million people nationwide, the New York Times reported. With all of the changes, Hayes said it’s been a busy time for CLS — especially after two benefits assistance organizations in Philadelphia closed last year — but they’re hoping to ramp-up capacity at the end of the year to help even more residents after the November changes.
With the new requirements applying to so many residents, which Hayes called a “paperwork-intensive process,” she said she hopes there’s enough capacity to help people.
“It’s been a lot for the state to try to do on short notice, in addition to a whole lot of other things that have to do with the results of that federal law,” Hayes said. “One thing that I hope they will do is ensure that they have adequate staff to all of this work.”
The first words I uttered after successfully defending my dissertation were, “Wow, what a ride. From Head Start to Ph.D.!” Saying them reminded me where it all began: sitting cross-legged with a picture book at the Westside Head Start Center, just a few blocks from my childhood home in Jackson, Mississippi.
I don’t remember every detail from those early years, but I remember the feeling: I was happy at Head Start. I remember the books, the music, the joy. That five-minute bus ride from our house to the Westside Center turned out to be the shortest distance between potential and achievement.
And my story is not unique. Every year, hundreds of thousands of children — kids whose names we may never know, though our futures depend on them — walk through Head Start’s doors. Like me, they find structure, literacy, curiosity and belonging.
For many families, Head Start is the first place outside the home where a child’s potential is nurtured and celebrated. Yet, this program that builds futures and strengthens families is now under threat, and it’s imperative that we protect it.
Years later, while training for high school cross-country meets, I’d run past the park next to the center and pause, flooded with memories. Head Start laid the foundation for everything that followed. It gave me structure, sparked my curiosity and built my early literacy skills. It even fed my short-lived obsession with chocolate milk.
More than that, Head Start made me feel seen and valued.
There’s a clear, unbroken line between the early lessons I learned at Head Start and the doctoral dissertation I defended decades later. Head Start didn’t just teach me my ABCs — it taught me that learning could be joyful, that I was capable and that I belonged in a classroom.
That belief carried me through elementary school, Yale and George Washington University and to a Ph.D. in public policy and public administration. Now, as part of my research at the Urban Institute, I’m working to expand access to high-quality early learning, because I know firsthand what a difference it makes.
Research backs up what my story shows: Investments in Head Start and high-quality early childhood education change lives by improving health and educational achievement in later years, and benefit the economy. Yet today there is growing skepticism about the value of Head Start, reflecting an ongoing reluctance to give early childhood education the respect it deserves.
If Head Start funding is cut, thousands of children — especially from communities like mine in Jackson, where families worked hard but opportunities were limited — could lose access to a program that helps level the playing field. These are the children of young parents and single parents, of working families who may not have many other options but still dare to dream big for their kids.
And that is why I am worried. Funding for Head Start has been under threat. Although President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget would maintain Head Start funding at its current $12.3 billion, Project 2025, the influential conservative policy document, calls for eliminating the program. The administration recently announced that Head Start would no longer enroll undocumented children, which a group of Democratic attorneys general say will force some programs to close.
I feel compelled to speak out because, for our family, Head Start wasn’t just a preschool — it was the beginning of everything. For me, it meant a future I never could have imagined. For my mother, Head Start meant peace of mind — knowing her son was in a nurturing, educational environment during the critical developmental years. My mother, Nicole, brought character, heart and an unwavering belief in my potential — and Head Start helped carry that forward.
My mother was just 18 when she enrolled me in Head Start. “A young mother with big dreams and limited resources,” she recounted to me recently, adding that she had “showed up to an open house with a baby in my arms and hope in my heart.”
Soon afterward, Mrs. Helen Robinson, who was in charge of the Head Start in Jackson, entered our lives. She visited our home regularly, bringing books, activities and reassurance. A little yellow school bus picked me up each morning.
Head Start didn’t just support me, though. It also supported my mother and gave her tips and confidence. She took me to the library regularly and made sure I was always surrounded by books and learning materials that would challenge and inspire me.
