#u.s. workforce

[sbrown82]

[centerforhci]

39 million working women in the U.S. face menopause as a hidden challenge in the workforce

I kept having fevers. I couldn’t sleep. I was feeling totally unfocused. I thought it was just an extension of my restless shark-like tenancies, but after days of unrelenting symptoms, I decided I should see a doctor. Here’s how our conversation went:

“It’s menopause.”

“What? That’s not possible. I’m too young.”

“Yes, it is. There are many reasons why it can happen at an earlier age than normal.”

“How in the world do women work like this? I’m in a fog and can’t focus.”

“Your symptoms are light.”

“You’re joking, right? It’s going to get worse? Women work every day feeling like this?”

I left the doctor’s office astounded, confused and angry. If many in our workforce are dealing with these symptoms on a daily basis, why aren’t there lobbyists hired? Associations created? Women revolting in the street? Leaders talking about this regularly?

I Was Warned Not to Write This

As I decided to write about this, I was warned by two professional, well-educated colleagues not to do so. They said:

“If you write about this, people will know how old you are and never hire you again.”

And

“If you write about this, you’ll just reinforce the stereotype that women are weepy and unreliable. Just leave it alone.”

Leave it alone? I have daily hot flashes, which means instead of using my EQ to listen to the person in front of me, all I can think about is finding the closest air conditioner. If these symptoms are considered light, how are millions of other women dealing with their (not so light) symptoms at work? And what about the leaders who have to manage people with these symptoms?

Let’s look at the facts about menopause in the workplace.

The Facts About Menopause in the Workplace

Most women officially reach menopause between the ages of 44 and 56, and symptoms can last between two and ten years. It’s possible for symptoms to start as early as 35 years of age, before officially reaching menopause.

An estimated��1.3 million U.S. women reach menopause every year.

Approximately 39 million women in the US workforce are experiencing or will soon experience symptoms of perimenopause or menopause.

Menopause costs approximately $1.8 billion in lost work productivity annually

According to the Labor Bureau of Statistics (LBS), menopause-age women account for almost 30% of the U.S. labor force.

Menopausal Symptoms at Work

So what goes on when a woman is having menopausal symptoms? I mentioned the hot flashes (which I thought were fevers) and insomnia I was experiencing. Women also experience headaches, loss of energy, anxiety attacks, brain fog, aches and pains, and dry skin and eyes. This translates to 45% of the women workforce potentially being at work without enough sleep, sweating to death at their desks with intermittent headaches, no energy and an achy body. I think that fact is worthy of addressing.

Why is No One Talking About Menopause, Affecting a Significant Portion of the Workforce?

Yet menopause remains a taboo topic in many workplaces. Despite approximately 1.3 million women in the U.S. entering menopause each year and 20% of the workforce being in some phase of the menopause transition, conversations around it are still rare. Many women don’t want to admit they are going through menopause, and men often avoid discussing “women’s health issues.” It’s discussed so infrequently that most are unaware of the workplace impacts until they are directly affected or know someone who is. Why is this critical topic, affecting millions, still not widely discussed? Topics like breast cancer, pregnancy, and obesity are openly talked about, yet menopause remains shrouded in silence.

In fact, that’s exactly how women feel about discussing menopause in the workplace: silenced. Hush hush. Don’t say it out loud. Don’t make a big deal. Yet, how can we not talk about this when BOHRF reports that almost 20% of women surveyed believe menopause has had a negative impact on their managers and colleagues’ perceptions of their competence?

Research by the University of Nottingham found many women didn’t want to disclose this issue to their manager, particularly if the manager was younger than them, male or both. Of the women who had taken time off of work due to menopausal symptoms, only half of them disclosed the real reason for their absence. Some women even considered working part time to deal with symptoms but feared this would negatively impact their career. The research also showed that over half of the women studied reported that they were not able to negotiate flexible work hours or practices when dealing with symptoms. All of these realities contribute to the lack of confidence some women feel as even just the lack of sleep affects them cognitively and physically. One women says:

“It certainly affects my confidence from the point of view of speaking at meetings because I am not as fluent…that concerns me. I don’t want to, you know, suddenly not have the word that I need so I am perhaps sort of withdrawing a little bit”

So we have part of a workforce that is less productive and effective, yet we all tiptoe around the topic. Why aren’t there more resources going toward this issue from a productivity standpoint alone?

Two words: Sexism and Ageism

We have to remember that most organizational systems were built by and for men. They were rarely built with women in mind, let alone women with menopausal symptoms. So there is an inherent sexism and bias built into organizations that disadvantage part of the workforce throughout all phases of their careers.

If the tech world feels that 30 is old, no wonder no one wants to mention menopausal symptoms. In this case, using a hot flash as a reason for forgetting something is tantamount to workplace suicide.

It’s a No-Win Situation

And if you were brave enough to mention the hot flash, you might face the gender stereotypes of women weeping in the halls and being unreliable. So it’s a no-win situation.

