Racial Slurs Have No Place in Football

The leaves are changing. The scent of pumpkin spice lattes is in the air. In short, it’s football season. And like millions of my fellow Americans, I love football. But I’m also American Indian. So for me, football season also means hearing a racial slur all the time. It’s used by sports teams around theContinue reading “Racial Slurs Have No Place in Football”

Pay Up! $15 in Not A Living Wage in Most of the Country

Throughout the nation, the call for a $15 minimum wage is rightfully gaining momentum and – if enacted – would lift millions of low-wage workers from struggle to stability. While detractors suggest the wage is too high, a new report by the Alliance for a Just Society released today shows that $15 is really a modest demand.Continue reading “Pay Up! $15 in Not A Living Wage in Most of the Country”

Let’s Block Too-Big-To-Fail Insurance Mergers

By LeeAnn Hall and Wendell Potter This article was originally published in Roll Call. If you thought too-big-to-fail banks were dangerous, watch out for too-big-to-fail health insurance companies. This summer, the country’s top insurers announced a spate of merger plans, lighting up the business pages nationwide. Health insurance giant Anthem unveiled its intention to absorbContinue reading “Let’s Block Too-Big-To-Fail Insurance Mergers”

Health Insurance Is Great – Navigators Needed to Help People Use It

This spring, Adriann Barboa and her colleagues at Strong Families New Mexico went on a five-county tour, fanning out across the state to share findings from the Breaking Barriers study they’d conducted on progress under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The report is part of a ten-state series by the Alliance for a Just Society.Continue reading “Health Insurance Is Great – Navigators Needed to Help People Use It”

Price-Gouging AIDS & Cancer Patients? By-Product of a Broken System

Martin Shkreli wants you to swallow his bitter pill — and to thank him for making you pay $750 for it. For 62 years, the drug Daraprim has been the standard method to treat parasitic infections that are particularly life-threatening to AIDS and cancer patients. It was relatively affordable — though low-income patients might take issue with calling an $18 pill “affordable” —Continue reading “Price-Gouging AIDS & Cancer Patients? By-Product of a Broken System”

Student Debt: Study Up Before You Sign Up

It’s that time of year again. Students nationwide are heading back to college and signing fresh promissory notes for financial aid. I am one of them. Many of us will mourn the loss of the summer sun while we simultaneously anticipate carving pumpkins and the smell of fallen leaves. As our quest for knowledge continuesContinue reading “Student Debt: Study Up Before You Sign Up”

Collective Bargaining is a Valuable Tool for Workers to Make Ends Meet

Working full-time should allow workers to make ends meet; instead, many workers across the country continue to be paid wages that leave them living paycheck-to-paycheck. As we’ve shown in our Job Gap Economic Prosperity Series since 1999, a living wage is well above the minimum wage that too many workers are paid. Our recent report,Continue reading “Collective Bargaining is a Valuable Tool for Workers to Make Ends Meet”

Healthy School Lunches Lay the Foundation for Better Learning

What’s on your child’s school lunch tray today? Parents nationwide believe it’s important for schools to serve nutritious food and healthy meals to students. A new national survey by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation  shows that people in the United States overwhelmingly support current efforts to keep school meals healthy. The survey results come just asContinue reading “Healthy School Lunches Lay the Foundation for Better Learning”

Learning in the Streets

Building strength in numbers. Developing grassroots leaders. Raising independent money. Mapping power relationships. These are some of the key ingredients that go into building powerful community organizations that can win transformative change – which is why they’re core elements of the Alliance’s flagship Four-Day Organizer Training. Our training team has been leading the Four-Day programContinue reading “Learning in the Streets”

Racial Segregation: Righting the Wrong and Making Restitution

At a time in history when crime continues to decline, same-sex marriage is legal, and innovation is powering advances in technology and bioengineering – one issue fails to progress: racial justice. The unemployment rate for African-Americans continues to be more than twice that of whites. Public schools are more segregated now than they were inContinue reading “Racial Segregation: Righting the Wrong and Making Restitution”