It helped my mother and countless others like her gain insight into child development, early learning and what it means to advocate for their children’s future.
Twenty-five years after those early mornings when I climbed onto the Head Start bus, we both still think about how different our lives might have been without that opportunity. Head Start stood beside us, and that support changed our lives.
As we debate national priorities, we must ask ourselves: Can we afford to dismantle a program that builds futures, strengthens families and delivers proven returns?
My family provides living proof of Head Start’s power.
This isn’t just our story. It is the story of millions of others and could be the story of millions more if we choose to protect and invest in what works.
Travis Reginal holds a doctorate in public policy and public administration and is a graduate of the Head Start program, Yale University and George Washington University. He is a former Urban Institute researcher.
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A sweeping review published in The Lancet Regional Health—Europe has drawn a direct line between mental health disorders and cardiovascular disease (CVD), showing that individuals living with psychiatric conditions face not only a higher risk of heart problems but also a shorter life expectancy. The paper, authored by researchers from Emory University, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Leeds, and others, concludes that people with depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and anxiety live 10 to 20 years less on average, mainly due to heart disease.
A Bidirectional Threat
The analysis shows that the connection between mental health and cardiovascular disease is not one-directional. The stress of a heart attack or stroke can trigger psychiatric disorders, while psychiatric conditions themselves set the stage for heart disease. The risks are striking as depression raises cardiovascular risk by 72 percent, schizophrenia by 95 percent, bipolar disorder by 57 percent, PTSD by 61 percent, and anxiety disorders by 41 percent. “It is important to understand that stress, anxiety, and depression can affect your heart, just like other physical factors,” the paper noted, offering guidance for how doctors might begin crucial conversations with patients.
A Widespread Burden
One in four people will experience a mental health disorder in their lifetime, yet many go untreated and often receive poor cardiovascular care. “Despite having more interactions with the healthcare system, they undergo fewer physical checkups and screenings and receive fewer diagnoses and treatments for CVD and its risk factors,” the authors reported. According to 2023 U.S. survey data cited in the study, more than half of those who met the criteria for a mental health disorder had not received any treatment, with even lower rates among non-White populations.
Shared Risk Factors
Researchers identified a cluster of overlapping drivers—poverty, trauma, social disadvantage, substance use, and poor access to health care—that amplify the dual risks of mental illness and cardiovascular disease. Lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, poor diet, physical inactivity, and disrupted sleep patterns are also more common among people with psychiatric conditions. The biological picture is equally troubling. Dysregulation of the stress response system, inflammation, and autonomic nervous system dysfunction are all pathways through which psychiatric disorders may accelerate cardiovascular decline.
Breaking the Cycle
The study calls for a fundamental shift in medical practice. “For the best care, an integrated approach is needed to address the complex needs of this vulnerable population,” the authors wrote. “Such approach should offer enhanced support and interdisciplinary care encompassing mental, cardiovascular, and behavioral health, as well as consideration of the social needs and barriers to care.” Among the interventions reviewed, exercise emerged as one of the most effective treatments, improving both mood and heart health. Evidence shows that physical activity can deliver improvements on par with or greater than medication or psychotherapy for depression. Mind-body practices like yoga and mindfulness, while requiring more evaluation, also show promise for improving outcomes across both mental and cardiovascular health.
A Call to Integrate Care
The authors stressed that progress depends on healthcare systems breaking down the wall between physical and mental health. For decades, treatment has been siloed, with psychiatrists focusing on the mind and cardiologists on the body. That separation, the study finds, has left millions vulnerable. The authors argue for expanded insurance coverage, investment in housing and employment stability, and the inclusion of psychiatric patients in cardiovascular research. Above all, they call for integrated care models that recognize the tight link between mental and cardiovascular health.
“Closing the disparity gap for individuals with mental health disorders would be consistent with the World Health Organization 2025 targets of reducing the global burden of CVD,” the researchers concluded. “Reducing these disparities would also uphold the rights of people with mental health disorders to achieve the highest possible level of health and to fully participate in society and the workforce.”
