What We’re Reading
- Providing unpaid leave was only the first step; 25 years after the Family and Medical Leave Act, more workers need paid leave [Economic Policy Institute]
Oklahoma Policy Institute
February 21, 2020
From 2006 to 2016, nearly half of the workers at nonunion job sites in the city were Hispanic or Latino, compared with about 30 percent at union sites, according to Lawrence Mishel, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. The slice of workers at nonunion sites who are Hispanic or Latino is probably more than 50 percent now, Mr. Mishel said.
The New York Times
February 21, 2020
While the growing economy has created jobs, many don’t pay well, said Lawrence Mishel, distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.
The success of Lyft and Uber is an indicator, he said, because the companies are constantly losing drivers and signing up more, signaling a reservoir of people who need money.
“It is evidence that the regular job isn’t so good,” said Mishel.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution
February 21, 2020
According to a report by the Economic Policy Institute, the United States is short about 110,000 teachers, and that number is expected to double by 2025.
WHAS 11
February 21, 2020
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the nation is short by more than 100-thousand teachers. And according to MEA data, one in five Michigan teachers quit in their first five years.
WLNS 6
February 21, 2020
Wage growth for workers in the United States economy has lagged over the past few decades. The Pew Research Center notes how, after inflation, today’s real average wage has the same purchasing power as it did four decades ago. For teachers, the wage situation is even more dire. Average weekly pay for public school teachers has actually decreased by $27 from 1996 to 2017, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Inside Big Data
February 21, 2020
Burroughs quoted findings from an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute that put the state at 48th on the list of most underpaid teachers—behind only Washington and Arizona. “In the last four years, the weekly pay of Virginia teachers has fallen 31 percent behind the pay of other college-educated workers in the state,” he wrote. Consequently, Burroughs continued, the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) found that “the turnover rate for Virginia K-12 educators is higher than 44 states and the District of Columbia.”
Truthdig
February 21, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute found that the percentage of schools that were working to fill a vacancy but couldn’t tripled from the 2011-12 to 2015-16 school years. During this same period, the percentage of schools that found it very difficult to fill a vacancy doubled. While some teachers are retiring, being promoted or leaving for personal reasons, dissatisfaction with teaching itself is unfortunately another cause of departures. For many years as an administrator, I fell into the trap of thinking I could fix the teacher retention problem from the top down. But as it turns out, education’s leaky bucket is fueled by a confluence of forces that can confound even the most discerning district leaders. Salary raises, benefits, professional development and even mentoring may not address other critical issues that are driving teachers away.
The 74 Million
February 21, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has assembled research from the last year that examines the impact of the administration’s policies on wages, manufacturing and trade, taxes, Labor standards, housing, and immigration.
St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune
February 21, 2020
Also in 2017, a review from the Economic Policy Institute came to a similar conclusion, finding, “extensive research on educational vouchers in the United States over the past 25 years shows that gains in student achievement are at best small.”
Enid News & Eagle
February 21, 2020