Saturday stats: Hello Hannah!
Posted February 22, 2020 in eNews
2nd: This week we officially announced our second-ever executive director, Hannah Halbert! Hannah has been with Policy Matters for nearly 10 years, and most recently oversaw our work and wages research. She’s a smart and dynamic leader and we are so excited to see where she takes us! Get to know Hannah by reading her story, listening to her on WCPN’s The Sound of Ideas or catching her this Sunday on Face the State with Scott Light on Columbus News 10 at 11:30 a.m.
55: That’s how many days until we roast our first and founding executive director, Amy Hanauer! Email Cynthia if you want a ticket!
4: Each week this month we are going on Facebook Live to highlight one of the policies featured in our Black History Month piece, “Black policy matters: Toward an antiracist policy agenda.” (Well, last week the winter plague incapacitated our host and guest so we had to reschedule for this Monday.) The first week Jasmine Ayres and Kalitha Williams talked about how to help Black Ohioans build financial security. The second week Lorain-native Janelle Jones joined Jasmine to talk about the importance of raising the wage for Black workers in particular. We have a twofer this week: On Monday, Daniel Ortiz and Jasmine will talk about the importance of making sure everyone is counted in the U.S. Census. Thursday, Policy Matters alum and Education Trust Senior Researcher Victoria Jackson and Ohio Student Association Director Prentiss Haney will discuss the ways Ohio’s higher education policy creates barriers for Black students, and what we can do to fix it.
Jasmine will also join our national partner, the Economic Analysis Research Network (EARN) for a webinar/discussion, Engaging on race: How EARN groups and EPI are documenting racial inequality, calling out systemic racism, and what more we can do. The webinar will provide examples of how these issues can be thoughtfully documented using data at the state, local, and national levels, and elevated in state and local policy discussions. The panelists will also discuss how public policy can be used to lift up Black workers. Be sure to register in advance.
2X: Ohio law requires the state’s public colleges and universities to turn student debt over to the Ohio Attorney General’s office for collection. There, students are hit with onerous fees and exorbitant interest rates on top of what they already owe, Piet van Lier found in a new report. Ohio’s community colleges tend to serve more low-income students, first-generation students and students of color. These schools have nearly double the rate of debt accounts with the Attorney General’s Office as four-year colleges do.
$2,800: Ohio employers steal an average of $2,800 from each of 217,000 Ohio workers each year through minimum wage violations alone—but most cases go unreported. The simplest way workers can ensure their employers have paid them all they’re owed is to check their paystubs. But Ohio is among just nine states with no requirement that employers provide a pay statement. House Bill 137 would change that, Michael Shields writes in a report.
$1 trillion: That’s how much President Trump wants to cut from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credits over 10 years, according to his latest budget proposal. Wendy Patton gave a rundown of just some of the ways Trump’s plan would hurt Ohio communities and families.
$40,000: Over the past 15 years, Ohioans who earn more than $1.2 million a year have received an average tax cut of $40,000. Meanwhile our public schools, infrastructure and important programs have gone without support they need. Zach Schiller testified before the Senate Ways & Means Committee that if the General Assembly passes a resolution requiring income tax increases be approved by two-thirds majority, they will be protecting the top 1% at the expense of everyone else.
Coming up:
Daniel Ortiz is helping organize the forum, “AmeRican: Celebrating Puerto Rican Resilience and Resistance” at Case Western Reserve University’s Social Justice Institute on March 18, 1-8 p.m. Register today!