SPRING 2019
ISSUE 01
SPECIAL FEATURE
RHODE ISLAND
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Editors’ Note As college students, our days are cluttered with classes, extracurriculars, and social commitments. Rarely do we have a moment to step back and spend time in our own backyards. At Brown, however, we are surrounded by incredibly vibrant communities: The Providence metro area and State of Rhode Island are famous for their rich culture and history. In this issue of Brown Political Review, we examine some of that wealth as we investigate the political, social, and economic changes happening around us. In 1776, Rhode Island became the first sovereign US state when it declared independence from Britain. Today, despite being the smallest state, Rhode Island still plays a key role in US affairs. Even as it grapples with new challenges and crossroads, the Ocean State continues to make headlines for its innovative leadership. In this issue, our writers explore a few of these changes. Olivia George writes about Rhode Island’s progressive new practices that aim to treat, instead of criminalize, drug addiction in prisons. Austin Rose looks to a new Minneapolis urban development plan as a potential model for Providence zoning reform. Naomy Pedroza brings light to how out-of-school suspension policies reinforce Rhode Island’s school-to-prison pipeline, emphasizing the need for alternative practices. Morgan Awner calls for a new civic curriculum in Providence classrooms, one that will empower students by educating them about their constitutional rights. Many of us came to college inspired to take political action. But being politically involved means more than just following recent elections or court hearings: It means learning about local injustices and investing in the neighborhoods beyond College Hill. Although it may seem to be a difficult journey — one that requires that we reconcile our phenomenal privilege as Brown students with the striking inequalities present in Providence — it is well worth the effort.
Ashley & Olivia
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population
1,054,459 $255k
households
410,240
median single family home price in Rhode Island*
median household income
$58,387
Rhode Island Housing Crisis
$74,025
the burden of RI housing climbing housing costs & lack of new homes has left 145,000 households cost burdened a household is cost burdened if it spends more than 30% of its annual income on housing costs
*between 2016 and 2017, Rhode Island experienced a 7% increase in home sale price, exceeding the national growth rate of 6.3%
which is 35% of households statewide
such an increase in home values is a sign of an unhealthy vacancy rate. Low vacancy rates increase competition in the market, inflate home prices, and push moderate to lowincome homebuyers out
30%
a household is severely cost burdened if it spends more than 50% of its annual income on housing costs
50%
of the 145,000 cost burdened households, 44% are severely cost burdened
high housing costs make it difficult for low-income families to save money, afford healthcare costs, and invest in education
housing affordability in 2017, the number of affordable RI municipalities shrank significantly
Central Falls is now the only municipality where a household with an annual income of $50,000 can afford to buy a home
there are now no municipalities where the median renter income of $31,519 is sufficient to afford an average two bedroom apartment without being cost burdened
?
as of 2016, 51% of renter households in RI were cost burdened an increase of 38% since 2000
38%
increase
homeownership rates
(nationwide)
non-profit advocacy group, Prosperity Now gives Rhode Island an
F
(nationwide)
white households
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51%
RI’s struggling urban neighborhoods were disproportionately targeted for predatory lending during the mid-2000s housing boom
44%
Rhode Island homeownership rates (statewide)
in 2000
in housing and homeownership
households of color
71%
37%
by 2016
Rhode Island ranks dead last in non-white homeownership in all 50 states
US homeownership rates white households
income needed to afford this
households of color
66%
(statewide)
29%
those same neighborhoods were most severely impacted by the foreclosure crisis in 2008, and have yet to fully recover
MASTHEAD EXECUTIVE BOARD
COPY EDIT
UNITED STATES
MEDIA
EDITORS IN CHIEF Ashley Chen Olivia Nash
( continued )
( continued )
Michael Power Achutha Srinivasan Jason Tang Gabriela Tenorio Huayu Wang Amelia Wyckoff Rachel Yan Megan Zhang
Sara Jacobsen Cynthia Lu Alex Reice Jackson Segal Andrew Steinberg Lucia Winton
MEDIA DIRECTORS Luke Landis Selene Luna
INTERVIEWS
SECTION MANAGERS Dhruv Gaur Sean Joyce Chris Kobel Zoë Mermelstein
CHIEFS OF STAFF Jeremy Rhee Marianna Scott CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Owen Colby SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR Mary Dong CHIEF COPY EDITORS Namsai Sethpornpong Brendan Sweeney INTERVIEWS DIRECTORS Charlie Saperstein SENIOR MANAGING WEB EDITORS Simran Nayak Carter Woodruff DATA DIRECTOR Julia Gilman MARKETING, OPERATIONS & BUSINESS DIRECTOR Max Alweiss CREATIVE DIRECTOR Klara Auerbach MEDIA DIRECTORS Luke Landis Selene Luna PODCAST DIRECTOR Emily Skahill COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT DIRECTOR Brendan Pierce WEB DIRECTOR Raymond Cao
EDITORIAL SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR Mary Dong MANAGING EDITORS Emma Blake Uwa Ede-Osifo Peter Lees ASSOCIATE EDITORS Johanna Bandler Zander Blitzer Aidan Calvelli Hyun Choi Noah Cowan Blaise Rebman Jason Togut Maia Vasaturo-Kolodner Leticia Wood
INTERVIEWS DIRECTORS Charlie Saperstein ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Jack Doughty INTERVIEWS ASSOCIATES Sai Alli Jordan Allums Grace Banfield Breanna Cadena Tiffany Chen Peter Deegan Alex Leake Glenn Yu CONTENT SENIOR MANAGING WEB EDITORS Simran Nayak Carter Woodruff
STAFF WRITERS Karina Bao Josh Baum Isabelle Belleza Amelia Cao Anchita Dasgupta Natalie Fredman Quinton Huang Leonardo Moraveg Basit Muhammadi Loughlin Neuert Jack Otero Ye Chan Song Cameron Tripp Lucien Turczan-Lipets Alexandra Wells
CULTURE SECTION MANAGERS Kate Dario Hugh Klein Maddy Noh Erika Undeland STAFF WRITERS Regina Caggiano Elana Confino-Pinzon Christina Ge Michaela Kennedy-Cuomo Kavya Nayak Mira Ortegon Ava Rosebaum Jamie Smith Tolulope Sogade Daniel Steinfeld Alex Vaughan Williams Dorothy Margit Windham Shady Yassin
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CHIEF COPY EDITORS Namsai Sethpornpong Brendan Sweeney
SECTION MANAGERS AJ Braverman Nicholas Lindseth Brendan Pierce Cartie Werthman ASSOCIATE SECTION MANAGERS Ellie Papapanou Emily Skahill
COPY EDITORS Caleigh Aviv Alicia Bracco Samuel Calagione Karina Chavarria Patrick Gilfillan Joseph Hinton Celeste Kelley Christopher Lewis Catherine McClenahan Malini Naidu Eliza Namnoum Julia Pew
STAFF WRITERS Luke Angelillo Morgan Awner Matthew Bailey Roxanne Barnes Molly Cook Rocket Drew Brionne Frazier Rachel Fuller Indigo Funk Ricardo Gomez Lydia Gulick Jonathan Huang
COPY EDIT
WORLD
DATA DATA DIRECTOR Julia Gilman ASSOCIATE DATA DIRECTOR Zachary Horvitz DATA EDITOR Angie Kim CHIEF PLATFORM ARCHITECT Benjamin Gershuny DATA ASSOCIATES Prakrit Baruah Erika Bussmann Sophia Chen Sarah Conlisk Ari Goldbloom-Helzner John Graves Catherine Habgood Peter Kelly Bilal Memon Huayu Ouyang Kyle Qian Emilia Ruzicka Aansh Shah Andrew Wei
MEDIA ASSOCIATES Clara Devine-Golub Nicholas Fuchs Antonia Huth Jenna Israel Elliot Lehrer Olivia Rosenbloom Maya Smith Yashi Wang
PODCAST EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Emily Skahill PODCAST ASSOCIATES Isabelle Belleza Aidan Calvelli Kia Cating Noah Cowan Kate Dario Bella Hoang Jack Kates Tobi Lepecki Rachel Lim Moses Lurbur Ali Martinez Henry Peebles-Capin Isabel Tejera
CREATIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Klara Auerbach DESIGN DIRECTOR Gabrielle Widjaja DESIGNER Catherine Park ASSISTANT ART DIRECTORS Sabrina Futch Jeff Katz Katie Kwak Molly Young Stephanie Wu COVER ARTIST Eileen Holland ILLUSTRATORS Julie Benbassat Liam Archibald Maddie Brewer Xuan Liu Emma Yang Jonathan Muroya Jiani Yu Cat Huang Cecile Kim Katie Kwak
MARKETING, OPERATIONS & BUSINESS
WEB DEVELOPMENT
MARKETING DIRECTOR Max Alweiss
LEAD WEB DEVELOPER Raymond Cao
SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Maria Hornbacher
ASSISTANT WEB DEVELOPERS Yusuf Karim Sam Wilkins
MOB ASSOCIATES Auden Elliot Julia Hondros Stephanie Kendler Ethan Kuhl Karolyn Lee Walliam Pate Calista Shang
DEVELOPER Stanley Yip
TABLE of CONTENTS 3 Editor’s Note 4 Rhode Island Housing Crisis: Creative Feature 5 Masthead UNITED STATES
8 Racing Against Time Zander Blitzer
12 Stepping Up Ricardo Gomez
14 Interview with Carla DeStefano Glenn Yu
15 Revamping Consent Decrees Noah Cowan
17 Interview with Kenneth Wong Olivia George
18 No Taxation With Expatriation Hyun Choi
SPECIAL FEATURE: RHODE ISLAND
22 The Rhode to Recovery Olivia George
25 Interview with Kevin Reich Jordan Allums
26 Taking the Lead Morgan Awner
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30 Suspension Intervention Naomy Pedroza
33 Interview with Cathy Doyle Grace Banfield
34 Danger Zone Austin Rose
WORLD
38 Joke Like An Egyptian Chris Kobel
40 Be Careful What You Vouch For Johanna Bandler
43 Interview with June Speakman Alex Leake
44 Bad Refugees and Recalcitrant Countries Quinton Huang
46 Interview with Rosemarie Martin Sai Allu
47 Tough Days Ahead Mia Stone-Molloy
50 Interview with Nick Benson Alex Leake
51 What’s Going On At BPR? 52 DATA FEATURE: Keepin’ It Brief Erika Bussmann
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UNITED STATES
UNITED STATES
Racing Against Time The paradoxical relationship between ski resorts and climate change
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Ski resorts, which are simultaneously damaging to and damaged by the current environmental situation, will soon rely heavily on decisive environmental action to keep their business economically and physically viable.�
For many, the winter months mean more than holidays and spending time with family: breaks from work or school are often associated with a long-awaited trip to the slopes. Skiing has become an important tradition for those looking to escape the bustling city streets of their busy everyday lives. However, this beloved recreational activity could soon be a relic of the past, thanks to the far-reaching effects of global warming. Ski resorts are likely the last place one would think of when considering the pernicious effects of global warming. However, ski resorts see the roots and implications of climate change. The economic life of resorts is inextricably linked to global environmental conditions, and resorts themselves contribute to the very global warming that harms their business. Ski resorts, which are simultaneously damaging to and damaged by the current environmental situation, will soon rely heavily on decisive environmental action to keep their business economically and physically viable. Resort owners must be cognizant of this problem and continue working to increase sustainability on the slopes.
