We are changing the conversation around our democracy and economy by telling influential new stories about our country and its people. Get our latest media updates here.
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, which has been both sword and shield for racial equity and inclusive democracy. And yet today, the right to vote for millions of Americans is in more danger than at any time since the passage of the law, thanks to the Supreme Court decision two years ago that struck down the most important part of the law and cleared the way for states to enact targeted voting restrictions.
Today's very high threshold for default rates allows tons of colleges to mask poor student outcomes and doesn't take into account the difficulty students are having with repayment itself. But moving beyond the extreme scenario of student default — which means a borrower has been unable to pay their loan back for at least 9 months in the case of federal loans — is important to developing a more nuanced understanding of post-graduation hardship.
Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission finally approved a rule mandating that public companies regularly reveal the compensation gap between their chief executives and the rest of their workforce. Once the first data points from the rule are available in 2018, they will provide workers, investors, and the public a real look at how corporations value an hour of their CEO’s time, versus a rank-and-file employee.
"I've interviewed lots of police officers about their lives on the force," Donovan X. Ramsey, a fellow at progressive think tank Demos, told Mic via email. "What's clear to me from those conversations is that, within cop culture, use of force is sometimes not taken seriously. One reason for this is because officers deal with pretty grim scenarios regularly. As a result, they can develop a gallows humor that shocks civilians — and for good reason."
Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, senior counsel for Demos, praised Oklahoma for agreeing to address what she said was “a disconcerting number of people who should have gotten voter-registration assistance and didn’t get it at all.” Demos and other organizations pursued the case based on statistics showing a disproportionately low number of low-income people who were registered in Oklahoma, which sparked an investigation.
“If we begin to think of education as a part of the economic mobility system, then we can begin to think of education’s implications for children long after school,” Elliott, who also serves as the founding director of the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion (AEDI), explained at a recent New America event.
Oklahoma Agrees To Bring Public Assistance Agencies into Compliance with the Law
NEW YORK, WASHINGTON and OKLAHOMA CITY (July 30, 2015)– Voting rights advocates and Oklahoma officials announced today that a settlement has been reached to provide more effective voter registration opportunities to citizens throughout the state.
Today, we reached an important agreement with the state of Oklahoma that will bring comprehensive voter registration opportunities to citizens throughout the state.