And even if you have a leader who is educated about menopause, she or he may end up fighting misinformation and lack of support to find a solution. So what’s a leader supposed to do?

Here are some ideas for creating a menopause friendly workplace, which will benefit both those experiencing menopause (i.e. 20% of the workforce) and the organizations that employ them.

7 Tips For Leaders to Create a Menopause-Friendly Workplace

EDUCATE MANAGEMENT This is a no-brainer that often goes overlooked. While managers are trained in subjects like conflict management and finances, they’re not usually trained in dealing with menopause. They should know the symptoms and challenges women face during menopause so they can approach the situation knowledgeably and with compassion. For example, managers who have been educated about menopause might let an employee take control of the thermostat instead of thinking their employee is nit-picky when mentioning the temperature all the time. They may proactively ventilate the office and make sure cold water is available. Also, they’d then be able to recognize behavior related to menopause symptoms that might otherwise hint at lack of engagement.

APPOINT AN IN-OFFICE ADVOCATE (OR A FEW) Appoint a person (or a few) to act as advocates for women in the workplace going through menopause. This person would know about all of the special absence allowances, related wellness programs, and flex policies. They would also speak to leadership or management on behalf of women if needed/requested. This advocate could come from any department at any level, only dependent on their specific personality fit and interest in the role.

IMPLEMENT MENOPAUSAL SUPPORT AND INFORMATION INTO A WELLNESS HOTLINE Some organizations have wellness support programs for their employees, which include a contact number for a resource of coaches, dieticians, and other advisors. Employees can call this number for support in health-related manners such as losing weight, quitting smoking, or getting more physically fit. By adding menopausal support to your wellness support program, women can then get support and information by phone when experiencing menopausal symptoms to better learn how to manage symptoms from a health perspective, and cope with work while not feeling 100%. Information on all flexible work and sick day policies would also be available with this service.

EXPAND BENEFIT PROGRAMS TO INCLUDE ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES Many women are looking to alternative therapies for managing menopausal symptoms such as acupuncture, Chinese medicine, bio-identical hormone replacement, and various other practices used by integrative health practitioners. Though women often see significant improvements, paying out of pocket for integrative health treatments can be cost prohibitive. Including these options as part of a benefits package would enable women to seek treatments that they are comfortable with and that help them feel better.

INCLUDE MENOPAUSE ACTIVITIES OR SPEAKERS IN WELLNESS WEEKS When an organization hosts a “wellness week”, it brings in yoga instructors, massage therapists, nutritionists, chefs specializing in healthy meals, and more. Why not add a component to the wellness week that deals with menopause? Some possibilities are a yoga instructor who can offer poses and breathing exercises particularly for women in this group, a dietician to recommend the best diet to help with symptoms, or a funny speaker to “break the ice” on the topic while educating the team.

ADD FLEXIBILITY TO SICK DAY POLICIE Add sick day policies that cater to menopause-related sickness or absence. Women should experience no disadvantage if they need time off during this time.

ALLOW FLEXIBLE SCHEDULES WHEN NEEDED - If a woman is experiencing menopausal symptoms and is finding it difficult to sleep, it can be challenging for her to get to work on time. Therefore, it is essential to provide some flexibility in the work schedule to accommodate women who are struggling with such symptoms. In addition, if a woman feels unwell at work and needs to go home for a while and return later, a flexible work schedule can enable her to complete her tasks when she's feeling better. Allowing women to work from home when necessary can also be helpful, as it enables them to manage their symptoms from the comfort of their homes.

I have just finished writing an article about menopause. However, I'm now worried about facing discrimination as a result of discussing this topic. I hope that won't be the case. What I do hope is that employers will recognize the challenges women face in the workplace when experiencing menopausal symptoms and take steps to address them. Leaders have a real opportunity to make a positive impact on women's health in the U.S. By following these tips, employers can turn this no-win situation into a win-win.

What has been your experience with menopause in the workplace? If you have experienced it, did you feel like you were being perceived as an underperforming employee? If you have managed someone who experienced menopause, what tips can you give us? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Leave a comment below, send us an email, or follow us on LinkedIn.

[trendynewsnow]

The Rise of Remote Work in America: Trends and Insights for 2023

The Rise of Remote Work in America In recent years, remote work has transformed from a temporary solution to a long-term norm for many professionals across the United States. As offices begin to reopen, it appears that they may never return to the pre-pandemic occupancy levels. A pressing question remains: how many individuals are currently working from home, and from where are they doing it? A…

[metamatar]

Employers desire foreign workers who are accustomed to the hazardous work sites of industrial construction; in particular, they specifically solicit migrants who do not have a history of labor organizing within SWANA. In response, labor brokerage firms brand themselves as offering migrant workers who are deferential. Often, labor brokers conflate the category of South Asian with docility; [...] as inherently passive, disciplined, and, most important, unfettered by volatile working conditions. "We say quality, they [U.S. employers] say seasoned. We both know what it means. Workers who are not going to quit, not going to run away in the foreign country and do as they are told.” [...]

