2023 Civics Edition
July 11, 2023
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A View From the Ground
News and information about politics, government, civic participation and engagement from URL Media's network of Black and Brown publishers.
Illustration: Kim Jackson for Sahan Journal
Do Minn.'s special education teachers meet federal standards? OSEP doesn’t think so: Due to teacher shortages, some districts in Minnesota only require teachers to have a bachelor's degree — without formal training — to work in special education. Now the U.S. Department of Education has warned the state that its licensing system for special education teachers violates federal law, writes Becky Dernbach for Sahan Journal.
According to a May 17 letter from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Minnesota statute and administrative rules are out of compliance with federal law requiring special education teachers to be “appropriately and adequately prepared and trained.” If Minnesota fails to submit a corrective action plan by July 16, it could lose over $200 million in federal special education funding. Read more here.
Artists across the country contend with an unforgiving housing market: The local artists who developed Miami's diverse and vibrant artist cultural scene are the same residents being priced out of their studios as Miami's housing market becomes the nation's least affordable, reports Prism. “Artists are often the vanguard, and then the victims of this gentrification tsunami,” said Colin K. Gray, who created the 2021 documentary “Unzipped: An Autopsy of American Inequality” about affordable housing in another expensive city — Venice, California.The average cost of rent in Venice? Well, as of last week, a one-bedroom apartment cost lessees $3,000. Read more here.
The crisis of caregiving in America: More than half of people over 50 are caring for an older or disabled relative, and the caregiving industry sees an annual 50% turnover year after year. Our Body Politic host Farai Chideya speaks with two caregiving experts about their personal connection to caregiving, the cracks in our nation’s caregiving infrastructure, and what some families and states are doing to create better living conditions for care recipients.🎧 Listen to the full episode here.
Thousands call for Haiti solutions in global march: From New Jersey to Miami to Germany, tens of thousands of Haitians in the diaspora marched for Relief for Haiti this past weekend. Their goal? To persuade the U.S. government to pass an anti-corruption bill to stop Haiti's gang warfare.
“The Haiti we’re longing for won’t simply come down from heaven,” said march leader Bishop Gregory Toussaint in Haitian Creole during a speech in Miami. The Haitian Times has more here.
ICYMI: Watch Haitians in the diaspora march in Relief for #Haiti (@HaitianTimes)
More: Making sense of Haiti’s ‘constitutional crisis’ (URL Media)
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