EDUCATION
Clinton’s new education reforms
Hillary Clinton unveiled her innovation agenda June 28, proposing student loan deferments for young entrepreneurs. The plan would let eligible borrowers pause their payments for up to three years without accruing interest. Borrowers who create jobs in “distressed communities” will be able to apply after five years to have up to $17,500 of their student loans forgiven.
“We need more job creators, and we need more young people starting businesses,” Clinton said in Denver.
Clinton also wants to give federal funds to professional development programs with the aim of creating 50,000 new computer science teachers in the next decade. Clinton’s plan would spend $10 billion on computer coding academies, but only if “they are accountable and have proven track records of success.”
Clinton hopes the plan will boost her numbers with millennials. In the 2016 Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders received roughly 1.2 million more votes from 18-29-year-olds.
But not all liberals are on board with Clinton’s plan. Matthew Chingos, a senior fellow at the liberal Urban Institute, says Clinton’s proposal is the wrong way to promote entrepreneurship. “This proposal is based on a weak evidence base and would result in an inefficient allocation of subsidies.” — Jason Russell
INFRASTRUCTURE
Millions exposed to dangerous lead levels in drinking water, report finds
A new report reveals that more than 18 million Americans live in communities with illegal water systems in place and the Environmental Protection Agency, which is in charge of ensuring that those systems are safe, is aware of the problem and does little to change it.
According to the report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which analyzed data from the EPA, each state is responsible for ensuring that safe water systems are in place, but when they fail as was the case recently in Flint, Mich., the EPA is supposed to step in. But all too often, the EPA fails to do so, the NRDC found.
“Imagine a cop sitting, watching people run stop signs and speed at 90 miles per hour in small communities and still doing absolutely nothing about it, knowing the people who are violating the law, and doing nothing. That’s unfortunately what we have now,” Erik Olson, health program director at the NRDC, told CNN.
The NRDC reveals that more than 5,300 water systems in America are in violation of the EPA’s lead and copper rule, which was implemented to safeguard America’s drinking water from its aging infrastructure.
“Our research illustrates the extraordinary geographic scope of America’s lead crisis,” reads the report. “In 2015, 18 million people were served by water systems with lead violations.
“These violations were recorded because the systems were not doing everything that they are required to do to protect the public from lead issues, which could include failure to treat to reduce lead levels in the water (health violations), failure to monitor the water for lead as required (monitoring violations) or failure to report lead results to the public or the government (reporting violations).”
In response to the report, the EPA said it works closely with states “who are responsible for and do take the majority of the drinking water enforcement actions and are the first line of oversight of drinking water systems.”
The agency added that “it’s important to note that many of the drinking water systems that NRDC cites in its analysis are already working to resolve past violations and return to compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act in consultation with state regulators or EPA.” — Joana Suleiman
ENVIRONMENT
Lawsuit claims ‘Roundup’ weed killer causes cancer
More than 30 people are suing Monsanto, the agriculture company that discovered Roundup’s main ingredient, glyphosate, claiming the chemical gave them cancer.
Attorney Robin L. Greenwald’s firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which represents many of the plaintiffs, said her clients used Roundup frequently at work and at home.
“Some people are landscapers, some people are migrant farm workers, some people are farmers,” said Greenwald, who is head of environmental protection. “What everyone has in common is that they all used Roundup and they all have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”
The lawyers base their cancer claims on a 2015 report from the International Agency for Research on cancer, a division of the World Health Organization. It found glyphosate to be “probably carcinogenic.” The report says glyphosate caused cancer in lab tests on animals and found that the chemical damaged DNA in human cells.
However, the Environmental Protection Agency has found that glyphosate does not pose a cancer risk to humans. The agency is currently in the process of re-evaluating glyphosate. It’s standard procedure for chemicals every 15 years. — Joana Suleiman
