Puerto Rico needs our attention
Puerto Rico’s electric grid is down. Cellphone towers are destroyed. Roads have been washed away, a crucial dam has burst, hospitals are crippled. Thousands of homes and buildings have been destroyed. Water and food are in short supply.
In short, the island, home to 3.4 million U.S. citizens, faces a humanitarian disaster. Yet for days, President Donald Trump has ignored this national crisis as he pursues petty spats with sports figures.
It’s not as if the federal government has failed to respond. From the Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, thousands of U.S. personnel are mobilizing to meet the island’s needs. But when disaster strikes, the president should at the very least express sympathy and mobilize the rest of the nation to help.
This is especially true when the crisis involves those least equipped to withstand it. Even before Irma and Maria, Puerto Rico was in dire shape. A decade of recession and irresponsible borrowing had mired it in fiscal crisis, with spotty public services and decaying infrastructure.
Trump can help by extending the waiver for Puerto Rico on the antiquated Jones Act, which raises the cost for shipping goods from the mainland. And he could waive the cost-sharing for FEMA disaster assistance.
Longer term, Puerto Rico’s recovery will require congressional action. The U.S. has an abiding national interest in the recovery and prosperity of Puerto Rico. Its residents deserve the full support of their fellow Americans — beginning with the one in the White House. Education Policy Institute points out that the lowestperforming 65 districts have nearly seven times more economically disadvantaged students on average than the highest-performing 65.
The data reinforce that this isn’t a matter of race or ethnic origin. Whether Asian-American, Hispanic, black or white, achievement falls off among the economically disadvantaged.
Children in poverty often face moving from school to school. Poorer students are five times more likely to be disciplined than less-poor students.
More than anything, that goes to the heavy burdens and stresses they carry from poverty, especially the extreme version.
Gov. John Kasich talks about the need to use data in state decision-making. Well, here are alarming and persuasive numbers.
Might this translate to action? Ohio certainly can afford it, the governor and lawmakers having cut taxes by $3 billion a year. What do they have to show? The state’s jobless rate is one of the highest in the country. Better for the state to invest in children and the education they deserve.