The young girls, many barely teenagers, line up along a short street that passes through a popular bar strip about 500 feet from the St. Peters parish church in Mbare, one of the oldest and most impoverished suburbs of Zimbabwes capital, Harare.

It is just after 8 p.m., a day after President Emmerson Mnangagwa introduced a dawn-to-dusk curfew on July 22. That was one among several strict coronavirus lockdown measures that included a limit on religious gatherings to no more than 50 people.

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Now the girls play hide-and-seek with roving police attempting to enforce the new measures. They disappear into narrow passageways between Mbares bars and stores or hide at the back of the buildings as a ramshackle police vanrumblespast. They re-emerge after a few minutes to retake their posts along the street, beckoning again to potential clients who pass by.

St. Peters Martin Nyadewo, S.J., explains that there are more young girls selling their bodies as Zimbabwes economic difficulties continue, in a broad collapse now exacerbated by the pandemic. The city is experiencing a spike in social vices like child prostitution and domestic violence.

We have got a serious problem of child prostitution. And I dont mean organized prostitution, but among the young girls themselves who are increasingly taking to the streets and corners hoping to sell their bodies to be able to feed themselves and their families, Father Nyadewo said.

Many of the girls are the heads of households that are bereft of parents, who are either dead or who have abandoned their children, but the households often include elderly grandparents who cant fend for themselves.

The parish hopes to combat this phenomenon by offering economic alternatives for these young girls and other young people who are struggling to support their families. It is offering loans to begin backyard poultry production or to open mini kitchens that sell food to traders in Mbares informal markets. The parish also provides food assistance to vulnerable families.

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Nigel Johnson, S.J., the development director for Jesuits Zimbabwe, explained that a lot of people in Zimbabwe have lost their income as a result of the Covid-19 and their families do not have money to buy food.

Catholic relief agencies in Zimbabwe, including Catholic Relief Services from the United States and the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development from the United Kingdom, have been redirecting their development efforts toward food relief and programs to help address domestic violence against women and to assist the growing numbers of vulnerable children.

In a pastoral letter released on July 16, Zimbabwes Catholic Bishops Conference warned that livelihoods that were already heavily strained due to the economic situation in the country, the droughts of the last two years, Cyclone Idai and other factors have taken a further knock under the lockdown.

According to the World Food Program, Zimbabwe has the worlds second-highest inflation rate after Venezuelaoverall prices have surged by more than 122 percent since the start of the year and by more than 800 percent since March 2019. By the end of the year, the number of food-insecure people living in urban areas in Zimbabwe alone will have increased from 2.2 million to 3.3 million45 percent of the countrys total urban population.

But even Zimbabweans in rural areas, typically more food self-reliant, face shortages this year because of drought, the coronavirus and economic dislocation. According to W.F.P. forecasts, 5.3 million rural Zimbabweans will be food-insecure by the end of 2020 and between 3 and 3.3 million will face a crisis situation.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network reported at the beginning of July that Zimbabwes food insecurity and socioeconomic difficulties are growing worse as a result of economic volatility and depreciating parallel market exchange rates that are constraining livelihoods and eroding disposable incomes.

The Mnangagwa government attempted to restore the local currency in June 2019, officially ending a decade when the use of the U.S. dollar prevailed, but the Zim dollar has quickly lost value, depreciating by over 80 percent between May and mid-June. Now, volatile macroeconomic conditions are anticipated through January 2021, researchers from the early warning network said.

Use of the Zimbabwean dollar is increasingly being abandoned for transactions from the commonplace to the official in favor of the use of U.S. currency. Local economist John Robertson described this unofficial dollarization of Zimbabwes economy as a vast no-confidence vote for Mr. Mnangagwas economic policies and for a local currency that has been consistently losing value over the past two years, despite repeated efforts to prop it up.

Zimbabwes businesses are now required to use a dual system that prices goods in U.S. dollars as well as in the local currency according to the official exchange rate. But that rate trails the prevailing street exchange rate substantially.

A lot of people are unable to earn U.S. dollars, and that presents a lot of difficulties, said Mr. Robertson. Workers who are paid only in local currency are forced to adapt quickly to its galloping inflation rate. It gets worse when every business or supplier asks to be paid in nothing else but the U.S. dollar, he said.

Millions of Zimbabweans cant get U.S. dollars, and a lot of people in this country dont have steady work, Mr. Robertson said.

In addition to worries over food insecurity and economic difficulties, officials at Catholic Relief Services are concerned about a dramatic increase in domestic violence cases. Rita Billingsley, the agencys country representative for Zimbabwe, said by email that the increase in gender-based violence and violence against children has prompted C.R.S. to partner with child protection agencies and womens shelters in Zimbabwe.

That has led to expanded services and safe spaces to support women and children who have experienced abuse during these challenging times. Musasa Project, an organization that assists victims of gender-based violence, said it recorded as many as 764 cases of gender-based violence during the first week and a half of lockdown, from March 30 to April 9.

Women and children experiencing abuse can call our toll-free numbers or use WhatsApp messages to report abuse, Ms. Billingsley said. We then provide transportation services to remove them from abusive situations. For those households without phones, we offer services through guided home visits by front-line community child care workers, whom we have thoroughly trained in physical distancing and infection prevention and control measures.

The impact of relief grants and food parcels provided by Catholic agencies is also being stretched as recipient households share the food with their extended family, said Ms. Billingsley.

St. Peters has a list of 450 families it is distributing food to, but Father Nyadewo said, there are a lot more people whom we are not able to reach.

The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development has been supplementing food relief programs with income-generating projects and training on climate resilience farming. Cafods Zimbabwe representative, Verity Johnson, said, A number of the womens groups we work with are now making masks to sell in their communities, which helps protect people from Covid as well as securing an income.

There are rising needs in communities for food but also access to water for people to be able to observe the hygiene protocols around Covid-19, such as frequent handwashing.

Zimbabwes health sector, already poorly resourced, is burdened by corruption. Mr. Mnangagwa dismissed the health minister, Obadiah Moyo, after he was arraigned before a Harare court for abuse of office involving irregularities over the awarding of contracts for the supply of Covid-19-related equipment. Health workers are frequently on strike to demand better working conditions and wage increases to cope with Zimbabwes rampaging inflation.

Front-line health workers at the countrys key public health facilities have been testing positive for Covid-19, but more worrying are the great numbers of Zimbabweans who are at greater risk of death or complications if they get infected by coronavirus because of underlying health conditions.

Another critical concern for us was how people with pre-existing conditions could continue to receive the medication and support they need to stay healthy, Ms. Billingsley said. For the people we work with who live with HIV, we have continued to provide intensive support to ensure they are able to access their critical ART and viral load testing, while limiting their Covid-19 risk.

Father Johnson said that Jesuit-run hospitals in Zimbabwe are seeing increased numbers of people seeking medical care. Patients may be avoiding government-run facilities, which for many have become death traps because there is usually no medicine and no medical staff to attend to them there, according to media reports quoting local doctors.

We also have two rural hospitals, thats at St. Pauls Mission in Musami and another in Makonde, and we have managed to supply those two hospitals with [personal protective equipment] and medicines, said Father Johnson. His challenge will be to keep that support going as the nations economic struggles continue.

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Child prostitution in Zimbabwe spikes amid two other crises: Covid-19 and hunger - America Magazine

Our memories of the job market prior to COVID have become rosier: the last decade was a period of fairly low unemployment, even if wage growth was less than stellar.

But that perspective may not be shared by people under 35. For that age group, the past decade has been a period of intense competition for jobs, even before COVID, which will make things worse.

It is likely to have long-term effects, even were it not for the COVID crisis.

Read more: Low-paid, young women: the grim truth about who this recession is hitting hardest

In a new study published this morning, climbing the jobs ladder slower, myself and three colleagues at the Productivity Commission examine labour market scarring after the 2008 global financial crisis.

Scarring is a semi-technical term for what happens when wounds dont properly heal. It was mentioned twice in last weeks economic statement.

Specifically, we asked whether young people entering the labour market during and after the crisis had a more difficult transition to employment than those who entered before, and whether it had long term impacts on their careers.

The Australian Socioeconomic Index is an occupational status scale last updated by researchers at the Australian National University in the late 2000s. It is a method for scoring occupations on a ladder based on educational requirements and average earnings.

