Media

Today, Democratic members of the House of Representatives released the Aim Higher Act, a bill that would reauthorize the Higher Education Act, the federal law which authorizes a broad range of student aid programs and governs the federal role in higher education. 

Demos, a public policy organization based in New York, has this response:

We can’t give up on building a nation where all of us have an equal voice in our democracy and an equal chance in our economy. As Demos Legal Director Chiraag Bains points out, the legal record of Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh “raises grave questions about whether he will ensure the equality and dignity of all Americans, including people of color and working-class individuals.”

Black and Latino voters are 3 times as likely as white voters to encounter hurdles when trying to vote. 

The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has made it even more difficult for minorities to affect politics with money, said Adam Lioz, political director for the left-leaning advocacy group Demos.

Exposing racism works better than silence

Fortunately, new research suggests that shying away from race is less effective with voters than exposing it as a scam that helps guys like Trump and Putin get richer and more powerful.

The two researchers focused specifically on inheritances among families where at least one parent has a college degree. They looked at families like this in order to test the notion that higher education is some great equalizer. [...]

We all deserve an equal opportunity to be hired based on our experience and abilities. Yet discriminatory hiring continues to shape the U.S. labor market in ways that systematically disadvantage people of color, women, LGBTQ workers, people with disabilities and other targeted groups. Due largely to the stigma of a conviction record, formerly incarcerated people face some of the toughest barriers to securing work.

Rahman Pledges to Advance Demos’ Commitment to Racial Equity, Economic Justice and an Inclusive Democracy for All
 

CAMPAIGN FINANCE

Chiraag Bains, Director of Legal Strategies for Demos

“Do you believe that the Constitution requires that we allow corporations and wealthy individuals the unfettered ability to translate their economic might into political power through campaign contributions and expenditures—even if it drowns out the voices of working-class Americans and erects barriers to candidates of color who lack access to big money and the mostly white donor class?”