Saturday stats: eNews from Policy Matters
Posted September 20, 2019 in eNews
10,700: Ohio had 10,700 fewer jobs in August than it did in January, according to Hannah Halbert’s latest JobWatch. That’s despite the fact that, as Hannah puts it, “These should be the good years.” She says legislators should be making tax and budget changes now, to prepare for any not-so-good years we might face.
65%: That’s the goal the Ohio Department of Education set for post-secondary degree attainment by 2025, but as Piet van Lier writes, we won’t get there if legislators continue to short-change our public higher education system at levels below what they funded in 2006.
31%: On a positive note, Piet found in the 2020-21 state budget, lawmakers included a 31% increase for the state’s need-based aid program, the Ohio College Opportunity Grant. But it’s still more than $100 million below the funding goal of $250 million lawmakers set in 2010. Structural problems make the program unavailable to students at community colleges and restrict levels for students at Central State, Ohio’s only public historically black university. Legislators left these flaws unaddressed.
744,000: That’s how many people in Ohio don’t have health coverage, up 58,000 from 2017, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Ohio was one of eight states with a statistically meaningful increase in the share of people without health insurance. Cuts to public health insurance led to an increase in uninsured children in Ohio, to 5.5%. Hannah Halbert’s analysis of the new data shows that nationally, poverty decreased in 2018 while income stagnated. Check out her blog for more details.
13: We all somehow made it through last week’s Friday the 13th unscathed, and Ben Stein wrote a cute blog to remind us that policy choices, not black cats or broken mirrors, are why too many Ohioans aren’t benefitting from a booming economy.
$5,000: That’s the inflation-adjusted difference between median pay for Ohio’s black workers in 1979 compared to 2018, wrote Amy Hanauer in Cleveland.com. She explained that working people – especially people of color – are sharing in less of the wealth they help create because policymakers won’t lift wages, rolled back protections for working people, and have distorted the tax code to benefit the wealthy and special interests. Hannah appeared on Face the State with Scott Light and offered solutions to make the economy work for more people. She also weighed in on a host of other issues from the state’s opioid lawsuit to smart gun regulations.
About 850: Number of laws and administrative rules that close off pathways to legitimate work for people who have a criminal record. Ohio House Bill 263 would eliminate arbitrary licensing restrictions and leave in place only the ones that protect public safety. Mike Shields appeared on All Sides with Ann Fisher to discuss why Ohio needs to change the ways we limit access to jobs after incarceration.
Three: That’s how many opportunities you’ll have to see Policy Matters staff in action at public events in coming weeks:
- On Monday, 9/23, Wendy will present on Opportunity Zones at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s Ohio Summit in Columbus. Her panel starts at 3:30, but the summit runs all day! Click here to register!
- On Thursday, 9/26, from 1:30-3:00, we’re hosing a webinar with Common Cause Ohio and Free Press to discuss public policy solutions to Ohio’s local news crisis. Zach Schiller and Caitlin Johnson will share analysis and recommendations from their recent report on the state of local news in Ohio. Mike Rispoli and Madeleine Bair of Free Press’s News Voices program will share lessons learned from the organization’s grassroots campaign to fund civic news and information in New Jersey. Click here to register!
- And on Saturday, 10/5, Amy will moderate a panel at this year’s Ohio Women’s Leadership Summit in Cleveland. The summit’s featured speakers will include U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, and Connie Schultz. Click here to register!
Two: That’s how many places at once you’ll wish you could be when you realize that the Women’s Leadership Summit is being held on the same day as the Hispanic Roundtable’s Convención Hispana. (That’s Saturday, 10/5.)With a keynote address from José Feliciano, the convención also includes a job fair, free health screenings, food, music and family-friendly fun! For more information, call (440) 570-0448, or just check in with Policy Matters Outreach Director, Daniel Ortiz!