Using data from the HILDA Household, Income and Labour Dynamics survey that began in 2001 we find that the average occupational score increased throughout the two decades that followed, but that after 2008 the likelihood that a university graduate would find a high-score job fell back.

Part of the reason is the big expansion in the number of university students and students in vocational education that followed the crisis.

For many graduates that meant more competition to enter their chosenprofession. They moved down the ladder of occupations.

Law graduates increasingly found themselves working as paralegals or in cafs. In turn, young people with vocational degrees were pushed further down.

At the bottom of the ladder, part-time and casual jobs garnered more takers. As a result average wages for workers under 35 fell between 2008 to 2018.

Outcomes varied a great deal. Some young workers found very high-scored jobs, while more were less lucky, obtaining jobs whose scores were well below what they would have expected in earlier years.

Were the lower rungs temporary? Were some of these unlucky young workers able to work their ways back to their desired occupations and pay levels over the years that followed? Not much.

We found that from 2008, if a recent graduate started in a less attractive job, it was harder to climb to a more attractive one than before.

Young peoples prospects and the growth in salaries wereworse than those of young people prior to 2008.

Read more: Yes Ita, younger workers might actually be less resilient. But all workers should be thanked

The finding comes from studying transition probabilities: the probability that a young person can move from a lower quarter of the occupation score distribution to a higher quarter. It suggests that poor initial jobs for graduates have serious long-term consequences.

It pre-dates the COVID-19 recession, but it has heightened relevance for it.

Many young people pushed into unemployment by the recession and are likely to find it harder to get the jobs they could have once expected when jobs come back.

The scarring could last some time.

Some young people might choose to pursue further study in order to return to the job market later when conditions are better, but our report suggests that, even then, the competition for the jobs that follow study will be fierce.

A generation might be set to experience scarring once again from unemployment, from low wages, from jobs that dont fully use their skills, and from dashed hopes.

Read the original post:

It really is different for young people: it's harder to climb the jobs ladder - The Conversation AU

Oakland County voters will see four candidates on their ballot under the race for Oakland County executive.

Oakland County Executive David Coulter and Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner are seeking the Democratic nomination with former state legislator Mike Kowall and Jeffrey Nutt, a Troy-based attorney, seeking the Republican nomination.

The Oakland Press reached out to each candidate with questions pertaining to their candidacy for the county's top elected office. Responses to those questions, as well as background information on the candidates, is detailed below.

The state's primary election is being held on Tuesday, Aug. 4.The county executive position comes with a $205,217 a year salary.

For complete coverage of other Oakland County races including sheriff, prosecutor, clerk/register of deeds, treasurer, and water resources commissioner, visitwww.theoaklandpress.com/news/elections/.

Coulter, 60, the former Democratic mayor of Ferndale, was appointed to the position on Aug. 16 by the Democratic majority county board of commissioners to finish out L. Brooks Patterson's term, which expires Dec. 31, 2020. Patterson, 80, died Aug. 3, 2019 following a months long battle with stage four pancreatic cancer.

Coulter, a Ferndale resident, announced his intentions on running for a full, four-year term in October 2019 at Brass Aluminum Forging in Ferndale, a manufacturing company he helped bring to the city.

David Coulter

He has a long history with Oakland County including serving as the mayor of Ferndale from 2011 through 2019 and as an Oakland County commissioner from 2002 through 2010.

During his time as mayor, Coulter also worked full-time as director of external relations for the Children's Foundation of Michigan.For 13 years, he was employed by the Michigan Consolidated Gas Company, which is now DTE Energy.

According torecent campaign filings, Coulter has raised around $446,000 and has over $70,000 cash on hand.

OP: What are some of the biggest challenges that face Oakland County and how would you help to remedy/combat those issues? Challenges unique to COVID-19 pandemic?

OP: Recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and preventing a second spike of the virus is our top priority right now. Oakland County has led during the pandemic, announcing health orders to keep residents and employees safe, getting grants to small businesses and community organizations, helping workers laid off during the shutdown, and increasing testing for residents and senior living facilities. I am committed to leading the recovery and continuing to implement our Oakland Together agenda to expand health care, improving economic opportunity, protecting our environment, increasing diversity initiatives and maintaining our strong fiscal practices.

OP: What are the main reasons as to why you want to be elected to a four-year term as Oakland County Executive?

Coulter: Oakland County is in the middle of a dangerous pandemic that we must continue to manage and recover from economically. I want to continue to lead Oakland County as Executive to maintain our science-based approach to suppressing the virus so we do not go backward, support our residents hard hit by the economic downtown, help our small businesses recover and our schools reopen safely. I also want to continue the progressive change that my Administration has started including transforming our county health clinics to provide primary care and mental health services, create a new economic development and workforce strategy that brings opportunity to all of our residents, a new housing strategy that provides rental assistance, and an environmental policy that creates a sustainability office and addresses climate change. I have achieved results while maintaining strong fiscal policies, approving a three-year balanced budget and retaining the countys AAA bond rating.

OP: What are your greatest strengths? How will they help you if elected to a four-year term as Oakland County Executive?

Coulter: These times call for a leader who listens, works well with people, and has the executive experience to make decisions on a wide range of pressing issues. I was a unifying voice after the passing of L. Brooks Patterson and my collaborative leadership style has allowed my team to move quickly to achieve results and pull everyone together during the pandemic. The road ahead calls for a County Executive who is already implementing the plans to address our challenges and seize our opportunities and who has built of foundation of relationships around the county to deliver results.

OP: Why, specifically, should Oakland County voters support you on August 4?

Coulter: It is an honor to serve Oakland county residents and businesses as Oakland County Executive. I ask voters for their support on August 4 based on my record in office and the service we have provided during the pandemic. I took early steps to stabilize small businesses with $14 million in grants and 10,000 re-opening kits with personal protection equipment, safety protocols and social distancing signs. Now, we are creating larger recovery grants focused on areas hard hit by the pandemic. Our health division is working closely with Oakland Schools and is hiring five dozen nurses to help them openly safely. I also set aside county CARES Act dollars for local governments because they have been active partners in our response and hard hit by the costs of the pandemic. I am proud to be the only candidate in the Democratic primary that has endorsements from the majority of county officials I work with every day.

Meisner, 47, has served as county treasurer since 2009. He announced his candidacy for office at Ferndale's Rust Belt Market back in March 2019.

From 2003 through 2009, the Huntington Woods resident served as a state representative in the 27th District. Whilein Lansing, he served as assistant democratic leader and vice-chair of the House Commerce Committee and Ethics, Oversight, and Campaign Finance Committee. He also served as a member of the Tax Policy Committee.

Andy Meisner

In the 1990's, Meisner served as apolicy analyst for U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, working on gun violence prevention, criminal justice reform, campaign finance reform, and mental health policy.

According to recent campaign filings, Meisner has raised around $1.1 million and has over $184,000 cash on hand.

OP: What are some of the biggest challenges that face Oakland County and how would you help to remedy/combat those issues? Challenges unique to COVID-19 pandemic?

Meisner: The three biggest challenges facing Oakland County are (1) COVID, (2) expanding gender and racial equity, and (3) providing access to healthcare, mental health and prevention wellness services for every county resident, especially the uninsured and under-insured. On COVID, I will lead us out of the crisis by fighting on two fronts: health and the economy. On the health front, I will improve and expand testing, treatment and tracing to ensure that Oakland County's response is based on Governor Whitmer's lead and the guidance of responsible public health agencies. Currently, test results are taking weeks to come back if at all, and this needs improvement. On the economic front, we need to support our small businesses that are trying to get through this tough time, while expanding opportunity for new and aspiring entrepreneurs, especially women and People of Color. We will do this by building small business incubators that provide free space and wi-fi to small businesses, as well as coaching and access to grant and loan programs. We will expand gender and racial equity in Oakland County by bringing my success in hiring and promoting women and People of Color to the entire county, only contracting with companies that pay their female employees the same as men, and bringing about police and criminal justice reform by using the leverage of the Executive office to demand best practices, including zero tolerance for racial discrimination and excessive use of force and investing in prevention and community policing. COVID has shown us the value of our health, and as Executive I will make sure the County is doing all it can to make sure that every uninsured and under-insured person in Oakland County gets access to affordable prescription drugs and high-quality healthcare, mental health and overall wellness services to make all of us healthier and happier. We must achieve these goals while maintaining a balanced budget and fiscal discipline. I will be a leader as Executive who will bring us together as a county and a region to overcome all of our challenges, leading with innovation, progressive values and a constant reminder that our residents deserve equity and opportunity, no matter their ZIP code.

