Maryland’s Eastern Shore is a place with significant assets including natural beauty, productive farmland, and an iconic seafood industry. The region also faces significant challenges. Some of these would be familiar to residents of any other part of Maryland, such as wages that barely keep up with the cost of living and leave too many unable to afford the basics. Other challenges stem from the region’s distinctive geography and development patterns, like the long distances many residents must travel to get to a hospital…
While the threat of climate change looms over our entire state, it is already a dangerous reality for many of the Eastern Shore’s coastal communities. The region needs thoughtful solutions that balance community preservation, public health and safety, and long-term sustainability.
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A full 30 percent of Kentuckians are working jobs that pay less than $12.50 an hour; fewer than half working in the private sector have an employer-sponsored retirement plan and just 44 percent have employer-sponsored health insurance. In economically distressed regions, even bad jobs are scarce.
Yet we often hear that the problem facing Kentucky is a lack of good workers. This “skills gap” explanation of Kentucky’s economic situation is not supported by the evidence, but you don’t have to take my word for it. When someone says Kentucky employers can’t fill jobs with good workers, ask “at what wage?”
New Mexico’s unique cultural diversity, great natural beauty, and strong sense of community make it a resilient state, but there’s much more work to be done to achieve our full potential. Tax cuts for the wealthy and well-connected have bled New Mexico of the funding we need for critical investments in education, health care, and other services that help children succeed. After years of these race-to-the-bottom economic strategies, we’ve hit rock-bottom — we’re last in the nation for child well-being.
In our Roadmap to a Stronger New Mexico, we encourage elected officials to prioritize children in policymaking and budget decisions. We ask them to make the sometimes-tough decisions to put children and families first – because that’s the best way to strengthen New Mexico.
To move forward, we must:
• Invest in working families.
• Grow good jobs by investing in education.
• Invest in health.
• Promote equity and ensure that our communities have the tools they need to prosper.
• Restore an effective and efficient government that works for everyone.
- September 18, 2018
- Daniel Hauser and Juan Carlos Ordóñez
Oregon teachers deserve a raise. Teachers play an essential role in helping children achieve their potential and contribute to our communities. Unfortunately, Oregon significantly underpays its teachers relative to comparable workers in the private sector.