Climate change affects ski resorts in a number of ways. To be most profitable, ski resorts strive to offer the longest ski season possible as the number of skiers on the mountain and the length of their trips directly correlate to a net rise in profits. Unfortunately for resort owners, a recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report estimates that resorts in popular ski areas such as Colorado could see their seasons shortened by 10 to 50 percent by 2050. The report also found that some resorts could experience a decrease in season length by as much as 80 percent by 2090. Arapahoe Basin, which has the longest season of any Colorado resort due to favorable weather conditions, may see its season reduced from 7.5 months to just 1.5 months if the most dire projections prove to be true. The shorter season can be attributed to the dwindling snowpack, which is the amount of snow on the ground required for people to ski safely. In recent decades, the EPA reports that snowpack has declined by 20 to 60 percent across most of Colorado. Without sufficient snowpack, a resort may not be able to open as early in the
[SKIING & CLIMATE CHANGE CONT.]
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fall or close as late in the spring. As the trajectory of the global climate issue continues to worsen, resorts will struggle to operate profitably. With resorts in danger, the economic sustainability of the communities in which they exist will also be forced into a precarious situation. Beyond the detrimental impacts on resorts, climate change is also changing the economic futures of the towns, cities, and states in which these resorts operate. Ski vacations place as much value on the resort experience—lodging, shopping, and dining—as they do on the actual skiing. Some resorts have capitalized on this by purchasing some of the retail and dining services around the mountain. For instance, Vail Resorts earns only 46 percent of its revenue from lift tickets,
raking in most of its profits on ski schools, dining, and retail. In addition, there are just as many independent businesses that rely on the heavy traffic of skiers to keep their businesses afloat. Vail Village, the shopping area at the foot of the Vail mountains, boasts a wide variety of ski shops, boutiques, art galleries, and candy shops that are all financially dependent on skiers who purchase their products after a long day on the slopes.
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As we inch toward a climate-related tipping point, businesses and governments must work together to diminish greenhouse gas emissions.”
The economic costs of climate change may also impact residents living in and around the ski areas. During low-snow winters, Colorado resorts employ 1,800 fewer people
than during regular seasons since fewer skiers flock to the resorts. As the planet warms, low-snow winters are expected to become the norm. This would result in lower revenues and higher unemployment, affecting not only individual incomes but also taxes collected by local, state, and federal governments. On a larger scale, federal and state governments rely on ski resorts to keep tourism revenue high. In 2010, the snowiest winter in the past decade, ski-related employees alone contributed $2.2 billion to Colorado’s economy. During low snow winters, Colorado saw a revenue drop of $1.07 billion and 6 to 13 percent decrease in employment. As ski resorts are adversely affected by climate change, they simultaneously contribute to warming climates. Snowmaking is often
US RACING AGAINST TIME
touted as the solution to decreased snowfall. If not enough snow falls from the sky, resorts can easily make up for it by using water and freezing mechanisms to supplement natural snow. Snowmaking, however, is an unsustainable solution that comes with a slew of environmental problems. Snowmakers are costly when it comes to water use: In order to cover about an acre in six inches of snow, these machines require 75,000 gallons of water. Considering the 5,289 acres of Vail terrain that will likely require snowmaking given the trajectory of climate change, it becomes easy to recognize the potential strain of snowmakers on the environment. Apart from wasting water, the ski resort industry also contributes to climate change through its expansionist agenda. Infamously, in 2000, Vail Resorts added a third face to their main mountain. The new area, called Blue Sky Basin, had previously been identified as a potential habitat for the reintroduction of the Canada Lynx, which had disappeared from the area in the 1970s. It is no wonder that environmentalists reacted to the expansion with vehement opposition—a radical environmental group called the Earth Liberation
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Front set fire to one of Vail’s on-mountain restaurants as well as several lifts in 1998 to protest the construction of Blue Sky Basin. In addition to harming wildlife, resort expansion also leads to deforestation since developers cut down scores of trees to make mountainous area more skiable. It is important to recognize that ski resorts, despite their detrimental environmental impacts, rely on a healthy planet for continued operation. As such, resorts have both an incentive and a responsibility to preserve the natural world. Encouragingly, some resorts are taking steps to neutralize their environmental impact and work toward a more sustainable future. Protect Our Winters (POW), an environmental advocacy group centered around maintaining low temperatures needed to maintain snowpack, has partnered with many major resorts including Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin and Aspen Snowmass. To support POW, these resorts are standing behind lobbying efforts that work to create more environmental accountability and slow the rate of global warming. Other resorts have developed their own sustainability goals. In 2017, Vail Resorts unveiled their ‘EpicPromise,’ which commits the
Ski resorts, despite their detrimental environmental impacts, rely on a healthy planet for continued operation. As such, resorts have both an opportunity and a responsibility to preserve the natural world.”
company to zero net emissions, landfill waste, and net operating impact on surrounding habitats by 2030. Though these plans are ambitious, Vail has been making progress already by restoring acres of forest, investing in renewable energy and more efficient snowmaking, and switching to LED lighting. As more resorts commit to curtailing their environmental effects, other industries could potentially follow suit, leading to a positive ripple effect. The federal government is slow to take decisive action against climate change, so private companies must work to diminish the country’s greenhouse gas emissions—potentially to even reach the levels agreed upon in the Paris Agreement—despite the lack of federal policy support. The longevity of ski resorts may not seem dire right now, but the effects of climate change are omnipresent. As we inch toward a climate-related tipping point, businesses and governments must work together to diminish greenhouse gas emissions. On that front, they can look to ski resorts, which are already trying to soften their own environmental impacts. Change will always be slow, but an earnest effort is vital to ensure that our beloved ski resorts are still around in the near future.
AUTHOR Zander Blitzer ’22 is a prospective History and Political Science concentrator and a US Staff Writer and Associate Editor at BPR. ILLUSTRATOR Liam Archibald
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US STEPPING UP
UNITED STATES
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Compared to foot voters, citizens voting at ballot boxes are less likely to reap political benefits from civic participation while expending the same amount of energy acquiring political knowledge.”
STEPPING A case for UP foot voting After taking control of the House in November, Democrats prioritized voting reform with the introduction of H.R. 1. The bill represents Democrats’ attempt to follow through on their espoused commitment to fixing American democracy by making it easier for citizens to cast their ballots.
For too long, strategies for increasing democratic participation have focused solely on standard ballot box voting, but these votes are just one way for individuals to express their political choice. Other models of political expression offer more direct ways of voicing political preferences.
Key components of the bill include early voting, same-day voter registration, and online voter registration, all intended to boost voter turnout and re-enfranchise Americans. But what if these measures don’t actually lead to higher turnout? Between 2000 and 2014, early voting jumped from 14 to 31.2 percent of national voting. However, during this same period, the US Elections Project saw presidential turnout rates increase only by a few percentage points.
