Our weekly Top Five feature offers big stories or views from the past week with policy and legislative implications.
1. Storm surge might cause more damage than wind, The Post and Courier, Oct. 6, 2016
While you’re probably scared about the 100 mph winds that may come with Hurricane Matthew, you might face more peril from the water. Yikes!
2. State-funded higher ed aid grows in S.C., other states, Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 3, 2016
States put more money into grant and non-grant programs for student financial aid in higher education, according to a new survey reported in this story. South Carolina was among the top states to do so in 2014-15, as highlighted in this excerpt:
“On a per-capita basis — based on estimated overall population — Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and West Virginia provided the most grant aid. Comparing undergraduate grant dollars to undergraduate full-time equivalent enrollment showed Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee leading other states with high grant dollars. Comparing state-funded grant expenditures to total state support for higher education showed Louisiana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington leading with the highest proportion of grant expenditures.”
3. Classroom mediation is reducing school detentions in Baltimore, Upworthy, Sept. 22, 2016
“Instead of punishing disruptive kids or sending them to the principal’s office, the Baltimore school has something called the Mindful Moment Room instead. The room looks nothing like your standard windowless detention room. Instead, it’s filled with lamps, decorations, and plush purple pillows. Misbehaving kids are encouraged to sit in the room and go through practices like breathing or meditation, helping them calm down and re-center. They are also asked to talk through what happened.”
4. Trump is setting a time bomb for election day, Jamelle Bouie in Slate, Oct. 6, 2016
The online magazine’s chief political correspondent says GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s call for monitoring the polls on election day is a voter intimidation tactic that could blow up in the country’s face. An excerpt:
“These are rhetorical time bombs, statements that cast doubt on our democracy, planted with growing frequency as Trump tries to rationalize the fact that he’s losing. There’s a chance this is harmless … Now that he’s behind, Trump has returned to questioning the legitimacy of the election. … These rhetorical time bombs, in other words, could be the catalyst for actual intimidation and violence, before and after Election Day. And if that violence and intimidation strikes, it will be against the chief targets of Trump’s campaign: people of color.”
5. Party allegiance is big factor on view on climate change, survey finds, The New York Times, Oct. 4, 2016
A new poll shows a third of Americans care deeply about climate change, but if you split the metric into political affiliation, Democrats and those who lean to the part outnumber Republicans by a 3-1 margin. The story quoted former S.C. GOP Congressman Bob Inglis, who works these days to try to convince Republicans of the importance of climate change. Part of the problem, he says, is a perception gap because of how the issue is framed or discussed. An excerpt:
“Part of it is that climate change has been framed as a question of belief, he said. He said that climate activists’ insistence on individual sacrifice drives conservatives crazy. ‘When you say you’re shivering or sweating in the dark to save the planet, conservatives don’t cotton to it,’ Mr. Inglis said.”
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!