For migrants, the U.S. oil industry presents a rare chance to apply their existing skill set in a country with options for permanent residency and sponsorship of family members. Migrants wish to find an end to their tem­porary worker status; they imagine the United States as a liberal economy in which labor standards are enforced and there are opportunities for citizenship and building a life for their family. [...] What brokers fail to explain is that South Asian migrants are being recruited as guest workers. Migrants will not have access to U.S. citizenship or visas for family members; in fact, their employment status will be quite similar to their SWANA migration.

While nations such as the Philippines have both state-mandated and independent migrant rights agencies, the Indian government has minimal avenues for worker protection. These are limited to hotlines for reporting abusive foreign employers and Indian consulates located in a few select countries of the SWANA region. [... Brokers] emphasize the docility of Indian migrants in comparison to the disruptive tendencies of other Asian migrant workers. [...] “Some of these Filipino men you see make a lot of trouble in the Arab countries. Even their women, who work as maids and such, lash out. The employer says one wrong thing and the workers get the whole country [the Philippines] on the street. [...] But you don’t see our people creating a tamasha [spectacle] overseas.” [...] Just as Filipinx migrants are racialized to be undisciplined labor, Indian brokers construct divisions within the South Asian workforce to promote the primacy of their own firms. In particular, Pakistani workers are racialized as an abrasive population.

[...] While the public image of the South Asian American community remains as model minorities, presumed to be primarily upwardly mobile professionals, the global reality of the population is quite to the contrary. [...] From the historic colonial routes initiated by British occupation of South Asia to the emergence of energy markets within the countries of SWANA, migrants have been recruited to build industries by contributing their labor to construction projects. Within the last decade, these South Asian migrants, with experience in the SWANA oil industry, have been actively solicited as guest workers into the energy sector of the United States. The growth of hydraulic fracturing has opened new territory for oil extraction; capitalizing on the potential market are numerous stakeholders who have invested in industrial construction projects across the southwestern United States. The solicitation of South Asian construction workers is not coincidental. [...] Kartik, a globally competitive firm’s broker, explains the connection of Indian labor to practices of the past. “You know we come from a long history of working in foreign lands. Even the British used to send us to Africa and the Arab regions to work in the mines and oil fields. It’s part of our history.”

Seasoning Labor: Contemporary South Asian Migrations and the Racialization of Immigrant Workers, Saunjuhi Verma in the Journal of Asian American Studies

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

ANTISEMITISM ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES EXPOSED

Committee on Education & the Workforce. U.S. House of Representatives

KEY FINDINGS

Key Finding: Students who established unlawful antisemitic encampments—which violated university polices and created unsafe and hostile learning environments—were given shocking concessions. Universities’ dereliction of leadership and failure to enforce their rules put students and personnel at risk. o Finding: Northwestern put radical anti-Israel faculty in charge of negotiations with the encampment. o Finding: Northwestern’s provost shockingly approved of a proposal to boycott Sabra hummus. o Finding: Northwestern entertained demands to hire an “anti-Zionist” rabbi and Northwestern President Michael Schill may have misled Congress in testimony regarding the matter. o Finding: Columbia’s leaders offered greater concessions to encampment organizers than they publicly acknowledged. o Finding: UCLA officials stood by and failed to act as the illegal encampment violated Jewish students’ civil rights and placed campus at risk.

Key Finding: So-called university leaders intentionally declined to express support for campus Jewish communities. Instead of explicitly condemning antisemitic harassment, universities equivocated out of concern of offending antisemitic students and faculty who rallied in support of foreign terrorist organizations. o Finding: Harvard leaders’ failure to condemn Hamas’ attack in their widely criticized October 9 statement was an intentional decision. o Finding: Harvard President Claudine Gay and then-Provost Alan Garber asked Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker not to label the slogan “from the river to the sea” antisemitic, with Gay fearing doing so would create expectations Harvard would have to impose discipline. o Finding: The Columbia administration failed to correct false narratives of a “chemical attack” that were used to vilify Jewish students, but imposed disproportionate discipline on the Jewish students involved.

Key Finding: Universities utterly failed to impose meaningful discipline for antisemitic behavior that violated school rules and the law. In some cases, radical faculty successfully thwarted meaningful discipline. o Finding: Universities failed to enforce their rules and hold students accountable for antisemitic conduct violations. o Finding: Columbia’s University Senate obstructed plans to discipline students involved in the takeover of Hamilton Hall. o Finding: Harvard’s faculty intervened to prevent meaningful discipline toward antisemitic conduct violations on numerous occasions. o Finding: Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker acknowledged that the university’s disciplinary boards’ enforcement of the rules is “uneven” and called this “unacceptable.”