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Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent and NNPA
UNION CITY, N.J.— By 7:30 a.m., Jackson had started rushing his father, José Bernard, to leave their house. “Dad, we’re going! We’re going, come on, let’s go.”
The 4-year-old was itching to return to his favorite place: Eugenio Maria de Hostos Center for Early Childhood Education, a burst of orange and blue on the corner of Union City’s bustling Kennedy Boulevard.
These small moments stick out for Jackson’s father. A year and a half earlier, as a young toddler coming out of daycare, Jackson was nonverbal.
“It’s life-changing, I’ll be honest with you,” said Bernard, who grew up in Union City in Hudson County. The city is home to one of the urban districts in New Jersey with universal and free preschool, created as part of a slate of remedies meant to make up for uneven funding between rich and poor districts in the state.
At the center, young voices try out vowel sounds in Spanish, English and Mandarin, present projects about fish and sea turtles, count plastic ice cream scoops and learn rules of the classroom through song.
“They are the absolute best school that I’ve ever known,” Bernard said. “It’s a chain reaction from the principal all the way down … I made the best decision for my son, 100 percent.”
Starting in the 1980s, courts hearing the landmark school funding case Abbott v. Burke sought to equalize spending across New Jersey’s schools. Districts located in areas with higher property values were able to spend more on their schools than poor urban districts could — a disparity that was found to violate the state’s constitutional requirement to provide a “thorough and efficient” education for all of New Jersey’s schoolchildren.
The Abbott litigation spawned several decisions by the state Supreme Court, one of which was a 1998 ruling that mandated free preschool for 3- and 4-year-old children in 28 of its highest-poverty urban school districts. That number has since grown to 31.
Children at Maria de Hostos Center practice fine motor skills with fingerpainting. Credit: Marianna McMurdock/The Hechinger Report
The state department of education set an ambitious goal of enrolling 90 percent of eligible children in each district, and opened classrooms in private, nonprofit and public settings in the 1999-2000 school year. At that time, New Jersey was the only state to mandate preschool, starting at age 3, for children facing social and academic risk.
“The court recognized that to get kids caught up they need to start off by somehow leveling the playing field from the very beginning, and the best way to do that was with early childhood education,” said Danielle Farrie, research director at the Newark-based Education Law Center, which represented districts for decades in the long-running case.
Related: Young children have unique needs, and providing the right care can be a challenge. Our free early childhood education newsletter tracks the issues.
As the program continued into its 25th year, researchers have found that the endeavor worked to reduce learning gaps and special education rates between rich and poor children — for those it has reached.
However, over 10,000 children eligible for the program are not enrolled, particularly 3-year-olds, according to a recent assessment of the program by The Education Law Center.
Supporters worry that the state’s recently established focus on expanding preschool throughout the state could draw attention and resources away from the early-learning program created by the Abbott litigation.
When it comes to reaching at least 90 percent of the low-income children in the 31 districts targeted by the lawsuit, “we haven’t come anywhere close to meeting those goals,” Farrie said. “To us it’s a question of priorities.”
Adriana Birne, the principal of Maria de Hostos Center and director of early childhood programs for Union City schools in Hudson County, said her program collaborates closely with parents. Credit: Marianna McMurdock/The Hechinger Report
Designed by early learning experts, the preschools were intended from the start to offer a high-quality program. Class sizes are limited to no more than 15 students, and each class has a certified teacher and an assistant. The school day is six hours, and transportation and health services are offered as needed. Teachers are paid on par with K-3 teachers in their district, and the program’s curriculum conforms to New Jersey’s standards of quality in early education.
“Our special sauce is that we provide opportunities for the families,” said Adriana Birne, director of Union City’s early childhood offerings and principal at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Center, where parents are invited in as jurors for special class projects, readers for storytime, or as guests for school plays. “We enforce the idea that it’s a collaborative effort — moms, dads, teachers, children all working together for success for their little ones.”
