Saturday Stats: Bold policy, spicy sauce
Posted November 14, 2020 in eNews
66: Days until the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. That’s plenty of time for the transition team to review the large and growing set of resources created by the ReImagine Appalachia Coalition, in which key voices from the region lay out an infrastructure plan that will tackle climate change and create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the Ohio River Valley. With new federal leadership comes the opportunity to advance bold policy to remake our economy and protect our planet, say coalition co-directors Amanda Woodrum and Stephen Herzenberg.
1,452: Lives saved in Ohio by the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion between 2014 and 2019. That's just one of the ways the ACA has made Ohio a healthier, more prosperous state, according to Senior Project Director Wendy Patton's new op-ed for Cleveland.com. Right now, the increasingly anti-ACA Supreme Court is considering a case that could make it harder for Ohioans to afford medicine, visit the doctor, or get treatment for pre-existing conditions. Please share this Facebook post to remind everyone what’s at stake.
More than 390,000: Student accounts linked to debts that have been certified to the Ohio Attorney General. That’s institutional debt — e.g., outstanding fines for overdue library books — that can, in many cases, prevent students from accessing their transcripts or re-enrolling after taking time away from the classroom. Two bills being considered in the Ohio House of Representatives could change that. HB 595 and 597 would ease Ohio’s punitive approach to debt collection. With our friends at the Ohio Student Association and College Now Greater Cleveland, we submitted a letter in support of those bills earlier this week.
+10: Extra credit points if the previous item reminded you of this February report from education researcher Piet van Lier, which details the ways those student-debt collection practices undermine Ohio students, especially those who are Black, brown, first-generation, over 24 or attending school part-time.
$185 million: Amount of annual state funding for public transportation recommended by the Ohio Department of Transportation’s 2015 Transit Needs Study. Senior Researcher Amanda Woodrum reminded members of the Joint Legislative Committee on Ohio’s Road to Our Future of that recommendation in testimony submitted last week.
25.7 million: Number of American workers who were directly harmed in October by the pandemic-related economic downturn, according to a recent blog post by the Economic Policy Institute’s Heidi Shierholz. Smart, compassionate public policy can help. To understand how, see this summer’s State of Working Ohio report from Researcher Michael Shields and interns April Hopcroft and Siyang Liu.
Our original celebration may have been postponed, but it’s still our 20th birthday, and we’re not letting Amy off the hook!
Join us on December 16, 2020 at 4:00pm as we bring back the ROAST of Amy Hanauer to a digital device near you!
SPICING UP POLICY SINCE 2000: Registration is free, but required. The first 200 to register will receive a complimentary ROAST of Amy Hanauer hot sauce bottle! We know you can take the heat.
*Spicy Saturday Stat*
16,000,000: Number of Scoville Heat Units (SHU) in the world’s hottest hot sauce. For comparison, your ROAST of Amy Hanauer sauce comes in at around 2,500 SHU.
Send Amy a shout-out!
Thanks to a generous donor, Policy Matters Ohio is able to match all new and increased donations up to $100,000! A match-eligible donation with registration gets you a mini ROAST of your own (up to 50 words)!
All shout-outs will be compiled into a keepsake book for Amy to keep + a few lucky shout-outs will be read LIVE! Double your gift, and help us reach our goal today!