The most compelling of these alternative models is ‘foot voting.’ Professor Ilya Somin of George Mason University describes foot voting as “a tool for enhancing political freedom: the ability of the people to choose the political regime under which they wish to live.” Foot voters move to jurisdictions that they find favorable instead of hoping that their ballot box vote will translate into policy reform.
Recent studies examining the relationship between early voting measures and increased turnout have shown that there is little correlation between the two. This holds true for midterm turnout rates as well, suggesting that there are other factors at play in the disconnect between citizens and government.
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The most important difference between ballot box voting and foot voting is that the latter has a much higher likelihood of creating change for the voter. With ballot box voting, a vote only offers a small chance for change—the natural result of a large body of voters. An individual casting a single vote in the midst of millions of others is less likely to see their
US STEPPING UP
foot voting in america How does foot voting work?
X strongly believes that smaller class sizes are important for their children
They know their ballot box vote is unlikely to influence the school board
X chooses to move to a new school district with small class sizes and policies that align with their political preference
X finds that a neighboring community has just passed a measure lowering class size
desired policies in place than someone who chooses to move to a place that already reflects their political preferences. The current ballot box system also does not properly incentivize citizens to learn more about their political systems. Compared to foot voters, citizens voting at ballot boxes are less likely to reap political benefits from civic participation while expending the same amount of energy acquiring political knowledge. Thus, citizens become less inclined to learn about policy because they feel they cannot affect it. Foot voting, by comparison, provides a direct means for voters to live in a system that reflects their political preferences. Thus, a citizen is strongly incentivized to acquire political knowledge; the more effort they put into acquiring such information, the better informed their foot vote—that is, their choice of where to live—will be. Not only does foot voting provide a more direct pathway for citizens to affect outcomes, but it also values
a citizen’s efforts to make more informed decisions. In order to encourage and maximize the benefits of foot voting, it is critical for metropolitan areas to politicall decentralize. This ensures that citizens can move to jurisdictions that exercise localized governance, unrestricted by higher centralized authority. If local governments are granted more autonomy and power, citizens would have the opportunity to move to any one of many different jurisdictions in order to create positive political outcomes for themselves. Although high moving costs are often cited as a deterrent to foot voting, Americans already move at the local level quite frequently, according to analysis based on Census Bureau data. Localized encouragement of foot voting would thus provide immense political benefits and align with existing trends that mitigate the costs of moving. Of course, the argument here does not suggest that all decisions
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X researches other school districts and comes up with a wide range of options
X also analyzes other locations based on their other policy beliefs in order to attempt to make the best political decision for X’s family
Not only does foot voting provide a more direct pathway for citizens to affect outcomes, but it also values a citizen’s efforts to make more informed decisions.” should be made by foot voting or that all political power should be decentralized. The ballot box will likely remain an effective tool for policy making within the scope of empowered metropolitan jurisdictions. Ultimately, foot voting enhances political choice: Its undervalued advantages justify greater political decentralization as a means of encouraging political expression. If Americans want to increase their political freedom, they should reevaluate the power of their ballot box vote and consider getting their foot out the door.
AUTHOR Ricardo Gomez ’22 is a Political Science and Comparative Literature concentrator and US Staff Writer at BPR. INFOGRAPHIC Cathy Park
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INTERVIEW CARLA DESTEFANO
Interview with
Carla DeStefano Carla DeStefano is the Executive Director of Stop Wasting Abandoned Property Inc. (SWAP), a nonprofit organization that seeks to provide affordable housing opportunities to persons of low and moderate incomes and revitalize urban neighborhoods. How did SWAP Inc. come into being? SWAP was founded in 1975 by a pioneering group of neighbors who came together to reverse the blight that Providence suffered during the 1960s and 1970s as urban unrest moved across the country. Instead of attempting to reverse the blight by demolishing homes, part of the group broke away and formed the organization Stop Wasting Abandoned Property (SWAP). As people left the city and more and more houses were abandoned, SWAP’s first initiative was to establish the “homesteader” program, matching urban pioneers with homes that needed revitalizing. There are 1,200 or so of these houses scattered around the Providence neighborhoods from this era.
So what role do you play in the provision of affordable housing today? Working with multiple partners including State and City public agencies, SWAP competes for funding to support the development of affordable housing. SWAP now builds new buildings, renovates foreclosed properties, and restores historic houses.
Why have you moved to mixed-use and commercial spaces? Neighborhoods are not just about housing. It’s about everything from a barbershop to a hairdresser to a dry cleaner to restaurants. Having a combination of spaces is an urban strategy to create housing and build lively communities.
What trends do you see occurring in the world of affordable housing? The cost of housing is escalating throughout the country. There are many factors: zoning, density, cost of materials, and Nimbyism, to name a few. Because of the lack of supply of skilled labor, we often have to compete with for-profit developers for single builders. Since we’re serving an entry-level
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housing market with the intention that people can afford these houses, the budget becomes a real challenge. We’re using the same materials as for-profit developers but we can only charge so much. Consequently, very few developers in the region are developing entry-level homeownership.
What are your thoughts on the $19 million dollar tax break the City Council recently granted to luxury apartment development near Brown’s campus? We do not have enough housing. Currently, the supply is low, the demand is high, and prices are escalating. Development is better than no development. People need a place to live. If they are priced out of one area, they’ll seek housing elsewhere. The natural progression of this is a vicious cycle of housing price increases. Providence’s abundance of colleges and universities puts additional pressure on the housing supply. Building more housing for students is not a bad thing. Presumably, it could actually make more housing available in the marketplace for non–students. We cannot just talk about affordable housing, we need to create it, and we need to be thinking outside the box and advocating for change. In order to build our economy, we have to prove that we can provide housing that will be affordable to the people building their lives here.
INTERVIEW BY Glenn Yu ’20 ILLUSTRATOR Julie Benbassat
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impactful, areas—in this case, music regulation.
Revamping Consent Decrees Congress gets it right on music rights Vampire Weekend is back. And for every pretentious twenty-something who likes alluding to Brideshead Revisited and sleeping with a copy of In Search of Lost Time, life just became all the more exciting. But the band’s first release after a six-year hiatus will enter a different music environment than albums past: Recent reforms to policies governing the music industry have just passed through Congress and are being
considered by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Music regulation may not be sexy, but these reforms could have a huge effect on how we stream and consume music. Though US policymakers are often criticized for their sluggish response to hefty issues such as climate change and immigration, it is important to recognize the meaningful work the government is putting into smaller, yet still
“Music regulation may not be sexy, but these reforms could have a huge effect on how we stream and consume music.”
Currently, the music industry is dominated by duopolies and triopolies: Spotify and Apple Music for consumption; Live Nation and its smaller competitor AEG for live event ticketing; and Sony, Universal, and Warner for publishing. But perhaps the most influential of the musical duopolies is in licensing, between the two main Performance Rights Organizations (PROs): The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI). These two licensing powerhouses are incredibly powerful. Every track produced in the United States is subject to two distinct copyrights: recording and composition. Each of these copyrights is owned by multiple parties, so it would be a logistical nightmare if everyone who wanted to play different tracks
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US REVAMPING CONSENT DECREES
had to negotiate with each individual copyright owner. Enter the PROs. These companies sell music in blanket licensing agreements, which give restaurants, coffee shops, and everyone who wants to play music legal access to many different songs without the struggle of negotiating individually. Unfortunately, this setup naturally leads to an anti-competitive market. Whoever owns the largest number of songs can offer the largest blanket license and is thus the most favorable choice for consumers. Imagine if one PRO only had access to Contra, while another one had access to all three—soon to be four—of Vampire Weekend’s spectacular albums. One would obviously pick the PRO that lets you listen to “Diane Young,” “Mansard Roof,” and “Giving Up the Gun” all under one license. Knowing this, the big PROs could gouge consumers with high prices, depriving listeners of cheap, accessible music. This has major repercussions on music consumption because Vampire Weekend should be, above all, accessible. In 1941, to prevent this cacophonous scenario, the DOJ sued ASCAP and BMI, forcing them to agree to “consent decrees.” These settlements provide a floor of protection for consumers, mandating that the two PROs agree not to discriminate between consumers or abuse their market power. That is a noble goal, one in tune with both consumer protection and the principles of free competition. Since their introduction in 1941, these consent decrees have been amended a few times but still retain the same basic structure. But after 80 years, policymakers are beginning to think that these agreements are outdated and should be eliminated. Among them is Makan Delrahim, the Assistant
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“The Music Modernization act is a reminder that despite the intense polarization that mires us in gridlock over hotbutton issues, the legislators we elect to write the laws sometimes do just that.”
Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice. In March 2018, Delrahim sent soundwaves through the music world when he suggested the DOJ would soon phase out these consent decrees. Although there is certainly an argument for updating these consent decrees, phasing them out completely is a misguided approach. Despite being so old that Artie Shaw and his orchestra topped the charts when they were enacted, the consent decrees ensure a fair and accessible market for all music consumers. Without the decrees, the PROs could bully smaller venues and small businesses who want to play music into paying higher prices. They could also more easily force music creators to take smaller royalty percentages on their music, or leave them with no choice but to negotiate individually with people who wish to purchase their music. Luckily, Congress has no aversion to old age—the average Senator is 61—and has recognized the importance of the consent decrees in their recent omnibus music bill, the Music Modernization Act. This bill mandates congressional oversight of any DOJ action regarding the consent decrees. The goal is simple: to stop the DOJ from upending a policy that has facilitated the success of American music. In addition to imposing checks and balances on the DOJ, the Music Modernization Act also reforms the music industry beyond protecting consent decrees. It updates the way that royalties for music streamed online are paid out, creates partnerships between publishers for online licensing, and gets rid of the bureaucratic hassle of sending Notices of Intention by mail each time someone wants to share a song.
So far, none of the 2020 presidential candidates have proclaimed the Act as the solution to America’s problems. But not everything government does has to be world-altering. We should laud Congress for any step it takes to improve people’s lives, whether or not it will make front page news. In fact, that’s what Congress—the body tasked with regulatory oversight—should be doing regularly. The Music Modernization Act is a reminder that despite the intense polarization that mires us in gridlock over hot-button issues, the legislators we elect to write the laws sometimes do just that. Sentiments toward Congress may be mixed, but everyone loves music. The American people would do well to appreciate how the former enables our enjoyment of the latter. So now, when you are listening to “Harmony Hall” on Spotify and reflecting on how a six-year hiatus from the ones we love can heighten our appreciation for them, carve out some time to stop your head-bobbing and acknowledge the members of Congress who wrote a law bringing music into the 21st century. Thanks to a legislative process that often works when we get beyond the vitriol of partisan politics, you won’t have to wait until 2021 to think about musical licensing.
AUTHOR Noah Cowan ‘19 is a Chemical Physics concentrator and an Associate Editor at BPR. ILLUSTRATOR Maddie Brewer
INTERVIEW KENNETH WONG
Interview with
Kenneth Wong Kenneth Wong is the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair for Education Policy, a Professor of International and Public Affairs, and a Professor of Political Science at Brown University. His research focuses on the politics of education, urban school systems, policy innovation, and federalism. He has advised the US Congress, the US Secretaries of Education and the Interior, and numerous state legislatures. In January 2019, Professor Wong was named in the 2019 Rick Hess Straight Up Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, which lists the most influential university scholars in educational practice and policy.
In October 2018, the US Department of Education awarded the Rhode Island Department of Education a $2.5 million grant. How might the money be spent to overcome the use of out-ofschool suspensions and encourage alternative teacher responses to student “disobedience”? We have to think about teachers as coaches rather than people who just transmit knowledge. We need to provide teachers with the resources they require to work closely with students and understand their needs. I think the broader approach here is to let us look at the student first. Let us think about what kind of support the student needs in an urban, inner-city neighborhood. My hope is that the grant money should, in part, go towards building the network of social and emotional support available to students as they progress through childhood and into adulthood. I think this also links to the broader question of teacher accountability. Traditionally, we would only hold schools or teachers accountable for students’ test scores. This is, of course, reductive to the school experience. We need to champion the development of a school culture that is mindful of the holistic development of students.
As reported by the ACLU of Rhode Island, during the 2013-2014 school year, students of color in Rhode Island were suspended at the highest rate in a decade, while white students were suspended at the lowest rate. Considering that, in the Providence district specifically, 9 percent of students are white but some 80 percent of teachers are white, how might we foster more equitable student-teacher interactions? The statistics are unacceptable. Given the gap in racial demographics between the teaching force and the students they are serving, there are some very important policy considerations. For example, culturally responsive teaching is critical. We must equip our teachers with the tools and understanding necessary to support an increasingly diverse student body. Moreover, we need to encourage alternative means of disciplinary action. Some Rhode Island schools have introduced restorative justice as a means of resolving
student conflict, which is important. We must create opportunities for enhancing both student-to-student understanding and teacher-to-student understanding. In doing so, we can gradually foster a more productive, supportive atmosphere for students and teachers alike.
Last December, Secretary of Education Devos justified the rescinding of Obama-era guidance intended to reduce racial discrimination in school discipline by affirming that “teachers and local school leaders deserve and need autonomy.” Is there a balance to be found between local autonomy and equitable schools nationwide? This is a complicated issue because education in this country is decentralized. DeVos is pushing for the Federalist viewpoint that education is a responsibility which ought to remain at the state level. But over the last 60 years or so, we have continually affirmed the unique responsibility of the federal government to ensure civil rights. I am of the opinion that because of the vast state-to-state disparities we see in American schools—in class size, teaching quality, resources and extra-curricular activities—federal intervention in schools is justified because the civil rights of students who attend these inequitable schools are being infringed upon.
As Chair for Education Policy at Brown, what sense of duty does the department have to the Providence public school district and Rhode Island education legislation more broadly? It is vital that we continually ask ourselves how we can leverage our research knowledge and expertise to help solve and improve the system around us. I have worked closely with Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza and organizations across the city to do just that. We need to connect with the larger concerns, beyond College Hill. Students and faculty alike must listen to the voices of their community, and our work is enriched by doing so.
INTERVIEW BY Olivia George ’22 ILLUSTRATOR Julie Benbassat
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UNITED STATES
NO TAXATION WITH EXPATRIATION Forging a new tax policy for nonresident citizens Meet Fabien Lehagre. He moved from California to France at the age of two when his French father and American mother divorced. Now, in his thirties, Lehagre works as a salesman for an oil company in Littany, France. Recently, his bank requested his social security number and asked him to fill out forms for the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). He was dumbfounded: He had not lived in the US since he was a toddler, he had not renewed his US passport since then, and he did not even speak English! Why would he owe taxes to the United States? Lehagre’s story is not unusual. Many countries tax the foreign income of resident citizens. However, only the US taxes the foreign income of nonresident citizens at the same rate as resident citizens. An American working abroad permanently must still file taxes to the IRS every year. Furthermore, under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), US citizens are required to report accounts that contain foreign deposits worth more than $10,000, and foreign banks must report the account information of Americans to the IRS. In essence, American expatriates are often paying taxes to a government from which they receive no direct benefits, unless there is a specific bilateral tax treaty be-
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tween the US and their country of residence. This situation raises an important question: Why does the US tax the foreign income of nonresidents in the first place? To answer this question, we need to first examine the philosophy of taxation itself. In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith posits the following as his first maxim of taxation: “The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.” Indeed, US citizens living abroad do receive consular assistance from their local embassies in emergencies and benefit from visa-free access to many countries granted by a US passport. However, aside from this, they do not receive much protection—or much in other services—from the US government at all. In fact, most countries offer similar small benefits to their citizens living abroad while either not taxing foreign income at all or only taxing the foreign income of residents. One might argue that nonresident citizens do receive some protection from the state, since the US military maintains bases across
the globe. But what then would prevent US military protection from justifying the taxation of every citizen of a country with an American military base? Another major benefit of being a US citizen is having the right to vote in American elections. However, the benefits that nonresident citizens gain by participating in American democracy are minimal at best, as very few of the policies enacted by elected representatives apply to them. Thus, it is illogical to tax non-resident citizens, especially when the protection they enjoy from the American government is only marginally higher than that of any non-US citizen. Even if we consider other potential justifications of taxation, such as the redistribution of income and the reduction of wealth inequality, the US government has neither the mandate nor the authority to tax the income of people who do not live under the direct protection of the American state. Let’s be clear: The US would not lose a huge revenue stream if it were to abolish taxation of foreign nonresident income. IRS statistics show that in fiscal year 2011, $1,091 trillion was raised in individual income taxes. Only $5 billion was from foreign earned income, which includes both res-
US NO TAXATION WITH EXPATRIATION
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Let’s be clear: The US would not lose a huge revenue stream if it were to abolish taxation of foreign nonresident income.”
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Many countries tax the foreign income of resident citizens. However, only the US taxes the foreign income of nonresident citizens at the same rate as resident citizens.”
ident and nonresident income. That is only 0.5 percent of the total individual income tax collected, not to mention the other types of taxes levied by the US such as corporate taxes and customs duties. To put this in perspective, the US spent $691 billion on the Department of Defense alone that year. Abolishing the foreign income taxation of nonresidents might seem like a giveaway to the rich. After all, there are exemptions, such as the foreign earned income exclusion, which allows the expatriate taxpayer to deduct $100,000 from their earned income every year. Additionally, the foreign tax
credit applies to any taxes paid by nonresident US citizens to foreign governments and can eliminate all payments owed to the IRS for citizens living in countries with higher tax rates. Since only affluent nonresidents in countries with low taxation have to pay US taxes after these exemptions, doing away with foreign income taxation might seem to favor wealthy taxpayers residing in tax havens, and it is undeniable that such individuals would indeed benefit from such a change. However, we need to pay more attention to the unjust exploitation of the American tax system at home than to income fairly earned abroad. The revenue derived from taxing affluent nonresident citizens amounts to a minuscule portion of total government revenue.
do not want to take Americans as customers because of the reporting responsibility imposed on them under FATCA. The foreign tax regulation is essentially making US citizenship a burden, rather than a blessing, for expatriates. Why should the young English teacher in China be forced to pay hundreds of dollars to an accountant just so that they can satisfy the IRS? Why should the small business owner in Canada be forced to pay large amounts of their profits in taxes to the US government? Why should the budding entrepreneur in Poland be denied a bank account just because they have an American parent? The US is performing a disservice to Americans abroad by imposing upon them an unnecessary and unjust taxation regime. It is time for us to repeal it.