Key Finding: So-called university leaders expressed hostility to congressional oversight and criticism of their record. The antisemitism engulfing campuses was treated as a public-relations issue and not a serious problem demanding action. o Finding: Harvard president Claudine Gay disparaged Rep. Elise Stefanik’s character to the university’s Board of Overseers. o Finding: Columbia’s leaders expressed contempt for congressional oversight of campus antisemitism. o Finding: Penn’s leaders suggested politicians calling for President Magill’s resignation were “easily purchased” and sought to orchestrate negative media coverage of Members of Congress who scrutinized the University

[honeysickledream]

i love the idea of soap having a big family but…he’s not all that close with them nowadays. in fact, it’s been ages since he’s seen the gaggle of cousins he used to play pretend with in the back garden or even in the woods. family reunions aren’t commonplace anymore because everyone is so damn busy or spread too far apart. his favorite cousin is living in the U.S doing something, Soap’s never tuned in to the technical speak, and the rest are all busy getting their degrees, focused on being part of the workforce, and/or making their own families.

Soap’s closest to his Ma and Pa. they video call at least twice a week when Soap’s not deployed, and he spams his parents with stupid memes and goofy videos at odd hours of the night. He’s close with his older sister, too, talking to her about once a week for a short amount of time. She updates him on his nieces and nephews, the cat he rescued but can’t keep on base, and any shocking gossip from their hometown. He’ll send her pictures of the animals he sees, occasionally will send her a funny post, and maybe once a quarter they meet up to have dinner and see a show.

He can’t remember the last time he hung out with his older brother, though. Maybe a year or two ago? Soap will text the fucker only to get a reply a few weeks or a month later, then it’s radio silence. His brother is like that with everyone, so Soap doesn’t take it personally (most of the time).

At first, Soap hated the change, hated the distancing his family went through. He thought he was losing everything and everyone, but he came to realize it’s not like that for the most part. The people he has in his life are there solidly and that’s what’s important. And when he brings you home for the first time, you’re not overwhelmed by his 16 first cousins, 12 second cousins, 3 aunts and 6 uncles, his Ma and Pa and sister and brother and all their kids. It’s a mellow evening, the closest adults in the family able to relax and get to know you while you do the same.

He wants that tight knit family with you one day. He wants your kids to know all the cousins, yes, but he also wants them to have the security of solid relationships with those closest to them. He wants them to know that even as family members pull away or seemingly vanish off the face if the earth, that there are still people who exist and love them, who share a million memories with them and will happily make a million more. He doesn’t want them to struggle with the feeling of losing security and love like he did.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Salaried employees who work long hours for low pay aren’t finding much sympathy among Republicans on Capitol Hill.

GOP lawmakers filed a resolution in Congress on Wednesday that would block the Labor Department from extending overtime protections to millions of salaried workers, a key workplace reform pursued by President Joe Biden.

Under federal law, only certain workers have a right to time-and-a-half pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. Currently, salaried workers must earn less than $35,568 per year to be automatically entitled to the overtime pay.

A new rule from the Labor Department, finalized in April, would raise that salary threshold to $58,656 per year, bringing an estimated 4 million additional workers under the law’s protection. Employers would then have to pay those workers a premium when they work additional hours, whereas now they don’t have to pay them anything at all for that time.

But the GOP lawmakers have filed what’s known as a “resolution of disapproval” under the Congressional Review Act, which, if passed and signed into law, would nullify the reform.

Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) sponsored the resolution in the GOP-controlled House. Forty Republican colleagues have joined him as co-sponsors as of Friday. No Democrats have signed on to the legislation.

GOP Sen. Mike Braun (Ind.) is leading the companion legislation in the Senate, where Democrats hold a threadbare majority.

Republicans have used the Congressional Review Act to kill progressive reforms before, most notably at the end of Barack Obama’s presidency.

This particular effort has slim chances of succeeding, since the legislation would face a Biden veto threat if it managed to pass both chambers. And regardless of the maneuvers in Washington, Biden’s overtime reforms face the possibility of being blocked in federal court. But the resolution still helps show where both parties stand on a key economic issue — worker pay — in an election year.

Business groups have come out strongly against Biden’s overtime rule and have opposed similar reforms for years, claiming they would force employers to cut jobs. But giving more employees overtime protections is popular among voters, much like the idea of raising the minimum wage.

The Labor Department estimates the reform would transfer $1.5 billion a year from employers to employees in the form of higher wages. The benefits would go disproportionately to workers who are women and people of color, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.

But Walberg called the overtime changes “burdensome” in a statement and claimed it would lead to inflation.

“Small businesses, nonprofits, and colleges across America will now be looking at bottom lines, and then make the tough decisions to lay off valuable staff or force salaried workers into hourly positions,” he said.

Braun argued that overtime decisions should be left to the bosses. “If the free market sets the price of labor, opportunity and prosperity are the result,” he said.

