Posts by Stephanie Fenner
Local Control Benefits Minnesotans Statewide
Executive Summary Conservatives and large corporations are attempting to pass preemption legislation – an innocuous name for laws to restrict local communities from choosing greater benefits or wage laws than state minimum standards, like earned sick and safe time, and paid parental leave. These proposals look out for businesses’ bottom lines at the expense of…
Read MoreSchool Vouchers are the Wrong Choice
Many in the conservative movement advocate for “school choice”: aka educational reform in the way of school vouchers, but there are waves and waves of research that suggest private school vouchers harm students who receive them. But first: What are school vouchers? The concept originated with Milton Friedman, and is essentially a strategy to privatize…
Read MoreComparing Health Care Premium Relief Proposals
This week, both Governor Dayton and the Republican-led legislature released proposals to help Minnesotans deal with spikes in health care premiums. Governor Dayton originally proposed his plan in October 2016, while the GOP plan is new. Both proposals spend about $300 million on premium relief, and include a 25 percent rebate. That’s about where the…
Read MoreMid-Week Reads: Merkel and Minnesotans' Income
Every week, North Star will take some time out of our schedules to bring you our favorite reads from the past week. Jeff Van Wychen Merkel’s Mettle The current world leader that I admire above all others is German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel has risked her political career by welcoming one million Syrian refugees to…
Read MoreMid-Week Reads: Minnesota's Economy and Colin Kaepernick
Every week, North Star will take some time out of our schedules to bring you our favorite reads from the past week. Jeff Van Wychen The Center of the American Experiment Report on Minnesota’s Economy? It’s Politics, Not Economics. Saint John’s University economist and regular MinnPost contributor Louis Johnston critiques the recent CAE report on…
Read MoreMid-Week Reads: Economics and Early Ed
Every week, North Star will take some time out of our schedules to bring you our favorite reads from the past week. Jeff Van Wychen The Third Way: Share-the-Gains Capitalism Economist and for U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich outlines three economic systems in America: (1) “no-lose socialism” for the uber-rich, in which they get lavish…
Read MoreThe 1% vs. the Rest of Us
We hear a lot about income inequality, and thanks to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), we now have some state-, county-, and metropolitan area-level data to take a closer look at local inequalities. According to EPI: “Income inequality has risen in every state since the 1970s and in many states is…
Read MoreMid-Week Reads: Intelligence and Pollution
Every week, North Star will take some time out of our schedules to bring you our favorite reads from the past week. Jeff Van Wychen The War on Stupid People Intelligence—narrowly defined in terms as the kind of “smarts” that is measured by SAT scores—is an attribute that only about one-third of Americans have, according…
Read MoreMid-Week Reads: Gun Death Rates, Earned Sick and Safe Time
Every week, North Star will take some time out of our schedules to bring you our favorite reads from the past week. Jeff Van Wychen Compare These Gun Death Rates: The U.S. Is in a Different World This article uses a variety of comparisons to illustrate the rate of gun homicides in the United States…
Read MoreMid-Week Reads: The Need for Organized Labor and Gun Violence Prevention
Every week, North Star will take some time out of our schedules to bring you our favorite reads from the past week. Jeff Van Wychen Sharing the Prosperity: Why We Still Need Organized Labor Economic inequality in the United States is at a historical high and greater than in any other advanced country. This inequality…
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