AUTHOR Hyun Choi ’21 is a Computer Science and Public Policy concentrator and an Associate Editor at BPR. ILLUSTRATOR Xuan Liu
A record number of US citizens have been renouncing their US citizenship because of the tax burden imposed on them, and many banks
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RHODE ISLAND
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The Rhode to Recovery
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Interview with Kevin Reich
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Taking the Lead
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Suspension Intervention
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Interview with Cathy Doyle
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Danger Zone
Olivia George
Morgan Awner
Naomy Pedroza
Austin Rose
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RHODE ISLAND
The Rhode t The Ocean State rethinks addiction treatment behind bars
Although America’s opioid epidemic is already killing formerly incarcerated individuals at staggering rates, prison and jails across the nation continue to fuel the crisis. For decades, we have been told by medical professionals that addiction is a chronic disorder of the brain, yet a seismic disconnect persists between the research of addiction and the physical treatment of addiction, especially in correctional facilities. Despite disproportionately high rates of substance abuse in the criminal justice system, America’s prisons and jails remain frightfully—and often fatally—ill-equipped to provide adequate treatment. Currently, most American correctional institutions “treat” substance use disorders with forced drug withdrawal. Yet research shows that quitting cold turkey fails 90 percent of the time. The lack of effective treatment, coupled with the often insurmountable barriers of post-incarceration reintegration, often leads to recidivism, relapse, and drug overdose, which is the leading cause of death among the recently incarcerated. In fact, a study by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health found the opioid overdose death rate among recently incarcerated individuals to be a startling 129 times higher than the rest of the adult population. Rhode Island has, however, turned a vitally important corner with
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a different—and lifesaving—approach to treating opioid addiction behind bars. Though the opioid epidemic plagues criminal justice systems across the nation, the situation in Rhode Island is particularly dire: The state’s overdose death rate is ranked fifth-highest among the 50 states. In response to this crisis, Governor Gina Raimondo established the Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force in 2015 to study and implement the best policies to reverse the opioid crisis. The task force aims to improve and expand access to opioid addiction medication in the state’s correctional facilities, and it has shown promising progress. Throughout 2016 and 2017, the Rhode Island Department of Corrections (RIDOC) dramatically revised their opioid treatment program, most notably by universally expanding medication-assisted treatment, which has been described as the gold standard of care for patients suffering from opioid use disorder. Medication-assisted treatment, commonly referred to as MAT, pairs rehabilitative therapy with low doses of opioids that either appease cravings without getting the patient high or block opiates from reaching the brain’s receptors. The theory behind the program isn’t new, but Rhode Island’s commitment to its universal implementation sets a precedent for the rest of the nation. Rhode Island is cur-
RHODE ISLAND THE RHODE TO RECOVERY
to Recovery rently the only state that screens every individual who comes into the correctional system for opioid use disorders. It is also the only state that offers counseling and customized daily prescription of methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone—the three types of drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat addiction—for inmates in recovery. “We’re the only state in America that has a state-supported, state-funded, full range of medically assisted treatment in the prisons,” Raimondo proclaimed at the Community Overdose Engagement Summit in Warwick, RI in June of 2018, “[and] it is working.” And she’s right—it is working. Since the program’s introduction, Rhode Island has seen a 61 percent decrease in post-incarceration deaths and a 12 percent reduction in overdose deaths in the state’s general population. A report published in the Journal of American Medical Association in February 2018 posited that the MAT program prevented one overdose death for every 11 inmates treated. Dr. Josiah Rich, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Brown University and director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at the Miriam Hospital in Providence, declared that the “magnitude of that drop in mortality is almost unheard of in public health.” Beyond the state level, the success of Rhode Island’s prison opi-
oid program has been recognized nationally and internationally. The World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse have all approved MAT as an effective means of treating opioid use disorder. Nonetheless, other states have been late in following Rhode Island’s footsteps: As of 2017, only 23 out of the 3,200 jails around the country provided opioid therapy medications to inmates. A 2018 Vox investigation of the role of prisons in fueling the opioid epidemic revealed that 28 states offer no medical treatment to incarcerated people suffering from opioid use disorders. As such, it is estimated that some 80 percent of the nation’s incarcerated population who could benefit from MAT are not receiving it. We now have treatment programs offering dramatic results for current and recently incarcerated people—so why aren’t more corrections facilities using them?
“Despite disproportionately high rates of substance abuse in the criminal justice system, America’s prisons and jails remain frightfully, and often fatally, ill-equipped to provide adequate treatment.” There are several obstacles barring a nation-wide adoption of MAT-like
programs. First is the institutionalized stigmatization of substance use disorder. In America’s prisons and jails, the focus remains on punishment, not treatment. Despite peer-reviewed research recognizing opioid addiction as a chronic disease, many correctional facilities, along with vast swaths of the public, continue to vilify substance use disorder as a moral failing. This explains why correctional staff were initially concerned about bringing opioids into the facility, especially when so many resources are currently focused on keeping contraband opioids out. This concern, however, is easily mitigated. The RIDOC women’s facility, for instance, shifted from pills to strips of Suboxone that melt on the tongue, thus reducing drug distribution and security concerns. Anecdotal evidence has even suggested that the prison market for opioids has dwindled as treatment enrollment increased, further attesting to the success of MAT over traditional opioid crackdown attitudes. Another concern is cost. Rhode Island’s MAT program has an annual budget of $2 million. Although this may seem like a hefty sum, the program ultimately benefits the economy by reducing recidivism rates and improving economic productivity of inmates upon release. One can look to similar, smaller-scale programs in Missouri and Kentucky for successful implementation programs: For every
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RHODE ISLAND THE RHODE TO RECOVERY
dollar spent on opioid treatment programs there, around $4 was saved, respectively. And yet, we must rethink opioid addiction treatment both behind and beyond the metal bars of correctional facilities. Rhode Island’s MAT program is not only a model for other states’ correctional facilities, but it also challenges our current approach to opioid abuse beyond the metal bars of correctional facilities. A report published by the Surgeon General in 2016 revealed that just 10 percent of Americans with drug use disorder obtain specialty treatment for their disease, largely due to shortages in the supply of care. Further research by the Foundation for AIDS Research found that even when substance use disorder treatment is available, fewer than half of facilities offer opioid addiction medication. Correctional facilities across the country fail to support inmates who enter the criminal justice system on MAT then refuse them MAT access during incarceration and release them back into their communities without the resources they need to survive, let alone recover. In order to prevent relapse,
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People suffering from substance abuse disorders must be fundamentally seen as patients, not prisoners. Until that is understood, little will change. patients suffering from opioid use disorder must continue to receive care and support even after they are released from prison, care that must be provided by established programs in the broader community. Rhode Island, once again, has set a leading example: Any incarcerated patient within the RIDOC is linked to a network of dosage centers across the state. As such, upon release, patients can continue to receive their dose within their community with as smooth a transition as possible. Forced withdrawal is just one murky brushstroke on a vast and ugly canvas illustrating the human rights and healthcare crisis which exists at the intersection of addiction, criminal justice, and public health in the United States. Incarcerated Americans, most of whom are people of color from low-income communities, are substantially more likely to suffer from a substance use disorder or mental illness than their non-incarcerated peers. The failure of America’s public health system to provide accessible and routine preventative care to such communities leaves many low-income individuals with substance use disorders without
treatment, funneling them towards the criminal justice system. The RIDOC’s MAT program is being championed as a model for the rest of the country, and rightly so: America’s prisons and jails offer a unique opportunity to care for under-served populations. Even then, expansion of MAT programs is just facet of what must be a multipronged approach in response to substance use disorders and the societal stigma with which they are associated. We must invest in community-based treatment so the criminal justice system does not become the de facto public health provider for low-income communities. People suffering from substance use disorders must be fundamentally seen as patients, not prisoners. Until that is understood, little will change.
AUTHOR Olivia George ’22 is a prospective History and Public Policy concentrator and an Interviews Associate at BPR.
