FLORIDA – Today, voting rights organizations Demos, LatinoJustice/PRLDEF and 18 other social justice groups sent letters to 13 Florida County Supervisors of Elections, urging them to provide bilingual voting materials for their Puerto Rican residents, as required by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
[A]ccording to our in-depth analysis of data from Demos and NCES, black and Hispanic students are paying more when it comes to student loans than white students. [...]
According to a new study by Demos, a progressive think tank, public colleges aren’t so public anymore, and that’s deepening America’s racial and economic rift, an article on MarketWatch reports. [...]
This march laid bare the obscene role of money in our political system [...]
This was a driving theme in the march, observedHeather McGhee, president of Demos: “The fact that money in politics and the way that the NRA is able to put their financial interests and their political interests ahead of the lives of children. For young people, that is a very, very stark moral issue.”
Loeffler will receive an honorary degree, as will Morten Lauridsen, a classical musician and recipient of the National Medal of Arts; Heather McGhee, a public policy advocate; Elissa Montanti, the founder of the Global Medical Relief Fund; and Andrew Young, a civil rights activist, politician, and former aide to Martin Luther King Jr. [...]
Last week, Betsy DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education did something uncharacteristic. In an extraordinary announcement, the Department argued that states do not have authority to oversee student loan companies operating in their states and that regulation should be left to the federal government. [...]
Last week, I asked the research group Morning Consult to conduct a poll on education. The main question gave parents a list of schooling levels — high school, community college, four-year college — and asked which they wanted their own children to attain. The results were overwhelming: 74 percent chose four-year college, and another 9 percent chose community college.
But what we know about today’s college students doesn’t support the notion that such a large share of students would be using their loan money for spring break would be using their loan money for spring break, said Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at Demos, a left-leaning think tank. [...]
[M]ore and more Americans are realizing student debt has become a widespread financial problem: 92% of American voters said as much in a recent study by policy think tank Demos.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has signed a law that will create publicly financed elections, reversing her previous opposition to a plan that advocates say will help curb money’s influence in District politics.
Bowser announced that she was throwing her support behind the Fair Elections Act, which was approved unanimously by the D.C. Council in February. The law, which will first affect elections in 2020, will steer millions annually toward the campaigns of local candidates and is aimed at reducing their reliance on deep-pocketed donors. [...]
Coalition cheers final passage of bill, calls for full funding and implementation of landmark democracy reform
WASHINGTON, D.C.- Advocates and activists celebrated on Tuesday as Mayor Bowser signed the Fair Elections Act, a major democracy reform that will bring small donor public financing to local elections. The campaign to pass the bill has been supported by dozens of economic, social, and racial justice organizations, as well as the entire D.C. Council.
Faced with jobs that don’t pay enough to make ends meet, health-care costs that break the budget, and public services exposed to countless rounds of cutbacks despite a growing economy, working people will push back. And, like the teachers across the state of West Virginia who walked out on strike for nine days and won meaningful raises and a freeze in health costs for all the state’s public employees, working people who push back sometimes win. [...]
Indiana—On Thursday, Demos, the ACLU, the ACLU of Indiana and the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, on behalf of Common Cause of Indiana, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to halt the implementation of a new Indiana law that would allow the state to kick voters off the rolls based on flawed data, beginning on July 1.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we are thankful for another year of power, spirit, and the vision for a more equitable future in the face of a system and political leaders who try to convince us otherwise. Today (and every day) we amplify the voices of the mentors who guide our creative visions, those who inspire and shift us into action, and the centuries old history of women, femmes, and allies whose voices and stories continue to shape the movement. [...]
Heather McGhee is stepping down from her role as president of Demos this summer. She’ll remain as a distinguished senior fellow and the think tank will launch a search for the next president in March.
HEATHER MCGHEE STEPS DOWN AS PRESIDENT OF DEMOS:Heather McGhee will step down from her role as president of Demos this summer and will become a distinguished senior fellow with the group. Starting in March, the left-leaning think tank’s board of directors will look for a new president.