Overtime protections in the U.S. stretch back to the Great Depression, when the right to time-and-a-half pay was first enshrined in law. The idea was to prevent employers from overworking their employees, and to spread more work around during a time of high unemployment. If a company would have to pay a premium to work someone overtime, the thinking went, then the employer might choose to hire another worker to cover the additional hours.

But the law has gone long stretches without being updated, and so fewer employees as a share of the broader workforce now enjoy overtime rights compared with decades ago.

The Labor Department said when it announced the proposed reforms that it was trying to rectify “outdated and out-of-sync rules” that leave many low-paid salaried employees — retail store managers in particular — working lots of extra hours with nothing to show for it.

[beastieclub]

in every video that's been coming out lately about stalls and changes in the U.S. economy, there's this incredibly charged silence in all of them.

for example, i was watching a video on what happened to cause the decline of 'mid-budget films'. all sorts of factors were discussed, from the streaming wars, to corporate consolidation, to low attendance in theaters. all true, yet... low attendance in theaters is attributed to streaming, market pressures, and big names not pulling people in- also true.

but not once was the fact that 1,140,278 people in the U.S. alone have died since 2023 mentioned.

there are 1,140,278 less people to fill those theater seats than there were in 2019. That is 1,140,278 less people making, shipping, and selling our goods. that is 1,140,278 less people taking their earnings home and spending what little they have left on those goods, the only thing keeping our manchild-ran economy from crumbling into recession.

our workforce decreased by 1,140,278 less people because you KNOW it was the working class, out there dying for everyone else. our workforce decreased by 1,140,278 less people due to one cause alone.

but no one says it. no one factors it in. countless thinkpieces, videos, news segments, conversations overheard in packed restaurants full of maskless, spitting faces about how our economy is crumbling under its own weight because of the internet, because of countless natural disasters battering our country from all sides, because of global trade, because of anything but the factor that we lost 1,140,278 people to preventable causes.

this 1,140,278 people, gone from our lives, and this doesn't even begin to touch the number of people permanently disabled, unable to work. but that number is far bigger than we can reliably calculate. more than we could begin to process.

this, by the way, is the number for the U.S. only. the country i live in, who ranks second worldwide in deaths per million due to this one cause.

and after three years of this constant, ongoing mass dying, we don't say its name. there's an eerie silence around it, a gaping hole we dare not touch. lest we violate some sort of social rule, heaven forbid. we spit on the deaths of those 1,140,278 people every time we forget, and every time we let our government get away with not protecting or caring about its people.

tell me, when was the last time you acknowledged COVID?

[feminist-space]

Wear a mask (respirators like N95s or KN95s or KF94s), especially in healthcare settings, in public transportation, in crowded places. Long covid has severe consequences that, coupled with the dystopian nightmare that is everything else, can be devastating. It's worth it to at least try to take steps to stay safe by wearing a mask. For ourselves and for the people around us.

If you need help getting masks, there are mask blocs throughout the country that you can reach out to. And Project N95 also has resources for those who cannot afford N95 etc respirators.

Excerpts from article:

"About one in four Covid patients experience long-term symptoms weeks or months after getting infected, according to multiple studies published last year."

"A May study from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that both unvaccinated and vaccinated people are at risk of long Covid. The risk is higher for the unvaccinated, but the study suggested that vaccines only reduce the risk of long Covid by 15%."

"The report estimates that 2 million to 4 million of those people are currently out of work due to long Covid."

"If 4 million long Covid patients are out of work, the lost earnings could be as high as $230 billion, the report says.

That’s nearly 1% of the country’s current-dollar gross domestic product (GDP) of $24.88 trillion."

"The condition can undeniably impact a patient’s life, work and health. Last year, the Americans with Disabilities Act labeled long Covid a disability because of how it can limit the major life activities of patients.

A July 2021 study from the Patient-Led Research Collaborative measured the condition’s effect on patients’ work over the course of seven months. Only about 27% of long Covid patients worked as many hours as they did before failing ill. Roughly 23% weren’t working at all, as a direct result of long Covid. That included being on sick leave, disability leave, quitting, being fired or being unable to find a job that would accommodate them."

[covid-safer-hotties]

With COVID-19 relief gone, teachers are losing their jobs. It's a blow to diversity. - Published Sept 3, 2024

Erica Popoca's ninth grade English students were livid in the spring when she told them she wouldn't be back to teach this fall.

The district where she works in Hartford, Connecticut, terminated her contract because the COVID-19 relief money that covered her salary was about to dry up. Newer teachers such as Popoca were the first to be cut. Her students wrote letters urging school board members to change their minds.

Popoca, the founding adviser of the multilingual student club, worried she would lose bonds with Latino students she had taught for two years who identify with her culturally as a Latina and as one of the few teachers who speaks Spanish at the school.

The district ultimately came up with other funding to pay her, and in a win for her and her students, officials reversed the layoff.

