Saturday stats: Stimulus suspense
Posted August 08, 2020 in eNews
$600: Millions of Americans are in limbo waiting to find out if Congress will extend the $600 a week that’s helping them make ends meet and keeping the economy running. The Senate Republican proposal cuts critical support to more than half a million jobless Ohioans. Wendy Patton called on Congress to extend Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, for as long as unemployment remains high.
1.1 million: In a recent survey, 1.1 million Ohioans said their household “sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat over the last seven days.” The Senate Republican plan also falls short when it comes to food aid, Will Petrik and partners at the Children’s Defense Fund of Ohio and the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, explained on Facebook live last week. The group called on policymakers to increase federal food aid, or SNAP benefits by at least 15% in the next federal relief package. You can help increase funding for SNAP by using Groundwork Ohio’s action alert.
204,000: Child care is another area that needs special attention in the next COVID relief package. In a Cleveland.com op-ed, Will and Katie Kelly of Pre4Cle said Ohio could lose more than 204,000 child care slots if Congress doesn’t allocate enough support in the next stimulus package. Groundwork has another advocacy guide.
218,000: That’s how many of Ohio’s essential workers are covered by Medicaid – and are counting on Congress to maintain their health coverage as they care for us and keep our economy moving. Wendy Patton called on policymakers to boost Medicaid funding and maintain protections for people who are covered by the insurance program.
4%: That’s the share of Ohio’s postsecondary students enrolled in for-profit schools. Yet Piet van Lier and intern April Hopcroft showed that for-profit institutions received 8% of the $395 million in higher education relief allocated to the state in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. By contrast, two-year public schools, including the state’s community and technical colleges, enrolled 30% of Ohio’s postsecondary students, but got less than 20% of the state’s CARES Act formula funding.
2+2: The ReImagine Appalachia blueprint puts two and two together: We have a planet in desperate need of TLC, and we have millions of people who need good jobs. Putting those folks to work on the most serious threat to our collective future is a win-win. Hannah Halbert appeared in the Marketplace Morning Report’s special series “The Economy Reimagined” to explain how smart economic policy can solve two problems at once.
If you missed the ReImagine Appalachia video – watch it below. Or if you’ve seen it already, watch it again! It’s narrated by our own Hannah Halbert!