The preschool programs have tried to serve as many eligible kids as possible by providing slots at public schools as well as private childcare providers, Head Start programs, YMCAs and nonprofits that agree to meet the state’s standards.
By many measures, the targeted preschool program has been successful in boosting long-term academic gains for their students. The state ranks in the nation’s top 10 for child well-being and second for education after Massachusetts, based on fourth grade test scores and high school graduation rates.
However, in the 2024-25 school year the program enrolled only 34,082 kids, about 78 percent of those eligible, across public, private and nonprofit providers. Last year, only five of the 31 districts reached the 90 percent target for enrolling eligible children, compared to 18 districts in 2009-10. Enrollment has been steadily declining, a trend accelerated by the pandemic, the Education Law Center report states.
Experts say it can be difficult to find eligible kids because many have only recently moved into the state and their parents haven’t yet heard of the program through word of mouth. Some families believe 3 is too young for school, or are immigrants fearful of raids now being conducted at school sites.
A few district-run programs like Perth Amboy’s require parents to show a government-issued ID or Social Security number to enroll their children. The district enrolled only 63 percent of its eligible 3-year-olds in the 2023-24 school year. The ACLU of New Jersey has previously challenged such requirements, saying they are unconstitutional.
Programs also aren’t recruiting as aggressively as they did when the program began. Cindy Shields, who led a preschool site in Perth Amboy from 2004 to 2013 and is now a senior policy analyst for Advocates for Children of New Jersey, said she used to recruit at playgrounds, churches, laundromats, supermarkets and nail salons — anywhere families were.
Districts once advertised preschool in the plastic table settings of local restaurants, said Ellen Frede, who helped design the Abbott preschool program and ran the state’s implementation team. Frede is now co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, or NIEER, based at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
In its heyday, the large team of experts that formed the state pre-K office could also enforce corrective action plans for failing to reach enrollment targets, Frede said.
But during Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s administration from 2010 to 2018, pre-K was reduced to barebone levels. In 2011, New Jersey’s early childhood budget — already only a small fraction of overall education dollars in the state — was slashed 20 percent, causing recruitment efforts to dwindle.
Though funding and political support for preschool was restored under Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy — who recently signed a budget that invests about $1.3 billion in statewide preschool over the next fiscal year — funding for the state department of education’s early childhood arm overseeing the endeavor hasn’t grown in tandem.
Today, “we have a much smaller early childhood office that is actually attempting to expand this program across the entire state without that same kind of attention to detail,” said Farrie, with the Education Law Center.
While New Jersey stands out in an early childhood landscape that can be grim in terms of quality and pay, investing roughly $16,000 per pupil, high quality preschool is very costly to operate. The state-funded preschools in the districts named in the Abbott litigation require pay parity with public school teachers, yet many districts and private providers operate on low wages and razor thin profit margins. Increases in liability insurance costs for child care providers and preschools is another strain.
The state has also cut back on incentives like bonuses and college scholarships for teachers to enter the program. Such incentives were common in the early years of the state-funded program, resulting in a teaching population that is more diverse and reflective of the student body than K-12 teachers at large. In the 2024-25 school year, 22 and 25 percent of preschool teachers in the 31 districts with universal preschool were Black and Hispanic, compared to just 6 and 9 percent of K-12 educators in New Jersey, respectively.
A teacher and children play at Noah’s Ark Preschool. Credit: Marianna McMurdock/The Hechinger Report
State board of education scholarships helped pay college costs for Euridice Correa, a teacher at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Center. Correa, affectionately called “La Reina” or “queen” by some parents, is Jackson’s teacher. She’s now in her 18th year as an early childhood educator.
Correa, who moved to New Jersey from Colombia at nine years old, earned degrees from New Jersey City University thanks to incentives offered in the early years of the court-mandated preschool program.
“I was very poor. I was still working as a cleaner and helping in the daycare,” she said. The state “paid for my whole B.A. and for half of my Master’s with bilingual certification.”