OP: What are the main reasons as to why you want to be elected to a four-year term as Oakland County Executive?

Meisner: As State Representative and County Treasurer, I have been an innovator and proven fighter for our pro-Choice, pro-racial justice, pro-environment and pro-labor progressive, Democratic values, writing Michigan's laws on stem cell research to help sick people get better treatments and cures, our drug treatment court law that takes mentally ill and addicted people out of prison and put them into treatment, helping 30,000 families save their home and protecting Oakland County's AAA bond rating. I have the right record of accomplishment, experience, vision and track record of winning elections countywide to represent Democrats as our nominee and to lead Oakland County into the future.

OP: What are your greatest strengths? How will they help you if elected to a four-year term as Oakland County Executive?

Meisner: My greatest strengths include my record of bringing innovation and transformational change to the offices of State Representative and Treasurer, my experience at the federal, state and county levels and my core Democratic values, all which I will bring to the role of Executive, leading us out of the COVID crisis, expanding equity for women and People of Color in Oakland County and fighting for our future.

OP: Why, specifically, should Oakland County voters support you on August 4?

Meisner: I'm asking Democrats voting in the primary election to vote for me because I am the only candidate born and raised in Oakland County and the only candidate with a track record of real results on the job and in previous elections. County voters trust me to be an independent voice and an outspoken leader for our values -- not a finger in the wind politician who tells different stories to different people. I want to help lead Oakland County into a brighter future that offers equity to women and minorities who have been held back, reform of our criminal justice system and greater access to healthcare, mental health and affordable prescription drugs to every resident of Oakland County, no matter their ZIP code.

Kowall, 68, served in the State Senate, including three years as Senate majority floor leader, from 2011 through 2018 representing the 15th District. He also served as a state representative from 1999 through 2002 representing the 44th District.

The White Lake Township resident announced his candidacy in April after scrapping plans to run for Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner. From 2004 through 2010, Kowall served as White Lake Township supervisor. He also served 13 years on the township's planning commission.

Mike Kowall

In 2019, Kowall was hired by then Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson to serve as an economic and legislative liaison with the Oakland County Department of Economic Development. He left that position in October.

According torecent campaign filings, Kowall has raised around $39,000 and has over $15,000 cash on hand.

OP: What are some of the biggest challenges that face Oakland County and how would you help to remedy/combat those issues? Challenges unique to COVID-19 pandemic?

Kowall: All levels of government & school systems will face significant financial challenges as a result of the Pandemic. Any entity reliant on sales or income tax will be more profoundly and immediately impacted. Oakland County will feel the impact through loss of sales tax-related revenue sharing from the state, a much lower increase in taxable property values than forecasted, and the very real possibility that many homeowners and businesses may not be able to pay their property taxes on time. Oakland County will need to do some very serious fiscal planning with a firm, conservative approach for the next 3-4 years. To help spur the economy, continue the initiatives Brooks left us, such as Main Street Oakland & Medical Main Street. Review and revise the highly successful Emerging Sectors program in light of current economic conditions, including disrupters. Continue to help develop talent with Tech 248, Manufacturing Day and MiCareerQuest Southeast & other workforce development programs.

OP: What are the main reasons as to why you want to be elected to a four-year term as Oakland County Executive?

Kowall: I decided to run for County Executive after observing the conduct of the Democrat majority on the Oakland County Board of Commissioners, and their unelected County Executive. They are wasting our hard-earned taxpayer dollars on pet projects, self-promotion, and are exploiting the COVID-19 crisis as a vehicle for their own reelections. As your elected County Executive, I will turn my experience into action for Oakland County. I will fight any proposal that adds additional taxes on Oakland County Citizens for new programs, or ill-conceived Transit Systems. I will maintain our countys AAA bond rating by implementing fiscal responsibility and planning out three-year balanced budgets. I will support economic growth by promoting the emerging technological, IT, and medical sectors that will pay dividends for our residents for years to come. As County Executive I will use my experience to make sure Oakland County receives its equitable share of road funding and lead the effort to modernize our countys infrastructure.

OP: What are your greatest strengths? How will they help you if elected to a four-year term as Oakland County Executive?

Kowall: In short, experience and bi-partisan collaboration. As Township Supervisor, I bucked the Great Recession and grew the economic footprint of White Lake Township. In 2010, when I was elected to the Michigan Senate, I was asked by newly elected Governor Rick Snyder to head up economic development for the state. Additionally, I worked across the aisle with Democratic Senator Rebekah Warren to create the legislation that regulates autonomous vehicles in Michigan, giving our automotive industry new life in the 21st century. Oakland County needs a leader who has a proven track record of working across the aisle to get results. I am the only candidate from either party with the record of bipartisanship and success.

OP: Why, specifically, should Oakland County voters support you on August 4?

Kowall: As a state representative and a state senator, I was a cheerleader for Oakland County and always kept the County uppermost in mind during policy and budgetary decisions. During my tenure in the legislature, I served in many leadership roles and came up with creative solutions for complicated problems. I have successfully taken on many difficult legislative issues, such as the autonomous vehicle bills I spearheaded. I stepped in to help out with controversial scrap metal legislation, bringing all parties together to enact responsible, sensible laws curtailing the problem of metal theft. I currently maintain many relationships within state government that will be beneficial to Oakland County. As White Lake Township Supervisor, I brought $95 million worth of new development to our township during the Great Recession. I worked collaboratively & have developed good relationship with most of Oakland Countys local elected officials and continue to do so, especially when we encounter an issue that unites us. I believe that in order to make Oakland County strong, we need to recognize & consider the input of each city, village and township in our County.

Nutt, a Troy-based attorney, serves as president of Jeffrey G. Nutt and Associates and online dean for One University of the Americas. According to recent campaign filings, Nutt has raised around $18,000 and has over $3,000 cash on hand.

Jeffrey Nutt

OP: What are the main reasons as to why you want to be elected to a four-year term as Oakland County Executive?

Nutt: First and foremost, to stop the systemic pain inflicted daily by the new Democrat County Executives inequitable COVID regulation causing inhumane and unnecessary sharp declines in social determinants of healthand to prevent economic harms from the pattern of my Republican opponent Mike Kowalls seven votes to raise the gas tax. I will not tolerate reckless policies that harm virtually every job creator in the county except gas stations. As a state bar Champion of Justice awardeelike L. Brooks Patterson was a seasoned lawyer when he was first elected County Executive until he passed August 5I have fought the abuse of power and can stand up to career politicians from Lansing to DC where I served high officials in 3 branches of government before returning to Oakland County to live after law school. The use of the language of fear to expand government control to suppress our freedoms and quality of life will end under my administration.

Second, We must defeat the virus making sure all those infected enter care and all the non-infected enter their care while immediately taking steps to also make Oakland County an economic powerhouse again. An economic makeover is needed, and a makeover in national perceptions to restore Oaklands global prominence to attract investment. A simple state law reform described more fully below is vital, with deregulation and attracting new small businesses with high paying technology-driven jobs. Achieving unparalleled county economic milestones will propel Oakland County on a new trajectory of growth for not just better jobs, but great jobsand not just a better economy but the best economy Oakland County has had thus far, applying lessons from what President Trump achievedthe nations best economy everbefore the pandemic. Our success in achieving this priority has real potential to succeed with our success in achieving our other priorities here, including making sure we have the very best health, education/talent, transportation, and finance/government operations and the increased NEW federal transit funds linked to a simple state law reform county-borough based US Metro City entity with no new taxing power.

Third, to promote world-class K-16 education and career tech training with resources and talent from our neighborhoods and beyond. An Oxford Fulbright with a track record of expanding programs as an Executive Director of the only Neighborhood Legal Services program of its kind the in the USA due to its federally-funded permanent housing, education in more than 60 schools, and services to seniors, the abused, and to victims of the HIV virus in 7 counties including Oakland, I oversaw a plan to also help schools and programs control the waste of student time and resources and improve quality.

