Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/michael-diedrich/page/12/)
With all of the hullaballoo these days about the 99% and the 1% – or the 47% and the 53% if you’re reading conservative propaganda – it’s worth figuring out which percent (roughly) you’re in. With that in mind, here’s a graph to help you out.
In Friday’s graph last week, we saw that roughly a third of adults in the United States are not in the labor force, meaning that they have not sought work in the past month. Conservatives would have you believe these are lazy young people who are choosing not to work so that they can leech from the rest of us. Today’s graph shows this is just not the case.
After an unexpected hiatus, the Graph of the Day is back! Apologies to all who missed their daily data dose.
Official policy statements usually aren’t the most exciting reads. However, Minnesota Commissioner of Education Brenda Cassellius’s statement to the House K-12 Finance Committee hits just about every point you could hope for when summarizing Minnesota’s state of education.I still strongly recommend reading the statement (PDF).The Bush-era No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law is a textbook example of good intentions spoiled by bad policy. The problem it sought to address – the unjust achievement gap that helps perpetuate poverty in the United States – is a worthy one, and as Commissioner Cassellius explained, Minnesota’s achievement gap hasn’t improved much at all in 20 years. From the get-go, however, NCLB sported some significant design flaws.For one, it fell into the “all data is good data” trap. By emphasizing data from state-created tests of math and reading proficiency, NCLB elevated these tests’ importance beyond anything they could possibly be designed to do. Continue Reading
We all should know by now that income inequality in this country is bad and has been getting worse for some time. However, not all income is the same, so where exactly are the top 1% getting their money from?
For a starting point, check out the graph below:
All right, we’ve had a few days of pretty intense graphs about income inequality and Continue Reading
Today we get to look at something I’m sure many of you have been chomping at the bit to examine: the infamous 1%.
Without further ado, here’s the graph.
Next week, voters in roughly one of every three school districts will face a difficult choice. Do they vote for a property tax increase, or do they vote for further defunding of schools?Minnesota 2020 has covered the long-term disinvestment in Minnesota schools before. We’ve reported on the 13% decrease in state funding for schools since 2003, a number that accounts for both inflation and the $50 per pupil “pity increase” from the last legislative session.Begun under Tim Pawlenty’s “No New Taxes” regimen and sustained by conservative intransigence in the post-Pawlenty legislature, this failure of the state government to follow through on its commitments to local districts has forced next week’s touch choice for voters. In a cruel twist, the choice is even tougher in the districts that need funding the most.We didn’t have to put this pressure on middle-class property taxpayers. We could have better funded schools through progressive income taxes at the state level.Instead, anti-revenue ideology forced the state to let inflation chew away at school investments, forcing communities make up the difference through education cuts and tax increases. Continue Reading
Whenever a progressive suggests the best-off pay their fair share, conservatives gripe about how overtaxed the richest people are. Today I’d like to talk about why this whining shouldn’t stir much sympathy.
As always, let’s take a look at the graph:
The past few Graphs of the Day have examined income inequality, and we’ve seen that it’s bad, getting worse, Continue Reading