New Jersey, said Shields, the analyst with Advocates for Children of New Jersey, used to offer “college money, they had incentives, they had sign-on bonuses. They were giving teachers laptops, and we know that it worked. They created this beautiful diverse workforce of teachers that looked just like the children. But we don’t have that anymore.”
A spokesperson for the state department of education said that paths to bring teachers into the profession “remain a priority in New Jersey to support early childhood educators, particularly in community-based settings.” They cited the Grow NJ Kids scholarship program, which offers scholarships for family care providers and preschool teachers to get additional training.
Despite expansion and sustainability challenges, research shows the preschools created through the Abbott litigation have helped close the educational gaps that Black, Latino and low-income children were facing.
Researchers found double the impact on scores for kids like Jackson who are enrolled for two years — enough to make up for a third of the achievement gap between Black and white children. Thousands of kids have entered K-12 more prepared. As a result, Union City moved its algebra offerings from ninth to seventh grade.
Karen Marino, the founder of Noah’s Ark Preschool in Highland Park, contracts with New Brunswick schools in Middlesex County to provide seats for children through the state-funded Abbott program. The state provides money to public and private providers in 31 districts to offer a full-day program for 3- and 4-year-olds. Credit: Marianna McMurdock/The Hechinger Report
“It gives a baseline. You can change things all the way up,” said Steven Barnett, NIEER’s co-director and founder, who is now researching higher education outcomes for Abbott preschoolers. There’s evidence from other communities that quality preschools can affect children into adulthood: Oklahoma’s universal pre-K for 4-year-olds, one of the nation’s oldest, is linked to a 12 percent increase in college enrollment.
The programs have also been able to offer enrichment for their students that would otherwise be impossible to fund.
At Noah’s Ark Preschool, a private provider in Highland Park in Middlesex County, 3-year-olds hold full conversations, sharing about their trips to see family out of state or weekend plans to go to local pools. They’ve learned to write their names and read signs.
Early learning years are so much more than just learning ABCs or shapes, said founder Karen Marino. “It’s really about their independence,” she said, adding that she started Noah’s Ark after looking for affordable care for her own three children years ago, one of whom now runs the site. Her school has contracted with New Brunswick schools in Middlesex County to offer seats since the program began.
Farther north in Passaic, the nonprofit Children’s Day Preschool serves over 120 kids learning social and fine motor skills through play. With fundraising, the school, in Passaic County, was able to afford renovations, a full-time art therapist and a nurse for their community of mostly Mexican, Peruvian, Colombian, Puerto Rican and Dominican families.
Children’s Day feels for many like an extension of home, with family recipes lining the walls and bilingual instructions for parents on how to ask about their child’s day at school: “Did you learn something new? Who made you smile today? Did you help someone today or did someone help you?”
Many of their educators have been teaching at the site for 15 to 20 years. James Acosta, who attended the center as a child and is now is not a digital media assistant, said returning to work was “like seeing like aunts and uncles saying, ‘you’re so big now!’”
A child runs through the playground at Children’s Day Preschool in Passaic County. Credit: Marianna McMurdock/The Hechinger Report
Two preschoolers at Children’s Day Preschool in Passaic, N.J., play on the monkey bars during recess. Passaic is one of 31 New Jersey districts receiving state support to provide preschool for local children. Credit: Marianna McMurdock/The Hechinger Report
Abbott supporters hope more families will join the program. Parent Candy Vitale’s 6-year-old son, Mateo, is reading at a second-grade level and learning how to solve for an unknown “x” in math equations.
Vitale spent the equivalent of a monthly mortgage payment so her older daughter could attend a comparable half-day pre-K at the Jersey Shore. She learned of the offerings in Union City from her partner, whose older children had attended.
“This is the foundation of loving learning, and loving school, and feeling loved at school,” Vitale said. “Knowing that I was dropping him off every day, and he was in a place that he absolutely was enamored by — I think that there’s no price tag you can put on that.”
Contact the editor of this story, Christina Samuels, at 212-678-3635, via Signal at cas.37 or samuels@hechingerreport.org.