Fourth, a simple state law reform to draw down $100M+/year in NEW federal transportation funds Oakland County residents already paid in federal tax but which previously has benefitted cities/borough cities in a handful of other states. The NEW transportation funds will improve roads and technology to ease congestion with a new simple state law reform for a new US Metro City county borough entity like London or New York City but with no new taxing power. For the first time, Oakland County will exercise the power with the simple state law reform to choose to ensure an entity exists which retains county independence without a new taxing power legalizing the 1.3M+ county as a new US Metro City US Census-backed statistical area of 1.3M+ with measurable positive growth statistics that permanently overshadow any intermittent negative perceptions of decline near Oakland County. After 60 years of Oakland Countys national reputation being tainted by national media reports of decline or decay outside of the county, Oakland County will take control of its destiny while encouraging other local counties to be better or to form their own borough with their own separate apportioned federal NEW transit funds. I will fight to retain the AAA bond rating and improve financial accountability that declined under the current Democrat who allocated $500,000 to an affiliate of a billion-dollar global conglomeratePlanned Parenthood which should have been allocated to the countys under-insured COVID-19 victims.

OP: What are your greatest strengths? How will they help you if elected to a four-year term as Oakland County Executive?

Nutt: I am not a career politician beholden to special interests but a seasoned attorney, recognized as a state champion, with experience serving officials in high office in 3 government branches and Oakland County area and global businessesand in the words of the State Bar Journalcountless needy people since returning to my native Oakland County after law school. No candidate has more experience in providing both direct service and administering multimillion-dollar federally-funded programs serving as many youth, families, seniors, veterans, HIV virus survivors, abused, disabled, homeless, or unemployed individualsprotecting their rights and providing federally-funded permanent housing, education, Social Security, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-funded, Victims of Crime Act-funded solutions to complex socio-economic problems to lift people out of personal states of emergency. No other candidate has the Fulbright caliber perspective and worldly street smarts to transform Oakland County into a new global hub in the new knowledge economy brining knowledge from a U.S-U.K.Fulbright to Oxford and an ability to fight for IT and education businesses in 30 nations from our Oakland County basecamp to benefit every Oakland County resident and business, welcoming new businesses from around the globe and cultivating new talent from every school around the corner. Furthermore, because of my background, as documented in the attached, no other candidate has a track record of working since 1990 with as many local minorities. My wife happens to be an OB/GYN of Black/Spanish/Asian/Amerindian parentage, so I have a level of rapport with people of all colors that is unique. My CV is also attached as verification providing the specifics of the following summary:

Oxford Fulbright Scholar, State Bar Champion of Justice, Trump Supporter, I own a Troy, MI global legal and management services firm; helped individuals and 50+ local communities and businesses in Oakland County and 30 nations; served Chief Justice Warren Burger, 2 Senate Offices, State Department, and Oakland County court; spoke to 25,000+ youth and adults; National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts National Conference presenter; oversaw 20+ accounting departments, 7+ chief executives, and multimillion-dollar human survival, housing and advocacy programs. I am Fulbright Association Michigan Chapter President; Somerset North HOA City Liaison/elected President 5X. My wife Mayra -- an OB/GYN doctor trained in Panama, Paris, Detroit and Oakland County -- delivered 1,000+ local babies. An Oakland County native, I earned the Chamber Leadership Detroit XIX Certificate, was raised by a single mom, attended Gesu Catholic and Southfield Christian schools, worked assembly line/past UAW member, discovered in college my father was a 2 nd Generation Ford Motor Co. Whiz Kid; I filled a Supreme Court job once held by author Mark Levin and Prof. Clayton Christensen who later coined the term disruptive innovation. Oral Roberts University B.A.; American University J.D.; Goldman Sachs United Jewish Endowment funded scholarly legal studies.

My strengths were cultivated as 1 of 4 Americans then serving in a Judicial Intern position under Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger after work in 2 U.S. Senate Offices and a job writing 9 country environmental profiles for the U.S. State Department U.S. Agency for International Development Environmental Affairs Coordinator at the request of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, and serving in a Farmington Hills court refined my skills in government. I was then selected as 1 of 6 Americans to then earn a U.S. - U.K. Fulbright Scholar Certificate at Oxford University concentrating in the law of the European Union where I would eventually also serve intellectual property IT and education business clientele as the owner of a legal and management services firm in Oakland County. Based on my public interest legal advocacy and executive leadership, I was named a State Bar of Michigan Champion of Justice. I won a national civil test case against drug dealers with Children's Law Center attorneys, was Executive Director with Elder Law Center programs, expanded programs from 5 to 60 schools, and have supervised more than 100+ professional employees/consultants, 7+ chief executives, and am the only U.S. lawyer to have administered 2 legal services-based HUD Continuum of Care permanent housing and support service grants to end homelessness. I led an HIV law program in 7 counties, including Oakland, in the epicenter of the viral epidemic long before the COVID-19 virus and understand how to fight the virus and promote prosperity throughout the community and how to best enhance the social determinants of health. I know how to recruit, retain and train talent having enrolled 300 volunteer lawyers to protect the abused and having trained the Oakland County area child advocacy attorney who wrote the Juvenile Code that was signed into law by President Karzai of Afghanistan. No one will protect the health and welfare of youth, families and seniors and stabilize and grow businesses, as I have done, as County Executive.

OP: Why, specifically, should Oakland County voters support you on August 4?

Nutt: Once in a while, it makes a world of sense to elect a non-career politician as a county executivesuch as me, a person known more as a tough, successful lawyer and community activist, aspiring to emulate a person previously known more as a tough lawyer than a career politician, L. Brooks Patterson, when he became county executiveand aspiring to emulate Abraham Lincoln known more as a tough lawyer rather than a career politician before he ascended to the presidency. Because the people of the county are in dire needand I am a tough lawyer who has no problem being called a tough Nuttthe county is in dire need of confidence in leadership that has been lacking since L. Brooks Patterson died. No other candidate has pre-COVID-19 experience as an Executive Director of a federally funded program to battle a virus, HI/AIDS in 7 counties, including Oakland. No other candidate has the local international experience or expertise to make the county an economic powerhouse in the new knowledge economy from my Oxford Fulbright scholarly study lasting 5 times longer than the current Democrat County Executives Harvard trainingand serving businesses in Oakland County and 30 nations as a 30-year resident and professional in Oakland County. This expertise is vital to bring in new businesses with valid, actual world-class education and health care expertise. The current Democrat County Executive refused to stand up to inequitable, excessive Lansing quarantine regulations causing great untold harm and lives due to the sharply declining social determinants of health (excessive unemployment, transportation problems, barriers to healthcare, housing crisis portended by the pandemic economic fallout that could have been minimized) and my Republican opponent backed a nearly $2B 2015 Proposal 1 increasing taxes with the first $800M going to special interests which was overwhelmingly defeated 80/20 by voters. No other candidate led 100+ professional employees/contractors prior to a county executive post, including administering a federally funded HUD Continuum of Care permanent housing and support services grant to end homelessness for individuals, families, and those fleeing abuse and violence. I care.

OP: What are some of the biggest challenges that face Oakland County and how would you help to remedy/combat those issues? Challenges unique to COVID-19 pandemic?

Nutt: These questions were previously answered.

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Election preview: The race for Oakland County executive - The Oakland Press

My mostly married, mostly professional social circle seems especially well placed to weather the coronavirus storm. Their good fortune is buttressed by data: Married couples entered the pandemic healthier and wealthier than their unmarried peers, which may help explain why counties with more married households have seen fewer infections. Domestic violence is less common among spouses than unmarried partners, and married adults have reported fewer feelings of loneliness than those who are single, divorced, separated, or cohabiting. Married couples also tend to live in single-family homes, which makes any kind of quarantine more bearable.

Read: The pandemics long-lasting effects on weddings

While the pandemic has made things harder for just about everyone, being married seems to have made the new normal more manageable. Yet a declining share of Americans enjoy the perks of wedlock. In 2018, the number of adults getting hitched reached its lowest point in more than a century, and the coronavirus threatens to depress these numbers further. As the poor face disease, unemployment, and eviction, and as the risk of infection keeps many single people from pursuing new relationships, marriage in the United States will probably become an even more unlikely and unequal institution.