INTERVIEW KEVIN REICH
Interview with
Kevin Reich Council Member Kevin Reich has represented Ward 1 of Minneapolis, Minnesota since he was first elected in 2009. In December 2018, the Minneapolis City Council submitted to the Metropolitan Council a first draft of Minneapolis 2040, a comprehensive zoning plan which proposes goals for growth in the areas of affordable housing, job creation, and transportation, among many others. As a member of the Steering Committee, vice-chair of the Zoning and Planning Committee, and chair of the Transportation and Public Works Committee, Council Member Reich contributed significantly to the drafting of Minneapolis 2040, which is projected to go into effect following the Metropolitan Council’s review of the plan in the first half of 2019. Please give a general overview of Minneapolis 2040 and how you understand the issues that necessitated the plan. It’s an opportunity to look at how Minneapolis is growing. We are a growing city, and there’s been a repopulation of the urban core, particularly in neighborhoods that have a diversified and thriving economy that accelerates population growth. With projected and then accelerated population growth, we wanted to meet those challenges intentionally and grow the city on our terms. We invited a lot of input from the community and various departments, and we focused our growth on transit lines and commercial nodes. We also looked at growth in other suburban parts of the city to allow for duplexes and triplexes.
One initial challenge in creating the plan was that some of the community feedback focused too much on local issues. How do you balance local interests with the overall goals of the plan? We invited so many perspectives that we had to be careful to retain the core focus, which is our land use and transportation. However, we made adjustments based on localized key insights. There were certain corridors with a strong emphasis on transit. Some of the transit quarters look the same if you look at a map. Based on the local insights they could say, ‘well, it might say there’s a bus here, but in fact it only serves us on the weekend.’ Does it really have the same growth potential as one with high frequency every 15 minutes? Our overall plan has the bones to it that bespeak a comprehensive plan, but we have a special notation moving forward for more specific policies.
What are Minneapolis 2040’s next steps? We have to translate policy guidance into specific zoning laws. We have lots of flexibility for areas to have housing, commerce, and even manufacturing more commingled. The challenge is that it’s one thing to say these areas can have mixed land uses, but without a nuanced zoning system in
place and certain measures to address market forces, the market forces might dictate one use over the other.
How will you measure the success of the plan? If 10 years from now we have not created more opportunities for job growth, particularly the kind of jobs that support communities of color, that will be a disappointment. But if the reverse is true and we’ve achieved a growing range of housing options for different income levels, we get a transit system that supports the most vulnerable users, and we are growing a city that supports the kinds of jobs where people can make things, then we’ve accomplished something.
What advice would you have for Providence? Believe in the system. Engagement causes tension points, but if you trust the public, they can move forward. The lesson learned here is that we were actually able to achieve consensus. This isn’t the magic plan—it’s just a framework. Also, try not to let one or two things turn into a battle royale between the community and the city, or between communities that have different ideas. Finally, what are the actual conditions in Providence? Is there population growth? If no, do you want it or not? Certain things follow from those fundamental questions.
INTERVIEW BY Jordan Allums ’21 ILLUSTRATOR Julie Benbassat
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RHODE ISLAND
Taking The Lead A student-centered push for civic education in Rhode Island
A group of Providence students and parents just made national news by suing Rhode Island. They allege that the state’s failure to provide civic education in public schools violates students’ constitutional rights—by failing to educate students about their rights, Providence public schools prevent students from exercising them. Regardless of how the legal arguments in Cook v. Raimondo are resolved, one thing is clear: Rhode Island’s civic education is woefully inadequate. Some claim that core subjects such as math and reading should be prioritized over civics, considering the state’s struggles in those areas. Such an argument misses the point. A comprehensive civic education can empower students to better advocate for, and ultimately improve, their own educational environments; for this reason, the Rhode Island education system should prioritize civic education. The current state of civic education is bleak. Though Rhode Island considers itself to be one of the birthplaces of American democracy, the state lacks a civic education requirement. In 2014, only 23 percent of American eighth-graders were proficient in civics, according
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to the National Assessment for Educational Progress. This lack of proficiency can be partially attributed to the widespread belief that civic education is nothing more than rote memorization, reciting the Constitution, and learning the three branches of government. However, civics, at its best, is about more than just facts: It can teach students how to take agency in their schools and in their communities. With this knowledge, students would be empowered to reinvigorate the education system—a fix Rhode Island could certainly use. Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress demonstrate RI’s underperformance compared to its New England peers: The state trailed Massachusetts by 20 points in eighth grade math scores and saw an overall 27-point achievement gap between white and Black students. Such examples of extreme educational disparity highlight the need for ambitious change. The survivors of the Parkland school shooting have demonstrated how civic education can translate into effective student agency. These students are consistently
RHODE ISLAND TAKING THE LEAD
“Rhode Island needs a comprehensive civic education curriculum focused on building practical community engagement skills that students can put to work in their own schools.”
lauded for their passion, political activism, and powerfully articulated message. Uncoincidentally, they also benefit from the most robust state-sponsored civic engagement curriculum in the country. The Florida curriculum encourages community service as an opportunity for students to apply their learning outside of the classroom. The success of the Parkland student movement demonstrates that students are willing and able to
push for democratic change—when they are given the tools to do so. Rhode Island, too, has seen examples of successful student activism. The Providence Student Union (PSU), an organization led by local Providence high school students, aims to build leadership skills by advocating for students’ rights. They recently led a campaign during which the PSU organized rallies, community meetings, and
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RHODE ISLAND TAKING THE LEAD
curriculum planning to create the first Ethnic Studies class in five high schools in 2016. These schools are mostly comprised of students of color, but their history curricula barely reference minority narratives. The addition of Ethnic Studies courses, a feat accomplished by direct student agency, made the school curriculum more inclusive and representative of the people it serves. While the PSU’s advocacy was impressive, students shouldn’t have to teach themselves how to organize. Rhode Island needs a comprehensive civic education curriculum focused on building practical community engagement skills that students can put to work in their own schools. Students know firsthand where change needs to start, and putting power in their hands will give them greater agency and control over their education. This curriculum must go beyond facts and memorization. It should
incorporate the discussion of current events, encouraging students to engage with controversial issues as independent thinkers and future voters. Most importantly, students must be given opportunities to practice engagement in their community, whether that be through organizations like PSU, mock classroom elections, or community service projects. All of this must be done with an eye for representation and inclusivity in order to ensure access for all students, especially those who have historically been excluded and underrepresented in democracy.
Given the challenges Rhode Island faces, civics can’t just be an extracurricular opportunity for the privileged few: Every Rhode Islander must have an equal shot at effective participation in democracy. If Rhode Island wants to live up to its title as the “birthplace of American democracy,” it needs to give its young people the power and skills to be a source of change in their communities. AUTHOR Morgan Awner ’21 is a Public Policy concentrator and a US Staff Writer at BPR. ILLUSTRATOR Emma Yang
Civic education must also begin early. Teachers should start discussions about democracy in elementary school. Democratic classrooms, where decisions are made collaboratively, are a perfect place to start. Civic education teaches students how to be responsible for their behavior while simultaneously instilling democratic values.
“Civics, at its best, is about more than just facts: It can teach students how to take agency in their schools and in their communities.” 28
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RHODE ISLAND
SUSPENSION INTERVENTION Rhode Island explores alternatives to out-of-school suspension
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Horace Mann, a champion of public schools and a Brown alumnus, dubbed education the “great equalizer of the conditions of men.� However, current punitive policies within public schools are preventing our education system from reaching this potential. In the current system, students of color, students with disabilities, and students from low-resource communities are not given the same opportunities to succeed in school as
their more privileged peers. In fact, instead of providing infrastructure to foster success, schools are disproportionately pushing marginalized students toward incarceration with out-of-school-suspension (OSS). These suspensions usually last a few days, during which the suspended student is completely barred from regular school activities. Though the concept seems benign, such a disciplinary measure actually does more harm than
RHODE ISLAND SUSPENSION INTERVENTION
good—not only because it’s ineffective, but also because it fuels the school-to-prison pipeline. In 2012, Governor Raimondo signed a law that limited the use of OSS for minor infractions such as truancy. Simply reducing the use of OSS, however, is insufficient to support students with behavioral problems. Schools must be required to offer on-campus disciplinary alternatives, such as peer mediation, restorative justice, and counseling, or risk sustaining an education system that fails to provide adequate support for students and perpetuates a cycle of discrimination and ineffective punishments. Support for OSS revolves around the belief that through exclusionary and punitive punishments that remove students from the classroom for an extended period of time, students will be forced to reflect on their actions and will not
negatively influence their peers. Several studies, however, have found that removing students from school for an extended period forces students to miss crucial instruction time and consequently fall behind their peers. Without additional support upon re-entry, suspended students often fail to catch up and become overwhelmed, which then leads to more problematic behavior and more punishment. Thus, OSS creates an inescapable cycle of punishments. One student from E-Cubed Academy explained, “If you miss school, you get frustrated, and if you get frustrated, you act out.” Such a sentiment reveals the education system’s problematic attitude toward discipline: By pushing out students for minor offenses rather than providing help or counseling, schools are treating behavioral and educational issues as law and order issues. Educators are criminalizing the very students
“Understanding the root cause of a behavior allows educators to develop targeted plans that curb future offenses. This has a much better chance of preventing repeated offenses than simply ostracizing these students.”
who need the most support. The fact is, suspension does not change the problematic behavior of students. Instead, this measure pushes students to become repeat offenders. After only one suspension, a student becomes three times more likely to drop out of school in the first two years of high school. Students who drop out are more likely to enter the prison system. Indeed, school dropouts compose 82 percent of the adult prison population and 85 percent of juvenile justice cases. Moreover, despite laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race and ability, OSS disproportionately targets students of color and students with disabilities. In Rhode Island, from kindergarten to middle school, Hispanic children are 3 times more likely to be suspended and Black children are 6 times more likely to be suspended when compared to their white peers. Similarly, students with disabilities make up
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In Rhode Island, from kindergarten to middle school, Hispanic children are 3 times more likely to be suspended and Black children are 6 times more likely to be suspended when compared to their white peers.