This story about Abbott districts was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
Donald Trump claims Washington, D.C., needs the National Guard to get crime under control. Every time he says it, the same argument flares up: who’s to blame for crime in America’s cities?
Progressive commentator Ed Krassenstein argued online that crime is really a red state problem, pointing to higher murder rates in Republican states. Conservative commentator Carmine Sabia, a friend of mine, shot back that Democratic mayors are responsible since they run most of the big cities.
They’re both wrong. And this is exactly the problem with the way we talk about crime in America. Everyone wants to use it as a political football.
The truth is much simpler, and much harder: crime doesn’t follow party lines. It follows poverty.
The federal government’s own numbers prove it. In 2023, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that people in households making under $25,000 a year were almost three times more likely to be victims of violent crime than those in households making more than $200,000. That’s not red states versus blue states. That’s poor versus rich.
US President Donald Trump speaks while visiting federal troops at the US Park Police Anacostia operations facility in Washington, DC, on August 21, 2025. US President Donald Trump speaks while visiting federal troops at the US Park Police Anacostia operations facility in Washington, DC, on August 21, 2025. Mandel NGAN / AFP/Getty Images
The same pattern shows up when you look at neighborhoods. The National Neighborhood Crime Study found that violent crime rises as poverty rises, regardless of whether the neighborhood is white, Black, Latino, or mixed. Once poverty is factored in, the racial gap in crime shrinks dramatically. In plain English, a poor white neighborhood and a poor Black neighborhood have more in common with each other than either does with a wealthy neighborhood.
Columbus, Ohio, proved this point. Researchers found that when neighborhood poverty climbed above 40 percent, violent crime spiked. It didn’t matter whether the residents were Black or white. Poverty was the trigger.
Cleveland shows how those conditions were created and sustained. A 2018 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that neighborhoods redlined in the 1930s are still the poorest, most crime-affected parts of the city today. Eight decades later, the legacy of disinvestment is still visible.
And this isn’t just about cities. Rural America tells the same story. Stilwell, Oklahoma, a small Republican-majority town, has a violent crime rate about double the national average. Nearly half its children live below the poverty line. The problem isn’t who the mayor is. The problem is entrenched poverty.
That’s why the partisan finger-pointing rings hollow. Yes, some red states have higher statewide murder rates. Yes, Democratic-run cities record more murders in raw numbers. Both statements are true. Neither one explains the real issue.
Now, crime policy isn’t irrelevant. It matters. Progressive Democrats can be too lax when it comes to fighting crime, and that has to be addressed. You can’t ignore the symptoms. But if you’re only focused on policing tactics and never address poverty, you’re treating the fever without curing the disease. We have to deal with both the symptom and the cause.
And it’s worth remembering that not every big-city Democrat even fits the caricature partisans like to paint. Many mayors and city council members are moderates who spend as much time fighting progressives as they do fighting Republicans. Yet in the national debate, they get lumped in with those progressives as if they all share the same ideology. They don’t.
What would actually move the needle is cooperation. Red state governors and blue city mayors should be working together to address poverty instead of using crime as a talking point. That kind of partnership—not endless partisan bickering—actually helps people.
If we want safer streets, the only way forward is tackling poverty head-on: schools that work, jobs that pay, communities that are invested in instead of ignored. Because until we do that, crime will remain highest where poverty is deepest. And politicians will keep using it as a football instead of fixing it.
Darvio Morrow is CEO of the FCB Radio Network and co-host of The Outlaws Radio Show
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
After a three-year pause prompted by the pandemic, the clock on student loan repayments suddenly started ticking again in September 2023, and forbearance ended last September. For millions of borrowers like Shauntee Russell, the resumption of payments marked a harsh return to financial reality.
Russell, a single mother of three from Chicago, had received $127,000 in student loan forgiveness through the SAVE program, and had experienced profound relief at having that $632 monthly payment lifted from her shoulders. SAVE exemplified both the transformative power of debt relief and the urgent need to continue this fight — but now SAVE has been suspended.
