So...why hasn't the president raised the refugee admissions ceiling and lifted Trump's discriminatory criteria, as Biden announced he would do 6 weeks ago? Trump's policies remain in place. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Fewer than 2000 refugees have been admitted thus far this year. If this pace continues & Trump administration’s discriminatory refugee restrictions remain in place, Biden is on track to admit the lowest number of refugees of any US president since the modern refugee program began
Literally all Biden needs to do is sign some paperwork. The refugees themselves, who have been waiting for years, have already been screened & vetted by UN & US officials. Hundreds were booked and then unbooked for travel, b/c State Dept thought paperwork would be signed by now
WH has yet to explain Biden's delay. One theory is he's worried the public will confuse the refugee resettlement system w border issues, even though they're different programs, populations, screening processes, laws. Media has done a bad job differentiating the two.
Except Biden *already* announced he was raising the refugee cap, 6 wks ago. Basically no one realizes he didn't do it
If he was going to take a hit for doing the right thing, he already took it. Might as well follow through & actually do that right thing!
Huge decline (6.8%) in high school graduates attending college immediately after high school this past fall. Biggest declines among students from high-poverty, low-income and high-minority schools. nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/upl…
Enrollment declines by type of postsecondary institution, for students from low-income vs. high-income high schools.
Community college enrollment of students from low-income high schools down 18%
Data on FAFSA completions through early March (via @NCANetwork) suggest college applications for next fall may also be way down among students from high schools with high shares of low-income and minority kids. formyourfuture.org/fafsa-tracker/
Roughly twice a year, I get emails from students assigned to read a newspaper columnist's work for an English class. It is very flattering to end up in someone's curriculum! I had an assignment like this back in the day, and it's weird to be on the other end of it. /1
Part of the standard assignment today seems to be emailing the writer and getting them to respond to a question of some kind. Often the student does this by sending vague or abstract questions that take some time for me to figure out how to respond to. (See screen grab.) /2
Given other things on my plate, these requests often get pushed to the bottom of my inbox, and I end up responding late or never, which I feel lousy about. And probably the students are annoyed too. /3
Much has been written about K-shaped recovery, mostly focused on jobs. High-earners doing OK; low-earners still jobless
A similar divergence is happening in housing: rents for high-end, luxury digs have plummeted; rents for poor held steady or even *rose* washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Here's a look at Chicagoland neighborhoods. Ritzier neighborhoods (e.g., River North, Old Town, Streeterville) have gotten much cheaper in the past year. In lower-income (and often majority-Black) areas like Englewood, Chatham, Washgton Park, rents are up. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
So, what's going on? Why are lower-earners getting squeezed from both directions -- drop in earnings, AND increase in rents? Why are higher-wage households getting a break on their rents that they don't really need? washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
number of IRS revenue agents is down by 43% since 2010, per @TRACReports. As you might expect, audits of millionaires and large corps also are way down, and money is being left on the table. trac.syr.edu/tracirs/latest…
Audits of millionaires charted below. Per TRAC: "In FY 2012, audits of millionaires turned up $4.8 billion in unreported taxes. Now with less than a third the number of audits, the government uncovered only $1.2 billion in unreported taxes in FY 2020."
Audits in FY2012 of corporations with ≥$20 billion in assets turned up $10 billion in unreported taxes; by FY2020, was down to $4.1B.
Among broader set of corps reporting >$250M in assets, audits turned up $24.4B in unreported taxes in FY2012; fell to just $5.4B in FY 2020.
Reader responds to my column praising child allowances: babies and children "have NOT worked a day in their lives," therefore are undeserving of government investment #readermail
for too long lazy babies have been suckling the government teat. time to pull themselves up by their adorably tiny baby bootstraps
when you're definitely a good judge of bagel quality
To those bringing Canada into this: Look, I like the baked goods that people in Montreal call bagels, but they're so different from NY bagels they might as well be an entirely different food. It's like saying "My favorite kind of cheesecake is a burger"