New education book: Class and Schools
At the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the stubborn achievement gap between black and white students is a key measure of our country's failure to achieve true equality. Federal and state officials are currently pursuing tougher accountability and other reforms at the school level to address this problem. In making schools their sole focus, however, these policy makers are neglecting an area that is vital to narrowing the achievement gap: social class differences that affect learning. In his new book Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap—co-published by the Economic Policy Institute and Teachers College, Columbia University—EPI research associate Richard Rothstein shows that social class differences in health care quality and access, nutrition, childrearing styles, housing quality and stability, parental occupation and aspirations, and even exposure to environmental toxins, play a significant part in how well children learn and ultimately succeed. Read excerpts from this book online.

Making the case for a higher minimum wage
As debate over the minimum wage continues on Capitol Hill, two recent EPI Briefing Papers address the minimum wage issue from federal and state perspectives. In No Longer Getting By: An Increase in the Minimum Wage Is Long Overdue, EPI Deputy Director of Policy Amy Chasanov finds that the current federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour is not enough to keep up with inflation or provide sufficient wages for many full-time workers. Employment and the Minimum Wage: Evidence from Recent State Labor Market Trends, by EPI economic analyst Jeff Chapman, examines the effect of state minimum wage increases on employment and concludes that these minimum wage hikes are clearly not the cause of labor market pain in the states. Both reports are available in their entirety online.

The failed reform of the telecommunications industry
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 has largely failed in its three-part mission to decrease telephone service prices, increase service quality, and create high-tech networks. In the EPI study A Failure to Communicate: Reforming Public Policy in the Telecommunications Industry, EPI research associate Stephen Pociask explores how the Act fell short of its goals and identifies some initial steps toward revitalizing the telecommunications sector. Read more at www.epinet.org.

• On May 13, EPI released its latest education book—titled Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap—at a National Press Club press conference featuring Richard Rothstein, EPI research associate and visiting lecturer at Teachers College, Columbia University. Rothstein presented his findings that concentrating solely on school reform policies as a way of reducing the black-white achievement gap is causing school officials to wrongly ignore social class differences. An audio recording of this event is available online.
  
  
• On May 4, EPI Vice President Ross Eisenbrey presented testimony on the Department of Labor's final rule on overtime regulations before the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations. The testimony describes how the new rules will mean longer hours and less pay for millions of workers.
  
  
• EPI Senior Economist Jared Bernstein addressed the House Subcommittee on Workforce Empowerment and Government Programs on April 29 regarding the need for an increase in the minimum wage. His presentation included evidence that, contrary to common arguments by opponents of a minimum wage increase, higher minimum wages do not lead to job loss or contribute to the failure of small businesses.
  
  
• On May 19, EPI President Lawrence Mishel spoke on the subject of unfettered markets, income inequality, and religious values at a panel discussion titled Is the Market Moral? A Dialogue on Religion, Economics, and Justice, sponsored by the Brookings Institution and the Pew Forum.
  
  
• EPI Vice President Ross Eisenbrey provided testimony before the Workforce, Empowerment, and Government Programs Subcommittee on the U.S. House Committee on Small Business on May 20 about the effect that the Department of Labor's new overtime regulations will have on employers.

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