Some marriage advocates hope that COVID-19, in the long run, will inspire more people to trade vows as a kind of insurance against uncertainty. I think every family affected by this will recognize the merits of having two parents instead of one, W. Bradford Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia and the director of the National Marriage Project, told me. He predicts that the crisis will lead couples to reassess their priorities and work harder to create stable homes for their children. The whole adult-centered, me-first model of family life died on March 13th. What will emerge is a kind of family-first model of marriage, where kids and kin are paramount.

Talk of fortifying unions and sturdy kinship bonds might sound pragmatic at a time when the government and the economy have failed so many Americans. But pointing to the stability of married couples to highlight the benefits of marriage makes a fundamental mistake of causation. In America today, people arent more privileged because theyre married; theyre married because theyre more privileged.

Most Americans of all demographics aspire to be married one day, but even before the pandemic, the prospect for many felt all too remote. Up until the 1970s, American families looked similar across socioeconomic levels. But with the rise of globalization, the decline of unions, and the shift from a manufacturing to a service-based economy, theres been a sharp fall in good jobs for Americans without a college degree. The work available has grown more precarious, with less money and fewer benefits such as health care and paid leave. These changes have helped create a class divide in marriage.

Read the original post:

The Pandemic Is Putting Marriage Even Further Out of Reach - The Atlantic

As August draws near, public school superintendents across North Carolina are grappling with how to begin the 2020-21 year with plans that keep educators, families, and students safe and engaged in rigorous learning while the country continues to fight COVID-19.

But as superintendents and education leaders piece together the complex logistics that remote and hybrid learning plans demand, their associated costs ranging from purchasing expensive protective gear for staff, delivering nutrition to students in need in settings outside of school buildings, and investing in computer devices and internet hot spots to distribute to students who cannot access online learning otherwise are mounting quickly.

And while schools are likely to need significant support and resources in the face of these unforeseen circumstances, school district leaders are staring down another threat that could potentially wreak havoc on their ability to ensure all children are educationally served during this pandemic.

I think the elephant in the room is the ADM [average daily membership] piece, said Greene County Schools Superintendent Patrick Miller. The state provides our budget, or our allotments of money, based on the number of children that they project we will serve each year, and that is rectified between the 20th and 40th days of school.

And if we have a significant drop in students who either dont come back [to school], choose to homeschool, or choose to leave to go to another school of choice, then that significantly affects the budget of the public schools, Miller said.

Greene County Schools, a small rural school district tucked between Wilson and Greenville in eastern North Carolina, serves just under 3,000 students. Miller says just a 10% drop in enrollment equates to an estimated loss of $2.3 million in state funding, which would arise during the middle of the school year. The consequences would be profound, and result in employee layoffs, moving children to different classrooms, and causing even more instability during a time when children are desperately seeking routine and reassurance. Its not a recipe for educational success.

What needs to happen? Miller says a hold harmless provision that would prevent districts from seeing steep drops in funding two months into the school year based on ADM counts is necessary and that is something that only the North Carolina General Assembly can provide.

In North Carolina, local school districts receive the lions share of their funds from state coffers, unlike in many other states where school funding is drawn largely from local taxes.

The amount of funds a district receives from the state for its schools is calculated based on the average daily membership (ADM) a district is projected to have during the school year. On the 20th and 40th days of school, those ADM projections (sometimes referred to as student attendance, butits a bit more complex than that) are reassessed. If ADM figures are lower than what was initially projected, state funds are adjusted by the NC Department of Public Instruction according to certain guidelines.

Typically, student enrollment at public schools across the state fluctuates over time, but rarely do enrollment numbers vary dramatically enough from one year to the next to result in severe budget adjustments just a couple of months into the school year.

But COVID-19 stands to do just that.

A ten to 20% enrollment drop is certainly a concern around the state, says North Carolina State Board of Education Vice Chairman Alan Duncan.

While Gov. Cooper announced earlier this month that school districts could elect to implement a hybrid learning option for students this fall (known as plan B) that would consist of a mix of in-person and remote schooling, more than a third of districts across the state serving roughly half of all of North Carolinas public school students have chosen to begin the school year with all students learning remotely 100% of the time (plan C), citing rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

As families scramble to come up with their own plans that enable their children to learn while allowing parents to continue to work, local education leaders are concerned that despite offering robust virtual learning options, a significant percentage of families will choose to leave public schools altogether this fall, resulting in devastating budget implications for this year and the years ahead.

If you have to lose that number of students, whether you use plans A, B, or C and in particular B, school expenses will still be even greater than a normal school year, Duncan said.

For in-person instruction, the number of students per classroom must be fewer based on social distance guidelines, the cost of protective gear for staff will be significant, and transportation based on social distance guidelines will also cost more and be logistically complex. And there are costs associated with remote learning as well, said Duncan even if there are savings in some areas, there are higher costs in others, such as the procurement and distribution of devices and internet hot spots for those who do not have broadband access and the distribution of child nutrition.

There has been some financial help for schools to mitigate the sudden costs associated with the pandemic. Congress appropriated federal COVID relief funding to states earlier this year with the passage of the CARES Act, and the North Carolina General Assembly has, so far, distributed nearly $400 million of CARES funding to K-12 public schools.

For Greene County, those funds have helped, to some extent.

The state has provided two months worth of PPE (personal protective equipment) for school nurses and those on the front lines of screening students, Miller said. But the school year is 10 months, he said, and initial PPE costs are already very high. $15,000 for three weeks worth of hand sanitizer. $17,000 for an initial mask order. Disposable gowns that are intended for one time use are $4 each. There will be higher personnel costs to screen students, and other needs related to providing students with devices and internet connectivity, school buses, transportation, and substitute teachers.

Miller has access to nearly $1.5 million in federal aid appropriated by the General Assembly so far,according to the NC Department of Public Instruction. Enrollment dips amounting to a $2.3 million budget reduction, however, could quickly wipe out that aid.

Jack Hoke, Executive Director of the North Carolina School Superintendents Association, says the legislature has to act to hold school budgets harmless for 2020-21, agreeing with Millers assessment that enrollment drops are on the horizon.Its very possible we will see anywhere from 15 to 20% loss in students this upcoming year, Hoke said.

The sudden costs associated with mitigating an infectious disease for which there is no vaccine or reliable treatment methods yet, as well as the shock of school budgets taking hits thanks to unexpected enrollment dips is a lot to handle. But that must also be considered in the context of a couple other significant realities first, many school districts across the state still havent recovered from the effects of the Great Recession that took place now more than a decade ago, along with significant tax cuts that decreased revenues available for public education. In FY19, per-pupil spending remained 6.2% below pre-recession levels in districts with the highest levels of school-aged poverty,according to an analysis by the North Carolina Justice Center.

To cope with state-level disinvestment that has eroded budgets over the past decade, local districts have raided their savings, or fund balances, to make up the difference.An analysis by EdNCfound that overall, fund balances across North Carolina are lower than they were before the Great Recession and thats important because these savings enable local districts to make critical decisions around school planning when the General Assembly may be tied up passing a budget, something the state is dealing with now.

Second, North Carolinas courts as well as an independent consultant have found that the state continues to fail its constitutional obligation to ensure every child has access to a sound basic education, and has done so for at least the last 20 years, since the beginning of theLeandrolitigation. A lack of investment in resources and funding for public schools, especially in schools and districts serving North Carolinas most vulnerable populations, is to blame.

OurLeandrochildren who struggle in low socioeconomic conditions have suffered significant academic losses and we must act to mitigate the losses they stand to see even more of this year, said the State Board of Educations Alan Duncan. Remote learning plans demand access to reliable broadband internet, something that many North Carolinians dont have access to thanks to poor infrastructure or prohibitively high costs. Nearly 200,000 households across the state lack access to broadband, according to the NC Department of Information Technology.

The pandemic has laid bare these stark inequities, and rural districts are on track to struggle even more than they currently are. Rep. Craig Horn, R-Union, says he believes its the intention of the North Carolina General Assembly to take up the idea of holding school budgets harmless if they experience ADM drops this fall.

Thats the desire, Rep. Horn said. Ten percent [in budget reductions] is a lot of money and no, districts cant handle that kind of reduction.

Its the intent of the General Assembly, I think, to hold budgets harmless. But I cant guarantee that will come to pass my crystal ball doesnt work so well.

The funds for school budgets for 2020-21 have already been appropriated by the General Assembly, so a measure to hold budgets harmless wouldnt require a new appropriation. And, said Horn, there remains additional CARES Act money to be spent along with the hope that Congress will appropriate even more stimulus money this fall.

