The American Association of School Administrators commemorated National Teacher Day today with a depressing announcement, the result of its latest survey of school superintendents. About 275,000 of the teachers and support staff we're all supposed to be thanking this week are likely to face layoffs before the coming school year. What they need, more than apples, cookies or construction-paper cards: About $23 billion. It's "pink slip season" in public education, and in a quirk of recession economics, school districts across the country are on the verge of a crisis dramatically worse today ... Read More
Today’s Health Hazard: Job Insecurity
March 19, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
With a final vote on health care slated for this weekend, reform has never been closer. But as legislators weigh in on the health care bill this Sunday, they may want to keep in mind the lurking variable undermining health in America today. We're not talking about agricultural subsidies, junk food advertising or racism. In the words of Bill Clinton, "It's the economy, stupid!" The connection between job loss and poor health has been well documented; some researchers estimate that a worker displaced at age 40 will have a loss in life expectancy of 1 to 1.5 years. It appears that even the ... Read More
Mass Layoffs and the Lost Boys
February 26, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
The economic downturn has spawned a spate of scary statistics. How many jobs have been lost? How many people are unemployed, or underemployed? How large is the national debt? As pundits pondered those data points, a group of University of California researchers were crunching a different set of disturbing numbers. Their unorthodox measure of how the threat of unemployment affects families is summed up by a disquieting question: How many boys have not been not born? To be precise, a research team from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health calculated the number ... Read More
Will Critique Work for Food
March 16, 2009 • By • 3 Comments
Since the first images of galloping horses were sketched on grotto walls, discerning individuals have been evaluating art and spreading the word about what's new and interesting. These cave-dwelling critics may have been opinionated ("His technique is positively Neanderthal") or simply informative ("Put down that club and check this out"), but either way, they served as a conduit between prehistoric Picassos and their dinosaur-era devotees. Over the past couple of centuries, that role has primarily been played by men and women writing for newspapers. But with those outlets going the way of the ... Read More