Popoca is among the thousands of teachers and school staffers across the U.S. at risk of losing their jobs as districts balance their budgets and prepare for the shortfall after COVID-19 relief money expires. Districts have been scrambling to put unfunded staffers into different roles. The reality is that many students will lose contact with adults with whom they have built relationships in recent years.

The Biden administration granted schools $189.5 billion over the past few years through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) under the American Rescue Plan Act. School officials have until the end of September to commit the remainder of their money, and districts will no longer be able to pay for nonteaching staff roles with that money after Sept. 30. Schools nationwide used most of their relief fund money to pay for classroom teachers and support staff, according to a U.S. Department of Education analysis of district spending for fiscal year 2022. Districts across the country are now laying off recently hired educators, teaching assistants, counselors, restorative justice coordinators and other key staff at schools, or they're scrambling to find ways to retain them.

A recent survey of 190 district leaders by the nonprofit research group Rand found that teacher reductions were "the most common budget cut" officials anticipated. Conversations about staff layoffs cropped up in at least 28 districts ahead of the upcoming fiscal cliff, according to a tracker of media reports from the Georgetown University-based research center Edunomics Lab, which monitors potential layoffs at districts.

The post-pandemic layoffs have been widespread. Montana's Helena Public Schools cut 36 positions, including 21 teachers. The Arlington Independent School District in Texas cut 275 positions, including counselors, tutors and teaching support staff.

Newer teachers are the first to go in states that allow or require districts to use "last-in-first-out" policies, which protect tenured teachers – and many people terminated will be staffers of color, said Aaron Pallas, a professor of sociology and education at Columbia University. States that diversified their educator workforce in the past several years will see a backslide in that progress since "recently hired staff who are often more diverse" will be "laid off more than experienced staff who often are more traditionally white," he said.

Schools serving low-income students will be hit hardest by the shift in funding because those campuses received more federal relief money, Pallas said.

Schools were required to comply with some equity provisions when obligating the relief money. The end of the funding will disparately affect students of color and kids in high-poverty neighborhoods.

Popoca, who comes from the Bronx in New York City, is concerned about what the losses will mean for her school.

"I am relieved but wary because quite a few positions are still vacant," she said. "We don’t have the amount of staff we're supposed to have, and I'm concerned about how the lack of staff is going to impact the students and the school."

Which states are likely to lose new teachers? At least 11 states – Alaska, California, Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Rhode Island – last year had policies explicitly requiring districts to consider seniority in layoff decisions, according to a 2023 analysis from Educators for Excellence, a New York-based nonprofit organization that supports state laws that rid of seniority-based considerations from layoff decisions. Some other states, including Connecticut, where Popoca lives, allow districts to consider seniority in layoff decisions among other factors, but it's not required. Some states ban districts from considering seniority as a factor.

Because junior teachers tend to begin their careers in higher-poverty schools, there could be cases in which schools lose high percentages of their staff, said Marguerite Roza, director of Georgetown University's Edunomics Lab.

"It's really disruptive for students," Roza said. "And it's not great for teachers."

When Popoca told her class of mostly Black and Latino eighth graders last spring that she would be laid off, they were heartbroken. She's one of a few new staffers of color returning to the district this year. A few of her colleagues lost their jobs in the spring and won't be back when school starts, she said.

What should families expect to see at schools? In addition to the emergency funding layoffs, Roza said, many teachers may leave of their own accord. Some districts may also try to shrink their staffing pools with attrition rather than layoffs.

"They're going to hope and pray teachers just leave," Roza said.

Most of the cuts will likely hit the pool of support staff districts beefed up during the pandemic to help kids recover, Columbia's Pallas said.

The counselors, nurses, restorative justice coordinators and teaching assistants added to campus staff in recent years will be gone, and students and their school communities will start to feel that loss by the start of this school year, he said.

Francis Pina is one of several staffers and one of few Black men hired by Boston Public Schools to train teachers how to infuse social-emotional learning into classroom teaching. At the end of last year, he learned his role and the jobs of most new staffers on his team would be dissolved because it was considered a short-term position. Boston Public Schools paid Pina with COVID-19 emergency money through the end of the past academic year.

Pina will return as a high school math teacher this year, but he worries about what will happen to the district's social-emotional learning program.

When he heard his role was coming to an end, Pina said, he was nervous because he felt it was "really important to support students" still facing pandemic-related academic, social and emotional setbacks. He says students in the district haven't worked through all of those losses, even if the district has gone back to the "status quo."

As a Black man who attended Boston Public Schools, he believes he offers a unique perspective to kids, including Black students, and helps them thrive academically and emotionally in school.

"Prioritizing this is important," Pina said. "Kids need to know we care about them."

Teacher diversification will face a setback Diversity among the teaching staff has improved in recent years in Massachusetts, where Pina teaches. But the state's last-in-first-out policy means schools will lose diversification in the workforce, Roza, from the research lab at Georgetown, said.