In the meantime, Rep. Horn acknowledged, theres little that superintendents can do on their own to staunch the potential bleeding of their budgets.

The fact is the state provides the great bulk of funding for public education, Rep. Horn said. So there are few alternative resources available of any great extent to public schools. Certainly the General Assembly doesnt want to be put over a barrel here, and the schools dont want that, either.

Horn noted that before adjourning, the House did pass additional COVID relief measures but the Senate did not take them up. Recently, Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, published a statement urging families to consider using a taxpayer-funded voucher program to leave the public schools and attend private schools, which are more likely at this time to be open to in-person instruction.

Im going to give Senator Berger the benefit of the doubt, Horn said. I will suggest that [with his statement] he is highlighting that there are options for students.

But I will also hope that Senator Berger will continue to support traditional public schools as the basis of the states education plan, Horn added. Traditional public schools, for me, are the backbone of education not only for this state, but for the country.

Editors note: This piece was originally published by the Public School Forum of North Carolina. It has been posted with the authors permission.

Lindsay Wagner is senior writer/researcher at the Public School Forum of North Carolina. She provides research, analysis, and reporting on issues pertaining to education in North Carolina with a particular focus on transparency and accountability.

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Facing potentially steep declines in enrollment and increased costs to safely reopen schools, school superintendents call for the General Assembly to...

Share This Article:Protesters move away from tear gas shot by federal law enforcement officers during a demonstration against police violence and racial inequality in Portlan on Monday. REUTERS/Caitlin OchsBy Catherine Christensen Gwin

In recent weeks, Americans have awakened to the reality of racism and police brutality in the United States. The white public displayed shock, bewilderment and even growing contrition about their ignorance of both the nations past and present social conditions.

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In response, social media accounts lit up with a flurry of didactic memes, videos and vocabulary lists to catch folks up on white privilege, systemic racism and Jim Crow. This statement of solidarity and collective grappling with racism is good; however, the brevity and immediacy of the platform cant quite explain the depth and complexity of race in American history.

These lessons cannot be gleaned from the broader social, economic and political context they require sustained attention, study and engagement. Today, Americans need to take responsibility for knowing this history, especially since our schools have failed in this regard.

To help redress this deficiency, the California Legislature is proposing that ethnic studies be made a graduation requirement for students in the California State University system. Ethnic studies courses focus on historically marginalized groups, dismantle stereotypes, and inspire activism and social consciousness among students who finally see themselves in the national story. While I support this, and believe it benefits both individuals and society as a whole, a broader academic and civic problem remains.

Relegating select histories to separate narratives only reaffirms the story of white America as the standard or real history. Unfortunately, racial oppression is not a side show of American history its at the center. The triumphant accounts of economic growth and mobility are inextricably linked to the horrors of slavery, the fact of Indian genocide, and the exploitation of immigrant workers.

This tendency to sublimate racism goes back to the myth of America is a City on a Hill, the perfect society envisioned by the devout Pilgrims. As it turns out, Plymouth was not the first colony, and it was hardly a beacon to the world. Jamestown, preceded the Pilgrims settlement and can claim credit for the first representative government and the introduction of American slavery (not to mention tobacco, Indian wars and even cannibalism.)

Unfortunately, this American inclination to mythologize undermines our truth-telling and casts the unpalatable and painful chapters to the periphery of the American epic. Just five years ago textbook publisher McGraw-Hill identified African slaves as immigrants and workers in their high school text a subtle and egregious disavowal of the nations market in human chattel bondage. After two hundred years, its time to confront these truths.

Shifting school initiatives are partly responsible for this misleading approach. For years, teachers faced immense pressure under No Child Left Behind Actan educational policy from 2002 to 2015 that emphasized standardized tests and penalized schools failing to demonstrate proficiency. The testing regime encouraged memorization, superficial comprehension, and arguably widened the achievement gap. The system also promoted history instruction as a linear march of progress that collapsed the complexity of the past into a litany of names and dates.

In response to diminished student performance, the creation of the Common Core State Standards established national, and more rigorous benchmarks for critical thinking, reading and writing. And while the Common Core emphasized both analytic skills and the disciplinary practices of historical scholarship, the content of history curriculum remains determined by individual states. As you can imagine, history lessons vary greatly between Alabama, New York and the other forty-eight states.

Despite the regional inflection and emphasis, American history instruction pretty much falters all around in contending with the story of racial oppression. Race plays a minor role in the narrative, showing up at expected times and places primarily the Civil War and the 1960s. It is embodied in villainous figures like Orval Faubus and the Ku Klux Klan. Yet the undercurrent of white supremacy goes unseenin housing policy, in science, and in the Constitution.

To be fair, states like California have revised their instructional standards to account for a broader, multi-racial history that includes experiences of LGBT Americans, the struggles of Latinos, and the long history of Asian exclusion the in the United States. However, the word slavery shows up only once in Louisianas Student Standards for Social Studies.

Despite the importance of history, the discipline ranks conspicuously low in the realm of academic achievement, and STEM continues to receive the disproportionate amount of school funding. One of the casualties of the Great Recession was the defunding of liberal arts programs at many American colleges. In the years since, disregard (and in some cases disdain) for such programs has only increased, while money and incentives for STEM majors continues to rise.

The marketing of science and engineering degrees as means to increase earning potential only exacerbates the decline of college enrollment in the humanities, which has fallen by 14% in recent years. History majors have declined by 33% since 2011. Perhaps that explains why the majority of history teachers do not have a degree in the field. The fact that 34% of history teachers coach an athletic team, only confirms beliefs that the field demands less time, and little disciplinary knowledge or pedagogical expertise.

Today we have an opportunity to rethink the value of history. It is important as an academic subject and a necessity for an informed citizenry and a vital democracy. We can celebrate the heroic and even indulge our sense of exceptionalism, but we must still reckon with the oppression and injustice of the past. In doing that, history cultivates awareness, promotes understanding and expands our vision for change. It is only when we face and contend with the entirety of our national story that we can fulfill the promise of equality and justice celebrated in our history books.

Catherine Christensen Gwin, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of history at Palomar College.

Opinion: To Fight Racism, American Colleges Must Prioritize Teaching History was last modified: July 29th, 2020 by Editor

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Across the country, as the novel coronavirus and resulting economic recession have disrupted nearly every aspect of life, they have

Across the country, as the novel coronavirus and resulting economic recession have disrupted nearly every aspect of life, they have also laid bare both the strengths and the shortcomings of Americas health care system.

Even as providers have treated patients with awe-inspiring dedication, the virus has changed the face of patient care for the foreseeable future (if not for good), strained hospitals to their limits and spotlighted shocking gaps and disparities. COVID-19 ripped the Band-Aid off of the structural inequities that exist within our society, says Dr. Stephen H. Lockhart, chief medical officer of Sutter Health, a health system in Northern California.

Whats become evident are the ways in which the system will and must respond, experts say.

Telemedicine

Most immediately visible to patients, medical care will continue to look and feel different, certainly as long as the pandemic is a threat and perhaps well beyond. One of the most dramatic shifts, to virtual care, has been a rapid acceleration of a trend already underway and promises in many circumstances to be lasting. Helped by temporarily higher reimbursement and relaxed government restrictions, some 42% of Americans reported having used telemedicine during the early months of the pandemic, according to a survey from Updox conducted by The Harris Poll in mid-May.

Sutter Health in California, for example, quickly went from an average of 20 video visits per day pre-pandemic to 7,000; the number of physicians trained and equipped to conduct them rose from 50 to more than 4,700. Such rapid acceptance may speed the use of sophisticated remote monitoring to follow and treat people in their homes. When COVID-19 cases surged this spring in the Northeast, Mount Sinai in New York and Atrius Health in Boston took advantage of their hospital at home programs to free up beds for COVID patients and keep others safe from exposure.

[See: Fear, Courage, Grit: Meet More Than 50 Hospital Heroes in Pictures.]

Reconfiguiring Care

Shorter term, providers are grappling with the need to bring people safely in for delayed and important non-COVID care, such as needed surgeries, vaccinations and cancer screenings. Hospitals have learned a great deal about how to identify COVID patients as quickly as possible though this depends on sufficient testing supplies and quick turnaround times and physically separate them from other patients, says Michelle Hood, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the American Hospital Association.

