Saturday Stats: Numeric news from Policy Matters Ohio
Posted June 12, 2021 in eNews
18: Days until Gov. DeWine is supposed to sign the 2022-23 State Budget — if everything goes as planned. If you follow our work you know we’re not too thrilled with the Senate’s amendments, or the bill leadership introduced. We’re especially disappointed in the 5% income-tax cut that would send more of our public resources to the wealthiest Ohioans and big corporations and by the failure to include a permanent funding formula that ensures all Ohio public schools can give every kid the best possible education.
9: Days until our next training to advocate for a People's Budget. If you believe all Ohioans deserve security, stability and basic human dignity, join us and take action June 21st at 1 p.m.
$631 v. $4,588: A kinship caregiver of four children in Franklin County received $631 a month in support from the state at the time Ma’Khia Bryant and her siblings were living with their grandmother. Meanwhile, the state provided a minimum of roughly $4,588 a month for a foster care provider to support four children. After six months, Ma'Khia's grandmother received $1,200 a month from the state, but it still wasn’t enough to cover the basics. She couldn’t make rent, was evicted and the kids were sent to foster care, where Ma’Khia was killed by a Columbus police officer. In his blog, Will Petrik examines how inequities in the child welfare system shaped the trajectory of Ma’Khia’s short life.
33%: Amount by which the Fair School Funding Plan would (if passed) increase state support for Mansfield Middle School, where Zach Jones is a teacher. Mr. Jones was among the educators, administrators and other advocates who spoke when the All In For Ohio Kids coalition gathered at the Statehouse to demand legislators pass the Fair School Funding Plan in the 2022-23 state budget.
$7.4 million: Amount by which Allen County schools would be shortchanged by the Senate budget, compared to the funding they’d receive under the Fair School Funding Plan. That’s the kind of thing that has kids of all ages, from all around the state, standing up for each other and demanding legislators go all in for Ohio kids. Our latest video promoting the FSFP stars just a few of them:
5 of 5: This week we released the fifth in our five-part series of livestreams, The American Rescue Plan & You. The final episode explores some of the ways Ohio’s essential workers are standing together in solidarity — and some of the awful policy choices by people like Gov. DeWine that have made it so important to do so. Driven by our dynamo of an Outreach Director, Daniel Ortiz, the series helped launch our new YouTube channel, Policy Matters Now. Click the Subscribe button so you never miss out when a new video drops!
+2-2 = lots of feelings: Bittersweet, sad and exiting times at Policy Matters! This summer we said goodbye to two of our amazing, longtime staffers, Project Director Kalitha Williams and Development Director Cynthia Connolly.
Kalitha worked with us for 10 years. Among her many accomplishments, she helped keep tens of millions of dollars in the pockets of Ohio's working families each year by pushing lawmakers to create and expand the Ohio earned income tax credit. She protected Ohio families’ financial security by leading the effort to protect the Ohio Debt Adjuster's Act. She helped spur Gov. DeWine to create the Minority Health Strike Force, and helped organize a series of town hall meetings to inform the Strike Force’s final recommendations to Gov. DeWine on how to address COVID’s disparate impact on Black and brown communities.
Cynthia was with us for six years. On her watch, we doubled our revenue. She served on the State Priorities Partnership Development Advisory Committee for nearly five years. She helped launch an initiative for state-tribal policy within the network which now has four Native policy fellows. In her off time, she helped end the Cleveland baseball team’s use of racist imagery in its mascot and team name.
We will miss them both dearly! At the same time, we’re so excited to welcome two amazingly talented fellows through the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities State Fellowship Program.
Tanisha Shirelle Pruitt, Ph.D., is from Pickerington. She earned her doctorate in Public Policy and Urban Affairs with a concentration in International Development from Southern University and A & M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she co-founded and still serves as President of the Nelson Mandela Institute for Research. Her past research has focused on the impact of school disciplinary policies on Black and brown students as well as how to close racial achievement gaps. She received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Miami University of Ohio and a master’s in applied behavioral science from Wright State University. Tanisha was a member of the inaugural class of the Louisiana Governor Fellowship program.
Guillermo “Guille” (Gee-shay) Bervejillo, Ph.D., will also join us as a state policy fellow. Guille has studied antitrust economics, U.S. corporate regulation, trade between China and Latin America, and the academic publishing market. He has a long-standing commitment to social justice and community organizing and was a founding member of our partner, the Ohio Student Association where he served as a member of its Strategic Research Team. Guille has also worked as an economic policy intern at the Center for American Progress and as an economic research analyst at the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Guille originally hails from Uruguay and he lives in Columbus with his partner and two young children.