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RHODE ISLAND SUSPENSION INTERVENTION
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One student from E-Cubed Academy explained, ‘If you miss school, you get frustrated and if you get frustrated you act out.’
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31 percent of suspensions, though they only make up 15 percent of the student population. As a result, many students from marginalized groups are essentially being thrown down a path toward the prison system. This is not to say that suspensions or expulsions should be banned completely. Rather, it is important to reserve such measures as a last resort in cases where a student poses a serious threat to themselves or their environment. In the majority of cases, teachers should opt for more constructive and inclusive measures to ensure that every student understands and learns from their mistakes, and continues to succeed academically and socially. In order to encourage positive behavior, it is imperative for students to feel included in their school community. In lieu of aimless suspension, restorative practice methods can help students feel more supported and encourage the positive reflection that OSS does not. Restorative justice circles, for instance, allow students to be held accountable for their actions and help them make reparations with the community. These circles emphasize repairing harm in relationships rather than punishing someone for their actions. Through these mediated discussions, students can share their perspectives and learn from each other, thus fostering a sense of belonging, social responsibility, and construc-
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tive reflection critical to reducing future offenses. Other alternatives to OSS focus on preventative measures that promote future growth. Often, behavioral issues are treated as criminal offenses while the root cause is left unresolved. Counseling is an effective solution. Personalized counseling sessions that address problematic behaviors after an incident can help teachers understand why a student acted out, which, down the road, is much more important than what the student did in the particular moment. Understanding the root cause of a behavior allows educators to develop targeted action plans that curb future offenses. This has a much better chance of preventing repeated offences than simply ostracizing these students. Yet, despite the benefits of these alternatives, the current Rhode Island law does not offer or require these alternatives to be available along with strict discipline practices. In 2016, Rhode Island State Representative and special education teacher Marcia Ranglin-Vassell introduced bill H7153, which is currently being held for further study. This bill amends the current law limiting suspensions, pushing it one step further to require every school district to provide alternative programs to OSS. The bill cites “prevention, intervention, restorative justice, peer mediation, counseling, and other approaches
to address student misconduct” as alternatives to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. To reduce the loss of instruction time, the bill goes on to propose that every school should have “an alternative educational setting” that is run by a certified teacher. Students who are not deemed a physical threat, the bill states, cannot be suspended for minor or subjective offenses such as dress code violations or insubordination. In the case that a student is suspended, schools would be required to have a three-tiered intervention: There must be a meeting with the student prior to suspension, followed by a meeting with the student and their guardian, followed by actual detention. These measures stress the importance of available alternatives on campus to not only reduce the risk of criminal behavior, but also ensure that students do not fall behind academically. When it comes to punitive measures in schools, Rhode Island has made steps in the right direction. But without required alternatives, the current education system will perpetuate a cycle of discrimination and ineffective punishments. It is time to take a closer look at bill H7153 and seriously consider the correct next steps in moving toward a more inclusive and supportive school system.
AUTHOR Naomy Pedroza ’20 is a French Studies and Political Science concentrator. ILLUSTRATOR Jonathan Muroya
INTERVIEW CATHY DOYLE
Interview with
Cathy Doyle Cathy Doyle is the Executive Director of Year Up Rhode Island, a non-profit that aims to close the opportunity divide by offering underserved youth comprehensive skills development, coursework for college credit, and corporate internships.
What kind of companies does Year Up target? We look primarily at the distribution of companies in the market. Ninety percent of the labor market is small businesses and 10 percent is larger companies, such as Lifespan, which employs 15,000 people. Big businesses are most apt to host Year Up interns, but we look across all sectors at entities who might hire our graduates. Employers will always want talented, motivated, pre-trained, entry-level talent. Despite dropping unemployment, we know there will always be a place for Year Up. We have a valuable resource in the 30 employers we partner with and are constantly incorporating their feedback in terms of how to make our young adults more hirable.
How has Year Up worked to convince companies that a four-year degree is not always necessary for success in the workplace? We approach the conversation by showing them how many young adults they are leaving out of their pipeline. Employers are looking for diverse, motivated talent, and if they only consider applicants with a bachelor’s degrees, they’re cutting out about 82 percent of that market. We have the tools to train young adults to succeed in those jobs. We make believers out of companies by putting proof in front of them.
What kind of support is Year Up seeking from Rhode Island legislators? We want recognition that as a workforce development organization, we belong at the table for public funding. In Rhode Island, public funding is not always allocated based on measurable outcomes. One thousand young adults have graduated from Year Up Rhode Island and those 1,000 alumni are now contributing over $125 million in wages to Rhode Island’s economy. They are taxpayers, home-buyers, and members of their communities, they are moving the needle forward in our state. Our results have been proven and public funding would give us the ability to increase our impact.
How does Year Up’s partnership with the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) advance its mission? There are 10,600 young adults in our state who do not have access to professional careers. Our work and the work of CCRI are both part of addressing that need. Year Up knows that a young person can get their first two jobs without a degree, but we want to set our graduates up for long-term success. Every credit a Year Up student receives is college credit that is accepted at CCRI. We want our graduates to be life-long learners and CCRI is crucial to facilitating that continued education.
The number of opportunity youth* in Rhode Island has decreased by 29 percent since 2010. What role do you see Year Up playing in that? Our work has a ripple effect. We have 1,000 graduates who have entered the workforce, and they serve as proof of our model. We are training employers to think differently about hiring and have made advocates and champions out of many of the people that interact with our opportunity youth. By changing perceptions, our impact is greater than that 1,000 figure. *Opportunity youth are young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither enrolled in school nor participating in the labor market.
INTERVIEW BY Grace Banfield ’21 ILLUSTRATOR Julie Benbassat
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RHODE ISLAND
DANGER ZONE The high cost of Providence’s strict housing regulations There is no denying that Providence is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis: For the 40 percent of Rhode Island residents who are renters, the market is failing. Currently, housing prices are extraordinarily high due to artificial supply constraints implemented by restrictive zoning laws. To solve the pricing problem, Providence should look to Minneapolis as a model and relax zoning restrictions. When the rent is due every month, renters find themselves digging deep due to a very simple incongruity in the Providence rental market. While the Providence metro area is the 18th most expensive housing market in the nation, it is 43rd in terms of real economic output. Thus, prices are outstripping productivity and leaving renters with no choice but to commit increasingly larger shares of their income to housing.
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In fact, research by Housing Works Rhode Island reveals that “more than 145,000 Rhode Island households, or 35 percent of all households, are cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. Of these 145,000 households, 44 percent of them are severely cost burdened, or spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing costs.” The same group found that only 12 percent of rentals are not considered a cost burden for a median income household in Rhode Island, earning $63,870 a year. For those not lucky enough to snag properties in that 12 percent, the only recourse is to step into ritzier markets for high-rent places. These high prices spring from a lack of supply. Providence’s rental vacancy rate is just 3.7 percent, lagging behind the national average of 5 to 7.5 percent. A higher, healthier vacancy rate incentiv-
“While the Providence metro area is the 18th most expensive housing market in the nation, it is 43rd in terms of real economic output.”
RHODE ISLAND DANGER ZONE
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RHODE ISLAND DANGER ZONE
izes landlords to keep prices low since they cannot be confident that every property on the market will garner interest. But because vacancies are nearly four times lower than average, renters are in no position to shop around, placing them at the mercy of landlords. When supply becomes too sparse, renters feel the heat. Yet it’s not the landlords who are restricting housing supply. Though they do reap high profits from higher overall rental prices caused by a shortage of vacancies, these landlords would actually benefit from building more houses and renting each out at a slightly smaller profit margin. This balance feeds the higher vacancy rate nationwide. The real problem lies with zoning: Providence is the most heavily regulated metro area for land use in the country. In particular,
Providence’s residential housing zones limit how many households are allowed to live on one plot of land. The scale runs from single-family Residential 1 to twoand three-family “Residential 3” zoning and higher. Naturally, a district zoned R-3 will, at maximum capacity, house three times more households in the same geography than an R-1 district. But too many of Providence’s districts are R-1 zones. Zoning is problematic for reasons beyond high rent prices. Having too many R-1 zones suppresses all the benefits that should come with denser cities. Denser cities create economies of scale—they reduce travel costs for citizens, ease environmental costs, and stimulate the local economy. Chalk it up to efficiency: More people per square mile means smaller distances between people and the things they
need and do. Services can be centralized, niche industries can thrive, and more of life is accessible by foot, bike, or public transit instead of by car. Higher density can also do wonders for the fiscal health of the city government. For every square mile of low-density urban sprawl, the local government is accountable for a fixed set of perpetual financial obligations, from snowplowing to streetlight maintenance. These financial obligations are more easily met if there are more taxpayers within any given square mile. Since wealthier, sprawling parts of urban centers don’t actually pay enough in taxes to compensate for the costs of providing them such basic infrastructure, denser areas play an essential role in keeping cities fiscally solvent.
