how state school funding lawsuits make the difference

and a look inside the Democratic debates about responding to Roe's overturn

First, some good news. Back in April, for my first Vox story, I wrote —“How to fight the affordable housing and climate crises at once” and it looked at how so many people — particularly low-income families — are effectively excluded from federal weatherization subsidies, because they live in homes with outstanding repairs and home health hazards. The problem is that it costs money to make the repairs the tenants either don’t have, or the landlords aren’t incentivized to make.

The story looked at a really innovative bill in Pennsylvania that would aim to fund those repairs, so people could stand a greater chance of staying in their homes, and keep the housing stock at all. This past week, the Pennsylvania legislature passed the bill into law, appropriating $125 million to it. It’s a really exciting and bipartisan development and hopefully can attract attention in other states, because it’s definitely not a problem unique to Pennsylvania.

New stories:

Also in Pennsylvania news — I wrote a story about a pivotal state school funding lawsuit wrapping up in PA, first filed in 2014. I worked to put the trial in national context, to explain why people outside of PA should care, why we see so many of these state school funding lawsuits all over the country, and why they’re so powerful, even as they’re so frustrating.

One reason they’re happening is because in 1973 the US Supreme Court ruled in its San Antonio Independent District v. Rodriguez decision that there is no federal right to an equal education. It remains a huge blow to public education advocates, but to push for better funded schools in light of that, activists had to turn their sights away from the federal courts. (I explain more why in the piece.) But it struck me as I was doing this reporting that Roe v. Wade was also decided in 1973, and how the different decisions reached by the high court in that very same cycle led to such different strategies for both education and reproductive rights over the next 50 years. You can read that here.

Lastly I have another story related to the overturn of Roe. It was an outgrowth of many of questions I had in the aftermath of the decision and wasn’t finding any answers to. Did Democrats have a plan? Will they hold more votes ahead of the midterm election? Is there anything bipartisan that can be reached on abortion in the Senate, like infrastructure or guns? I talked with Senate aides and lawmakers to try and explain what’s been happening since June 24, and what Democrats might be planning in the weeks and months ahead. You can read that here.

I hope these stories are clarifying (and/or interesting!) in some way to you.