That's a problem considering students of color are the majority at public schools in the U.S. Nearly one-fourth of public schools did not have an educator of color on staff, according to a May analysis of state-by-state data from TNTP, a nonprofit organization focused on the needs of students of color and those in poverty. Academic studies show students of color perform better academically when they have teachers from diverse backgrounds

There's a surprising reason: Why many schools don't have a single Black teacher

Representation on campuses may be further diminished when the emergency funding ends.

To stave off those losses and rescind seniority-based layoffs, some lawmakers tried to change how layoffs work, but they ran into pushback from the state teachers union, which said the policies harmed protections for senior educators. In March, the Massachusetts Legislature rejected sections of education bills that would have removed seniority considerations as the sole factor for layoffs.

“While we are happy to see the legislature taking strides to improve teacher diversity in Massachusetts, it is disheartening to see that the Education Committee chose not to prioritize protecting these very educators in the event of district layoffs,” Lisa Lazare, executive director of Educators for Excellence's Massachusetts chapter, said in a news release.

More new staffers of color are expected to face layoffs this year, Roza said.

For now, Popoca, in Connecticut, is looking forward to returning to the classroom and seeing her students – many of whom come from Latin American countries and with whom she feels a special bond. She's worried about the cuts, she says, because the school needs more teachers and support staff, not less.

She already has heard from people she knows who had considered entering the teaching profession in Hartford or elsewhere who have pulled back because of the district's lack of money.

"It's really concerning," she said.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Qasim Rashid at Let's Address This:

Did you know that seven of the 39 signers of the Declaration of Independence were immigrants? Unfortunately today, political rhetoric has successfully demonized immigrants with misinformation and disinformation. Politicians (Trump) often repeat the same tired accusations about immigrants, claiming they bring crime, drugs, diseases, and economic burdens. However, each of these accusations is not just misleading, it's outright false. And it is is important we tackle these common lies and debunk them with facts—because that’s how we build a stronger, safer, and healthier America. Below I debunk 7 of the most common anti-immigrant myths.

Myth 1: "Immigrants bring crime to this country."

Fact: Immigrants actually make communities safer. According to research, including a study from Northwestern University that looked at 150 years of crime data, immigrants—both documented and undocumented—have always had lower crime rates than U.S. citizens. The myth that immigrants increase crime has been disproven time and time again. In reality, immigrants contribute to more stable, law-abiding communities.

[...]

Myth 3: “Immigrants are lazy and collect welfare.”

Most immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, are ineligible for federal public benefits such as welfare, food stamps (SNAP), Medicaid, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). According to U.S. law, lawful permanent residents (green card holders) must wait at least five years before they can access these benefits. Undocumented immigrants and certain temporary visa holders are entirely ineligible for most federal welfare programs.

Myth 4: "Immigrants are taking our jobs."

Fact: America is suffering a massive labor shortage. Far from “stealing jobs,” immigrants are filling that critical labor shortages. Study after study shows that immigrants help boost the economy, and their presence in the workforce increases wages for all workers, both U.S. citizens and immigrants alike. 

[...]

Myth 5: "Immigrants bring diseases into the U.S."

Fact: Immigrants have higher vaccination rates than U.S. citizens. So not only are they less likely to carry diseases, they are also more likely to help prevent the spread of illnesses. This myth is particularly dangerous because it perpetuates xenophobic stereotypes, when in reality, immigrants often contribute to healthier communities.

Qasim Rashid wrote a solid article debunking seven of the most common MAGA myths about immigration, such as the lie that immigrants bring crime and the xenophobic myth that immigrants bring diseases in this country.

[eretzyisrael]

by Richard Goldberg

Anti-Semitism is spreading in K–12 school districts. Even in primary and secondary education, Jews are often viewed as privileged whites and oppressors, with Israel branded as an egregious example of “settler colonialism” and oppression of “indigenous people.” “Liberated ethnic studies” curricula, like the one mandated by California, have created a distinct variant of critical theory aimed at Jews for being Zionist colonial oppressors.

Teachers’ unions are the leading purveyors of this approach. Two years ago, the United Educators of San Francisco adopted a resolution calling for a boycott of Israel. The Chicago Teachers Union instigated pro-Hamas demonstrations in the Windy City after October 7. The union persuaded Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson (a former CTU lobbyist) to condemn Israel in the city council, and it organized a student and faculty “walkout” to show solidarity with Hamas—a city-authorized event that left Jewish students and teachers feeling intimidated. In suburban Seattle, kids as young as seven were recently encouraged to condemn Israel and join in anti-Semitic chants. Oakland Unified School District faces a federal investigation after 30 Jewish families removed their kids from school due to rampant anti-Semitism. And at a high school in New York City, hundreds of students hunted down a female teacher they saw on social media holding a sign supporting Israel.