Philosophically, we start with the statement that we need to be able to care for non-COVID patients no matter what comes at us from a COVID point of view, says Dr. Marc Boom, a physician and president and CEO of Houston Methodist, which saw COVID hospitalizations surge in July. Across the systems hospitals, COVID patients are cohorted in designated areas, including in the ER. To increase capacity, were spreading out appointments on weekends and in the evenings, and doing surgeries on weekends, he says. Elective cases can be canceled system-wide as necessary, he says. More restrictive visitor policies are here for the time being.

Mayo Clinic has made videos to show people how things will change when they come back on campus, says Amy Williams, executive dean of practice and a nephrologist at Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo. Changes include COVID screening on entering the building, universal masking and socially distanced waiting rooms.

People considering a routine visit should ask about safety practices and separation of possible COVID patients, advises Dr. Jacqueline W. Fincher, a general internal medicine specialist and partner at Center for Primary Care-McDuffie in Thomson, Georgia, and president of the American College of Physicians.

Health Inequities

One long-time system failure the pandemic has brought into sharp relief: the adverse health impacts of racial and socioeconomic inequities, previously well-documented in heart disease, diabetes, cancer and infant and maternal health. It turns out COVID is no exception.

According to a July New York Times analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African-American and Latino people in the U.S. have been three times as likely as white people to become infected with the virus. And they are almost twice as likely to die from COVID-19, the paper found.

Changing these realities requires taking aim at the social determinants of health such factors as economic and housing stability, education quality, and access to health care, healthful food and safe places to get exercise. Numerous health systems and payors across the country, from Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealth Group to ProMedica, Nationwide Childrens Hospital and Montefiore Health System, were already investing in such areas pre-pandemic as part of their efforts to improve population health and keep people out of the hospital.

Both food insecurity and housing instability are clearly linked to preventable health conditions that can result in emergency room visits and inpatient admissions, observes Alexandra Schweitzer, senior fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School. Such needs are becoming dramatically more widespread and dire because of the pandemic, she notes, at the same time that its increasingly necessary to limit avoidable hospital use.

What may give such efforts added impetus going forward is the wave of acknowledgment this spring that so many of those disparities are fueled by racism, and a recommitment by many groups to fight racism itself.

In June, the board of trustees of the American Medical Association said the group recognizes that racism in its systemic, structural, institutional, and interpersonal forms is an urgent threat to public health, the advancement of health equity, and a barrier to excellence in the delivery of medical care. The group vowed to actively work to dismantle racist and discriminatory policies and practices across all of health care.

Close attention to population data patterns and targeted community outreach offer one way to make progress against disparities. In Georgia, Navicent Health had previously identified 15 ZIP codes where outcomes were quite unequal for white and Black patients with chronic heart failure, COPD and diabetes; the system was able to close the gap for COPD within six months by engaging patients early on, getting accurate diagnoses, making sure affected patients got treatment and connecting them to its Healthy Communities program, which works with local partners to help people get needed services. The system noticed promptly, as cases began to surge in the state and as patients have filled beds this summer, that disparities in COVID follow the same pattern.

I said to our team, it would be insurmountable to think about the world, the U.S. or Georgia, but if we focus on the population within the communities we serve, it is very doable, says Ninfa M. Saunders, president and CEO of Navicent Health, where early data showed that more than half of COVID patients were African-American, disproportionate to the demographics of the surrounding population.

Efforts have included presenting up-to-date public health guidance in layperson-friendly terminology, educating ER and urgent care patients about the disease, expanding drive-through testing hours and using a community health partners mobile program to reach out to vulnerable communities.

Sutter Health, which since 2017 has been focused on bringing down the disproportionately high rate of ER visits by African-American adults with asthma, conducted research this spring, published in Health Affairs, which found that Black COVID patients were almost three times as likely as white patients to require hospitalization. Sutter is expanding its testing, outreach and education efforts for the people who are most likely to be adversely affected, Lockhart says.

Preparing for the Next Pandemic

Another area ripe for improvement as hospitals look ahead is how best to prepare for the next surge and the next pandemic. This one has highlighted the downsides of the overall health systems decentralized and often fragmented nature, and the difficulties of managing through a national crisis without centralized leadership and strategic planning when resources like ventilators, beds and staff are a critical issue, and without a well-funded and robust public health infrastructure to coordinate systematic testing and contact tracing. Large integrated health systems have more flexibility to acquire and deploy resources where needed; the 16-hospital Indiana University Health System, for example, was able to use its scale to get medicines and personal protective equipment and to develop in-house testing capabilities, and shifted staff and equipment from Riley Hospital for Children to other sites.

[Read: Pandemic Partnership: How Our Childrens Hospital Pivoted to Help Adults.]

But generally speaking, most institutions and systems arent organized so that they can easily coordinate with each other, says Susan Dentzer, senior policy fellow at Duke Universitys Robert J. Margolis Center for Health Policy. There have been some exceptions, such as in Boston, where hospitals have to a large degree coordinated their responses. New York State implemented a plan for hospitals across the state to share information, supplies, staff and patients almost as if they were one system. Among the findings in a June RAND Corp. report on creating critical care surge capacity was a recommendation that state, regional and federal entities consider developing protocols for quickly sharing resources across regions based on need.

How financially able the health care industry will be to invest in change post-pandemic is an open question. While the industry has often been described as recession-proof, as David Blumenthal, physician and president of the Commonwealth Fund, notes, recession-proof isnt the same as pandemic-proof. The CARES Act provided $175 billion in emergency funding to hospitals and health care providers, but that wont entirely fill the gaps.

According to the American Hospital Association, COVID-related expenses (including the cost of virus-related hospitalizations and of personal protective equipment) plus lost revenue (as elective procedures were halted and then cash-strapped, fearful Americans skipped care) added up to $202.6 billion between the beginning of March and end of June at U.S. hospitals. An additional $120.5 billion in losses was expected in the second half of the year.

Childrens hospitals, which also cut non-urgent procedures to avoid the spread of infection, and in some cases became part of surge capacity for adult patients, collectively were losing $2 billion per month in revenues as of mid-July, says Mark Wietecha, president and CEO of the Childrens Hospital Association.

[Read: Childrens Hospitals Are National Treasures. And They Are in Jeopardy.]

The financial structure of health care isnt likely to change overnight. But the crisis may accelerate the shift to alternatives to the fee-for-service model, says Jose Figueroa, a physician and assistant professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. One possible approach for hospitals is global budgets. As described by the Urban Institute, this model provides a fixed amount of funding for fixed period of time (typically one year) for a specified population, rather than fixed rates for individual services or cases. Its been part of Marylands hospital payment system since 2014 through an agreement with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. In that state, public and private insurers are required to pay the same price for hospital services, with rates specific to the hospital based on its global budget. An article published in NEJM Catalyst in June argued that the recent plunge in the volume of non-COVID care makes the time ripe for hospitals to look to other forms of population-based revenue, such as capitation arrangements that provide a flat amount per patient for a specified period.

Alternative payment models might help the many primary care providers, too, who have been badly hurt by cancellations and deferred care, Fincher says. A study published online in late June by Health Affairs estimated that primary care practices will lose nearly $68,000 in revenue per physician in 2020. Blumenthal thinks that prospective payments with insurers paying a set monthly fee in advance for each patient in a practice, on a risk-adjusted basis might better cushion that sort of blow during the pandemic and beyond.

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How the Pandemic Is Changing the Way Hospitals Care for Patients originally appeared on usnews.com

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How the Pandemic Is Changing the Way Hospitals Care for Patients - WTOP

By: Explained Desk | New Delhi | Published: July 31, 2020 8:14:19 am Students check their results after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declares the same on July 15, 2020. (Express Photo: Gajendra Yadav)

The National Education Policy lays down a roadmap for the next two decades. But, as Kumkum Roy, professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, argues in her opinion piece in The Indian Express, there are many reasons why this policy needs a close scrutiny, a full debate, for what it says and what it doesnt.

She points out that this policy is an ambitious and complex document and it has been adopted during a pandemic and a lockdown, which renders discussion and debate difficult.

For instance, what are its implications for the majority of those covered under the acronym SEDGs (Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups) in the text?

