Our weekly Top Five feature offers big stories or views from the past week with policy and legislative implications.
1. Trump’s protectionism seen as threat as Charleston port deepens, The Post and Courier, Jan. 23, 2017
New President Donald Trump scuttled a big foreign trade deal with Asia this week as South Carolina leaders were celebrating efforts and progress on deepening Charleston’s harbor. Deepening will allow the city to have the deepest harbor on the East Coast, which should attract new, bigger ships from Asia – if there’s still an aura of robust trade. Some are worried by Trump’s protectionism and how it could impact the Palmetto State. An excerpt:
“Protectionism will be a disaster for South Carolina,” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican, said after a meeting Monday in Mount Pleasant to discuss the next steps needed to deepen Charleston Harbor … We benefit probably more than any other state from a global economy. We have world-class manufacturing, and most of the products made in South Carolina are sold throughout the world. If you withdraw from the global economy, you get left behind.”
2. Lawsuit may impact state agencies, The State, Jan. 21, 2017,
In a long story first published by the Greenville News, readers can learn how a Columbia man has sued the state for allegedly improperly denying services and equipment to the disabled. The suit, originally thrown out in federal court, will be back after a reversal by a federal appellate court. As the story outlines, the impact could cost millions of dollars if it is successful. An excerpt:
The lawsuit alleges that officials violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act by allowing almost $6 million in state funds to be used to purchase or improve real estate for workshops for the intellectually disabled and to improve an accounting system, instead of for home and community-based services for the disabled, including the two men who are plaintiffs in the suit. Had the $2.6 million been used for services instead of work center expenditures, the lawsuit claims, it could have produced a total of $13 million as the result of federal Medicaid matching funds.
3. State courts face $4.5 million shortfall, Greenville Journal, Jan. 20, 2017
New Chief Justice Donald Beatty of Spartanburg urged the General Assembly to provide more funding to the state’s judicial branch of government. Otherwise, there could be backlogs and other impacts, including hurting job recruitment. An excerpt:
Speaking to a South Carolina Bar Convention luncheon in downtown Greenville, Beatty said the Judicial Department’s revenue from fees and fines has declined 3 to 7 percent in each of the last three years. Declining revenue threatens the Judicial Department’s technology initiatives to modernize court docket management, Beatty said. It also poses a threat to the job security of the department’s 600 employees, he said.
4. With education, starting earlier is better, University of Chicago News, Dec. 12, 2016
This story is about a month old, but it highlights data for something frequently bandied about – that early investment in education pays off handsomely. An excerpt:
High-quality early childhood development programs can deliver an annual return of 13 percent per child on upfront costs through better outcomes in education, health, employment and social behavior in the decades that follow, according to a new study by Nobel-winning economist James Heckman and researchers at the University of Chicago and University of Southern California.
The researchers analyzed the long-term effects of two identical, random-controlled preschool studies conducted in North Carolina in the early 1970s: The Carolina Abecedarian Project and the Carolina Approach to Responsive Education. The programs provided comprehensive programing to disadvantaged children, and both studies have long-term follow-ups through about age 35.
5. How corruption works, Tom Jacobs in Pacific Standard, Jan. 16, 2017
In this extremely interesting article, the author showcases new research that people don’t slide slowly into corruption, but jump into it “head first.” An excerpt:
It is widely believed that losing one’s moral compass is a gradual process. Breaking a small ethical rule gives us license to break a larger one, and then a still larger one, until unethical behavior gradually feels normal.
But newly published research asserts this “intuitively compelling notion” is inaccurate. In four experiments, participants were more likely to engage in large-scale unethical behavior if the opportunity came out of the blue, rather than after they had previously given in to minor temptations.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!