Marxist ideology is the primary culprit influencing this mind-set, but not the only one. Qatar, a tiny Persian Gulf country that supports Hamas, is funding anti-Semitic “scholarship” not only in American universities but also in K–12 schools. Qatar Foundation International gave $1 million to the New York City Department of Education between 2019 and 2022 for a program featuring a map of the Middle East that erases the Jewish state. The same story played out at a public charter school in Irving, Texas. What other districts in the country might be taking money directly or indirectly from a chief Hamas sponsor? Brown University’s Choices Program, used by more than 1 million high school students nationwide, exhibits a clear anti-Israel bias. According to Brown, the Qataris “purchased and distributed a selection of existing Choices curriculum units to 75 teachers whose districts didn’t have funding to buy them.”

Tools to fight back, however, are available. Governors and state legislatures can begin by blocking “ethnic studies” from the K–12 curriculum and by imposing new teacher-certification requirements. To curb foreign meddling, states should ban school funding or in-kind donations from entities connected with countries that harbor U.S.-designated terrorist organizations. School districts and state boards of education should use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism to root out conduct meeting its standard. Several groups sued the Santa Ana, California, school district in state court for failing to notify parents before approving ethnic studies courses that contain anti-Jewish bias and for harassing Jewish parents at school board meetings.

At the federal level, parents could file formal complaints with the Department of Education for discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Such complaints are increasingly common against colleges and universities, but any school that receives federal funding must comply with Title VI. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce should consider holding a hearing on anti-Semitism in K–12 schools, putting the national spotlight on anti-Jewish administrators and school board leaders.

Local, state, and federal officials have played meaningful roles in fighting back against critical race theory in the classroom. They need to fight equally hard to stop anti-Semitism masquerading as Middle East or ethnic studies.

[gardengnosticator]

"Corporations are called producer interests. In fact they don't produce anything. You tell me what a corporation produces. You tell me what a CEO has ever produced. They are in fact, organizations for the extraction of surplus value from the workforce."

Michael Parenti, "The U.S. War on Yugoslavia", 1991.

[the-eternal-quest-for-balance]

Although the US is considered a capitalist country, there are now more government employees than factory workers. President Biden claims to have created more jobs than any other president, yet the sector with the largest job gains was government, while manufacturing was near the bottom. The US currently has 23 million government workers compared to just 13 million factory workers. Out of the entire workforce of 268.6 million, government jobs account for 8.5% of total employment in the US. In Austria, a country that is much more socialist than the US, government employment makes up only 3.9% of the workforce.

The key difference between a factory worker and a government employee is that a factory worker contributes directly to the economy. In the first quarter of 2024, manufacturers contributed $2.87 trillion to the U.S. economy. Manufacturing, not government, is also a major attractor of foreign direct investment (FDI). In 2023, U.S. manufacturing attracted $2.2 trillion in FDI, accounting for about 40% of the total $5.39 trillion in FDI.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Today, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) reacted to a brand-new Congressional report, “Antisemitism on College Campuses Exposed.” ZOA thanked Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and her U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce for their hard work. ZOA condemns in the strongest terms the documented examples of college administrators tolerating and promoting antisemitism by pandering to antisemitic terrorist sympathizers at the universities and disregarding the rights of Jewish and other pro-Israel students, faculty, and staff. The report can be found here.

This report was published after a year-long investigation by the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce majority. It shows how antisemitism has engulfed college campuses since the massacres of October 7, 2023. ZOA knows from our previous work on campus antisemitism that the problem of indifference to antisemitism predates the atrocities committed by Islamic terrorists last year. The report documents the frequent occurrences where many college administrators intentionally prioritized the desires of woke students and faculty over the safety of Jewish and other pro-Israel students, faculty, and staff. These include the following disturbing examples:

At Northwestern, administrators put radical anti-Israel faculty in charge of negotiations with anti-Israel students supporting terrorism with the aim of appeasing them. (Pg. 9) The appeasement worked, and Provost Kathleen Hagerty approved the boycotting of an Israeli company, Sabra Hummus. (Pg. 12)

University leadership promised to hire an anti-Zionist rabbi and the Northwestern President, Michael Schill, appears to have misled Congress on the matter, which could be a crime. (Pg. 15)

At Harvard, the leadership intentionally failed to condemn the terror group Hamas in their widely criticized 10/9/23 statement about the massacre. (Pg. 34) They also refused to mention the fact that Hamas was holding hostages and refused to characterize Hamas’ actions as violent. (Pg. 35)

University administrators explicitly asked Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker not to call the antisemitic chant “From the River to the Sea” antisemitic. (Pg. 41)

At Columbia, the administration excessively disciplined Jewish students falsely accused of using ‘chemical agents’ when in fact administrators were present at the scene, and knew the charges were false. Subsequent administration statements failed to correct the false narrative used to vilify Jewish students. (Pg. 48)

11 universities utterly failed to enforce their rules and impose discipline for antisemitic conduct violations. (Pg. 58) These included Columbia, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers, and UCLA.

Administrators at Columbia, Harvard, and Penn expressed hostility and contempt for congressional oversight and criticism of their record. (Pg. 114)