A Green New Deal Bill in Maine holds lessons for climate + labor organizing
And why schools are eyeing Opportunity Zones
D.C. is pretty lovely in the springtime, and I’ve been enjoying the weather before it becomes an unbearable summer swamp. Here’s a picture from Peak Bloom day for the city’s cherry blossoms:
In journalism news:
A couple months ago I reported on how labor unions were reacting to the Green New Deal resolution introduced by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey in Congress. The answer was mostly a chilly and skeptical response, and a few weeks later the Energy Committee of the AFL-CIO came out to formally criticize it.
So things have not been looking great. But there’s been some positive developments since then. In late March the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor approved a resolution in support of “a Green New Deal or similar effort” to address climate change and economic inequality. Then last week, Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 50,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines, wrote an op-ed in in support of the Green New Deal, and the need to tackle climate change.
And the latest news is that a Green New Deal bill in Maine is being considered now in the state legislature, and it notably has the backing both of environmental groups and the state’s AFL-CIO which represents 160 unions. The bill was introduced by Chloe Maxmin, a 26-year-old lawmaker first elected in November, and the first Democrat ever to represent her district. For In These Times I looked at how she brought these groups together and explored what lessons this holds for future climate + labor organizing. Can read it here!
***
I have another story at CityLab about how charter schools are looking at the possibility to finance new school buildings with money from the Opportunity Zone tax breaks. Those breaks were possible by the tax reform bill of 2017. Many don’t know this but charter growth has actually slowed nationally for its fourth consecutive year, and industry leaders say the challenge of finding and affording buildings is one primary reason. Regardless of whether you think charters are good or bad, it’s useful, I think, to know what the sector is thinking about.
Advocates of traditional public schools are also wondering if there might be any chance of leveraging Opportunity Zone financing to repair and modernize their school buildings. While funding for school facilities is not actually an issue that divides regular Americans, on Capitol Hill, like so many issues, it’s become a partisan fight. There’s a good bill right now that would distribute federal funding to repair and modernize schools across the country, but unfortunately it only has Democratic co-sponsors. Republicans like Opportunity Zones though, so advocates are looking to see if maybe they can convince the GOP to support direct federal funding for schools located in Opportunity Zones. (There are some 13,000 schools there.) More on that in the piece.
****
And lastly, sharing that I was named today a contributing writer for Jewish Currents, which is a progressive Jewish magazine and online publication. To be clear this won’t be anywhere near as frequent as my contributing writer role for The Intercept, but it means I will write at least a few times for them over the next year and I’m happy to be part of the good intellectual project they’re building!
Thanks for reading,