Absent in the document, as far as I could see, is any mention of the term caste, apart from a fleeting reference to Scheduled Castes. Also absent is any mention of reservation in academic institutions, whether for students, teachers, or other employees, she writes.

Reservation, necessary but not sufficient, is the bare minimum required in terms of affirmative action in the highly differentiated socio-economic milieu in which we exist. The silence of the document on this issue is troubling, to say the least, she argues.

Equally disturbing, in her view, is the passing reference to educational institutions in tribal areas, designated as ashramshalas and envisaged as part of the Early Childhood Children Education programme.

What, one wonders, will be transacted in these institutions. While there are sections of the document that describe ways in which SEDGs are supposed to gain access to higher education institutions, there is no time-frame that is specified, she writes.

This is particularly crucial as the document visualises increased benign privatisation of education, attempting to distinguish this from commercialisation. In a situation of growing privatisation and the near collapse of public institutions of higher education, how these policies will be implemented is a matter of concern, she states.

In the piece, Roy shares several other examples of provisions that need greater clarity.

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Explained Ideas: Why it is too early to judge the National Education Policy - The Indian Express

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THE death of George Floyd in 2020, tragic as it was, has turned out to be both symbolic and of historic significance. For one, it raises the question about justice, dignity, and the fact that all men and women are born equal, even as it reminds us that those noble ideals, centuries after they have been proclaimed as the inalienable rights of man, still elude the oppressed black race in the US and around the world, as well as some indigenous peoples.

The symbolic significance of George Floyd is not a convenient insert on the pages of history. It has a context, text, and subtext that, for us here in Jamaica, span 500 years of a brutal reminder of slavery and its colonial bedfellow. History records that those rights are never going to be achieved without a struggle.

Just about the time of George Floyd's birth, the overwhelming majority of black Jamaicans did say they too 'could not breathe'. The unemployment level had nearly doubled in the first decade following Jamaica's Independence; the poverty rate had soared; there still existed a social hierarchy of class and race; and there was the uneven distribution of property and a growing sense of marginalisation, ostracism, inferiority, and insecurity among the black masses in their own country. Juxtapose that with an annual average growth rate of over six per cent in that first 10 years after Independence, and a complete mosaic of the country's development model, devoid of the primacy of the human element, unfolds.

So, while the development model provided impressive economic growth, it denied the black masses a just share of the economic fruits of their labour. Where industry increased, the workforce decreased; excess profits were repatriated and the social, economic, cultural and psychological aspects of the development process stood beyond the reach of the vast majority of our people.

Researchers have long postulated that the quality of life index has a far more significant and positive impact on economic growth, whereas the latter has a far less significant lagged effect on the quality of life. A 2005 study in India concluded that the neglect of the social sector resulted in the prevalence of widespread poverty and deprivation; and Drs Omar Davies and Michael Witter, in examining the country's economic status since Independence, contended that the development of the economy cannot be understood outside of the political, social, and cultural development accompanying it.

The development model we pursued after the attainment of Independence followed on a continuum laid out during the colonial years. Professor Claremont Kirton, in his 1992 book Jamaica: Debt and Poverty, reminded us that the country's economic development programme was heavily dependent on foreign capital being attracted to invest in the country by the provision of generous government incentives. He argued that the increased penetration of multinationals in our bauxite, tourism, and financial sectors led to the transfer of surpluses abroad and did little to improve the situation of ordinary working people.

Alexander Bustamante's foray into the heart of the workers' struggle and his subsequent rise to political leadership as Jamaica's first Independence prime minister was to achieve just that improvements in the situation of ordinary working people.

Michael Manley came to power on a promise of the politics of change in 1972. The broad philosophical framework he articulated included:

(i) freeing Jamaicans from the psychology of dependence brought about through slavery and colonialism;

(ii) deepening the democratic tradition to offer the electorate a feeling of power over their own destiny;

(iii) linking the concept of democracy to the principles of justice and equality; and

(iv) taking steps to ensure that local government, education and health are tailored to suit Jamaica's needs.

Although Manley's rise to power occurred during the heightened ideological tensions depicted through the Cold War, he was quick to reject the parlous political thinking of those on the radical left and the extreme right of the ideological spectrum. His central thesis, which was rooted in the anti-imperialist struggle that ushered in Jamaica's Independence movement, was simply about the equitable distribution of the country's wealth.

Capitalism, Manley argued, with its emphasis on notions of liberty and the creation of wealth, proved incapable of distributing wealth on an equitable basis. The experience in the first decade after Independence clearly demonstrated that. He would, of course, be attracted to the notion of liberty, which is everywhere evident in his many exhortations about building a spirit of national cooperation, promoting self-reliance, and mobilising the people around the politics of participation.

The second extreme on the ideological spectrum communism was flatly rejected by Manley, arguing that it has evolved into the idea that the equitable distribution of wealth can only be ensured within the framework of an authoritarian system. Manley's development of a 'third path' would naturally draw on capitalism's notion of liberty, recognising however its limitation in providing equitable distribution of wealth, and communism's notion of the equitable distribution, but totally rejecting authoritarianism as a method.

The development paradox which Jamaica faced in the early post-Independence years would certainly, therefore, be caught in the cross hairs of the Cold War. Manley himself recognised that to build a society founded on equality, social justice, and egalitarianism meant to change the power structure of the society built up through 300 years of slavery and colonialism.

The profundity of the Manley years, linked by a common theme to the George Floyd protests, is best represented by comments from a Confederate supporter who still carries the anger that his foreparents were wrongfully deprived of their sole livelihood of earning an income through the enslavement of blacks. Consequently, the post-Independence development paradox, set in the context of the Cold War, was sure to be mired in ideological conflict real and imagine.

The Manley Government of the 1970s infuriated the colonial lineage with the audacity to think that a small, developing country of predominantly black people could defy the Monroe Doctrine. Its author the fifth president of the United States would betray the spirit and intent of the doctrine by his chastisement, ridiculing and name-calling, like scoundrel and worthless, of an enslaved man named Daniel, simply because he desired freedom and equality under the American Constitution.

What the Michael Manley Government of the 1970s represented was that sense of justice and equality, preceded by Daniel, and succeeded by George Floyd. In acknowledging and understanding Manley and his contribution to Jamaica's development we therefore have to judge him by his deeds. Perhaps to determine whether his deeds were consistent with his ideological postulation of democracy, social justice, egalitarianism, and of wanting the majority of Jamaicans to have pride in themselves and respect for each other.

Let's examine some of his policy initiatives to determine whether the spirit and intent of the Manley doctrine were designed to make Jamaica a place to work, raise families, and do business.

We start with the abolition of the Master and Servant Act to protect the rights of workers; the granting of legal rights to children born out of wedlock; the maternity leave law; the equal pay for men and women Act; free education from which people in positions of power and authority today were the beneficiaries; the Jamaica Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL) Foundation; the development of G C Foster College of Physical Education and Sports; the building of 93 infant schools, 67 primary schools, 44 new secondary schools and four community colleges; the establishment of the National Housing Trust (NHT); increased access to land to boost agricultural production; the Employee Share Ownership Programme, and the list goes on.

The truth is, subsequent governments of both the People's National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party would have built on Manley's progress to varying degrees, like the distribution of houses under the NHT, the safeguard and protection of the maternity leave law, and other labour legislations. But that pride, that sense of self that is the touchstone of equality and social justice, is perhaps Manley's most enduring accomplishment. To be sure, it is at the heart of the reparations movement and the quintessence of the George Floyd protests.

The Manley years never achieved the level of economic growth as in the preceding years. There is undoubtedly an explanation for that, and it lies somewhere in the nature of small, open economies which either ignore or underestimate the impact of exogenous factors in the development process: It may be climate change, the oil crisis, the novel coronavirus, or a global economic recession. Manley faced at least two of these, but unlike any other Government before and after, he faced the full onslaught of the Monroe Doctrine because he dared to seek social justice and egalitarianism for the majority of Jamaican people, without fully recognising the deep-seated link to the imperial master plan.

The price for human progress, respect, and social justice may mean we have to suffer with dignity. I too wish it were not the case, but the argument of the Confederate supporter, who opposed the George Floyd protest, rings resoundingly true.

Danny Roberts is a former chairman of the Michael Manley Foundation.

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The rise of Michael Manley and the George Floyd connection - Jamaica Observer