Trump’s Impact On School Children

According to a new report by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center titled “The Trump Effect: The Impact of the Presidential Campaign on our Nation’s Schools,” the race is stoking fears and racial tensions in America’s classrooms.

As the opening line of the report says, “Our report found that the campaign is producing an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom. Many students worry about being deported.”

If you would like to read the summary of the report, click here. If you would like a .pdf version of this report, please click here. If you would like to read the full comments from the survey, please click here.

Sanders Promotes “Worker Cooperatives”

Ken O’Brien

As he promised, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) has launched his Presidential campaign with a focus on issues.

Among the 12 platform planks that he published there are several traditional ideas such as rebuilding American infrastructure and guaranteeing health care to all. But the very last platform offers a genuinely fresh idea: boosting America's worker co-ops.

The Sanders campaign writes:

We need to develop new economic models to increase job creation and productivity. Instead of giving huge tax breaks to corporations which ship our jobs to China and other low-wage countries, we need to provide assistance to workers who want to purchase their own businesses by establishing worker-owned cooperatives. Study after study shows that when workers have an ownership stake in the businesses they work for, productivity goes up, absenteeism goes down and employees are much more satisfied with their jobs. 

On Harry Reid’s Allegation

Ken O’Brien

The last week has seen a furor over allegations made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the floor of the Senate.

Specifically the outrage was directed at Reid’s charge that he had been informed by an investor in Bain Capital that Romney had paid no income taxes for ten years.

As staunch a liberal icon as Jon Stewart delivered a scathing rebuke of Harry Reid on The Daily Show.

Over the weekend a close friend asked me why I didn’t speak out on this matter and join in the chorus of those denouncing Harry Reid for what was a blatantly political tactic.