Such setbacks cannot be the end of our story, as I document in my forthcoming book. The resumption of loan payments, while painful, must serve as a rallying cry rather than a surrender. We stand at a critical juncture. The Supreme Court’s devastating blow to former President Biden’s initial forgiveness plan and the ongoing legal challenges to programs like SAVE have left 45 million borrowers in a state of financial limbo. The fundamental inequities of our higher education system have never been more apparent.
Black students graduate with nearly 50 percent more debt than their white counterparts, while women hold roughly two-thirds of all outstanding student debt — a staggering $1.5 trillion that continues to grow. These aren’t just statistics; they represent systemic barriers that prevent entire communities from achieving economic mobility.
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The students I interviewed while reporting on this crisis reveal the human cost of inaction. They include Maria Sanchez, a nursing student in St. Louis who skips meals to save money and can only access textbooks through library loans.
Then there is Robert Carroll, who gave up his dorm room in Cleveland and now alternates between friends’ couches just to stay in school.
These students represent the millions who are working multiple jobs, sacrificing basic needs and seeing their dreams deferred under the weight of financial pressure.
Yet what strikes me most is their resilience and determination. Despite these overwhelming obstacles, these students persist, driven by the same belief that motivated civil rights leaders like Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. — that education is the pathway to economic empowerment and social justice.
The current political landscape, with Donald J. Trump’s return to the presidency and a Republican-controlled Congress, presents unprecedented challenges. Plans to dismantle key borrower protections and efforts to eliminate the Department of Education signal a dark period ahead for student debt relief.
But history teaches us that progress often comes through sustained grassroots organizing and innovative policy solutions at multiple levels of government and society.
Universities must step up with institutional relief programs, as my own institution, Trinity Washington University, did when it settled $1.8 million in student balances during the pandemic.
The Black church, which has long understood the connection between education and liberation, continues to provide crucial support through scholarship programs. Organizations like the United Negro College Fund, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education remain vital pillars in making higher education accessible.
Still, individual, institutional and state efforts, while necessary, are not sufficient. We need comprehensive federal action that treats student debt as what it truly is: a civil rights issue and a moral imperative. The magnitude of the crisis — it affects Americans across every congressional district — creates unique opportunities for bipartisan coalition building.
Smart advocates are already reframing the narrative by replacing partisan talking points with economic arguments that resonate across ideological lines: workforce development, entrepreneurship and American competitiveness on the world stage.
When student debt prevents nurses from serving rural communities, teachers from working in underserved schools and young entrepreneurs from starting businesses, it becomes an economic drag that affects everyone.
The path to federal action may require creative approaches — perhaps through tax policy, regulatory changes or targeted relief for specific professions — but the political mathematics of 45 million impacted voters ultimately makes comprehensive action not just morally necessary, but politically inevitable.
Student debt relief is not about handouts — it’s about honoring the promise that education should be a ladder up, not an anchor weighing down entire generations; it’s about ensuring that Shauntee Russell’s relief becomes the norm, not the exception. The fight is far from over.
The young activists I met at the March on Washington 60th anniversary understood something profound: Their debt is not their fault, but their fight is their responsibility. They carry forward the legacy of those who came before them who believed that access to education should not depend on one’s family wealth, and that crushing debt should not be the price of pursuing knowledge.
The arc of history still bends toward justice — but in this era of political resistance, we must be prepared to bend it ourselves through sustained organizing, innovative policy solutions and an unwavering commitment to the principle that education is a right, not a privilege reserved for the wealthy.
The resumption of payments is not the end of this story. It’s the beginning of the next chapter in our fight for educational equity and economic justice. And this chapter, like those before it, will be written by the voices of the millions who refuse to let debt define their destiny.
Jamal Watson is a professor and associate dean of graduate studies at Trinity Washington University and an editor at Diverse Issues In Higher Education.
Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON — In a state where more than 10% of residents live in poverty, lawmakers are pitching an omnibus bill to expand cash benefit programs, raise wages, and create state-run initiatives to help families build wealth.
