News and perspective on public policy issues affecting Washington's economy and quality of life, brought to you by the Economic Opportunity Institute.
The social (and economic!) value of paid family leave benefits is undeniable. Research indicates more bonding time lowers rates of infant mortality, improves infant health, and has a strong positive correlation to improved access to medical services. And when workers have time to recover from a serious illness or care for an ailing parent, they [...]
Peter Callaghan nails it in a wry, tongue-in-cheek column about taxes on candy and bottle water: Some have said paying more for candy is the least we can do to keep public safety agencies intact, to assure that public schools and colleges don’t suffer even deeper cuts, to help maintain the already frayed safety net. [...]
The short, lumpy red couch in Stili Klikizos’ second-grade classroom at Milwaukee’s Fratney Elementary School was meant for quiet-time reading. Now it’s “the sick couch,” a place for ill students to lie down as they await the bus that takes everybody home at day’s end. “The parents work and will lose pay if they come [...]
In which Senator Debbie Regala (D-27, Tacoma) takes a clear-eyed look at state taxes and spending over the long haul, and Amy Kinsel (Professor of History at Shoreline Community College) points out the short-sighted irony of cutting funding for the very community colleges people need to retrain for new jobs during a recession. Plus, EOI [...]
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