“The most straightforward solution to over-restrictive zoning is to loosen regulation and allow for denser development.” 36
Apart from increasing the fiscal burden on local governments, improper zoning also has heavy social implications that trace back to zoning regulations’ long, dark history of problematic race relations. After the Supreme Court banned explicit racial zoning in Buchanan v. Warley, legislators compensated by inventing and rapidly expanding the notion of zoning to limit unsightly apartment buildings and multi-family housing as a proxy for minority status. Rhode Island was no exception; evidence of overtly racist advocacy related to this policy innovation abounds Despite the good-faith arguments of those who support zoning, the fact remains that such a tool invented with the explicit intent of segregating society is still serving its original purpose, even though the wielders’ intentions have changed. By one measure, restrictive zoning is responsible for 35 percent of all US racial segregation. Since race and socioeconomic status are so intertwined in the US, when policymakers restrict certain sections of the city to expensive, low-density uses, they trap the least advantaged people in the outskirts, far away from financial powerhouses. This fuels a vicious cycle and makes it even more difficult for low-income citizens to benefit from economic progress within city centers. The most straightforward solution to over-restrictive zoning is to loosen regulations and allow for denser development. In this case, the straightforward solution may also be the most effective. Minneapolis, which has a housing issue
similar to the one in Providence, just adopted reforms that provide a model for zoning reform. These reforms are detailed in a plan called Minneapolis 2040, which was passed last year. The main solution outlined is ‘upzoning’: Zone the city for three-family housing in all neighborhoods with lower zoning restrictions. Simple, blanket upzoning—that is, increasing the allowed residential density for a district—removes the pressure of immediate, frenzied change that comes from only upzoning a little bit of the city at a time. In fact, upzoning a larger area allows for more gradual changes in any particular neighborhood since the current excess demand can be met by increasing supply in a widespread region. Such an effort is better than smaller-scale upzoning projects. Trying to relieve the pressure of excess demand on a small area, say one small block of the city, might change that block rapidly in unintended ways. A broader effort disperses new tenants across different regions and thus aids in keeping the character and demographics of individual neighborhoods intact.
RHODE ISLAND DANGER ZONE
“More than 145,000 Rhode Island households, or 35 percent of all households, are cost burdened.”
Looking to Minneapolis, Providence should upzone the city and reap the easiest windfall of public benefits it is likely to find this century. It really is that simple: Change the rules of the game, and elementary market forces will drive desegregation, economic growth, and urban renewal in one fell stroke.
AUTHOR Austin Rose ’19 is an Economics and Public Policy concentrator. ILLUSTRATOR Jiani Yu
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WORLD
Joke Like an Egyptian The importance of political satire in the face of Egyptian oppression On November 16, 2017, Egyptian satirist Islam al-Rifai walked into a trap set by authorities. The comedian believed he was attending a work meeting when his alleged business associates revealed themselves to be state security agents. Despite lacking concrete evidence, the agents arrested al-Rifai on charges of membership in an “illegal group.” Al-Rifai’s arrest represents a larger trend in Egypt. Under the rule of the current president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, countless satirists have been placed behind bars in a government crackdown on all forms of dissent. As the threat against comedy mounts, it is necessary to recognize the important role that comedy has played as a tool of resistance in Egyptian politics. The Egyptian sense of humor, seasoned by thousands of years of repressive regimes, has become a cornerstone of both Egyptian civic and political life. During ancient
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“Laughter dismantled the very fear Mubarak had tried so hard to incite, and the president stepped down in February 2011.”
times, Egyptians lined the gates of their houses with statues of Bes, the god of humor and a symbol of protection, thereby establishing an early association between comedy and resistance. Indeed, this flair for humor earned the ancient Egyptians such a reputation for wit that the Romans allegedly barred Egyptians from legal practice, fearing that “Egyptian humor would dilute the gravitas of the legal institution.” Over the following centuries, as Egypt changed hands between various imperial powers and dictators, comedy remained a stubborn constant. In the second half of the 20th century, citizens lampooned the regimes of Nasser and Sadat, specifically targeting military failures, personal deficits, and repressive tendencies. Of course, this all came at considerable risk: TV satirists frequently saw their shows suspended, while other political comedians could expect fines, and, in many cases, imprisonment.
Then, during his tenure from 1981 to 2011, President Hosni Mubarak cultivated a perilous atmosphere for satire. Yet, Egyptians continued laughing at their leader’s expense. The 2011 Arab Spring revolution accentuated the ability of Egyptian comedy to draw global attention to the country. Memes, spoof accounts, and jokes spread like wildfire across Twitter and Facebook, tying Egyptians to each other and to the rest of the world. When citizens took to the streets wielding humorous signs of resistance, not only did these signs inspire solidarity amongst protesters, but they also generated widespread recognition for the movement when, according to media scholar Adel Iskandar, “photographs from Tahrir [Square] of people carrying hilarious signs went viral within minutes of posting.” According to Sherif Mansour, the Middle East Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, satire succeeded in breaking down
WORLD JOKE LIKE AN EGYPTIAN
a ‘fear barrier.’ Mahmoud Salem, an Egyptian blogger, told the Atlantic it was “easier to make [the government] look ridiculous” than to confront Mubarak’s regime head on. Laughter dismantled the very fear Mubarak had tried so hard to incite, and the president stepped down in February 2011. Unlike Mubarak, el-Sisi has yielded no ground to comedians. The current government has relentlessly imprisoned satirists, shuttered websites, and cleansed the airwaves of political opposition, measures that Mansour sees as efforts to “restore the fear barrier, which was broken in 2011.” In July 2018, the government passed a law to hold social media accounts with over 5,000 followers to the same standards as more traditional media outlets, opening the door to the prosecution of ordinary citizens for “publishing false news” or encouraging law-breaking. Even comedians who consciously avoid political issues currently face imprisonment. Nancy Okail, the director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, explains, “anyone who [appears] to have any independent line, whatever it is, and have some following outside of the control of the government—that becomes a threat.” Last May, Egyptian police arrested and imprisoned Shady Abu Zeid, a satirical blogger most famous for his viral video pranking police officers in Tahrir square by handing them inflated condoms. He was charged under the wide net of “joining an illegal group” and “spreading false news.” This arrest shocked Egyptians everywhere because Abu Zeid’s content focuses solely on bringing attention to societal problems such as pervasive sexual harassment. Indeed, the president’s attempts to gain total control over both his administration’s political narrative and his personal image have left the most
vocal figures without a platform. Consequently, comedy has moved further into the shadows, and even the most covert expressions of dissent have been silenced. For example, dozens of Cairo street vendors have been arrested for selling “Sisi’s Balls,” odd trinkets resembling a pair of cherries that are meant to mimic the president’s nether regions.
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As the threat against comedy compounds under el-Sisi’s rule, it is important to reflect on the historical relevance of humor.”
As the threat against comedy compounds under el-Sisi’s rule, it is important to reflect on the historical relevance of humor. Humor has been an incredibly powerful, resilient, and adaptable tool; it has, after all, survived millennia of oppression in Egypt. John C. Meyer, an expert in the field of communications theory, argues that humor “can…be used as a device to challenge authority by providing the shield of jesting.” As the fear barrier breaks down, a society that laughs in unison at their dictator will be better prepared to challenge that individual’s rule. It is critical that comedy in Egypt not be extinguished. Pro-democracy champions must understand the power of everyday jokes and support political cartoonists, comedians, and satirical vloggers. In Egypt, hope is held closely with humor, and the sustained health of comedy is key to resilience. The push for change need not be inspired solely through anger and fist-shaking. The path to democracy in Egypt is better accomplished through laughter, and all jokes can help amplify the wit of the Egyptians. Just ask Hosni “Moo-barak.” AUTHOR Chris Kobel ’21 is an International Relations concentrator and a World Section Manager at BPR. ILLUSTRATOR Cat Huang
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WORLD
Be Careful What You Vouch For Laissez-faire education reform in Chile As a Chilean citizen, Jonathan Franklin has used Chile’s education vouchers to send his seven children to public and private schools of his choosing. His assessment? The voucher approach to schooling in Chile bears haunting resemblance to private prison systems. “The student is like an inmate in this system,” Franklin notes. “No one is asking the deeper questions about whether our children are getting educated. At the end of the day, it’s all about headcount.” To him, that is what you get when public education is bought and sold through markets. As the privatization of education gains support in the US, Chile serves as a cautionary tale that free-market approaches to schooling often increase inequality while failing to improve educational outcomes. In 1981, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet introduced the voucher system for education. Under this plan, the government issues vouchers that families can use to pay tuition at primary and secondary institutions for each of their children. Vouchers cover the full cost of enrollment at public schools, which are required to accept all
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students. Families can also apply to use their voucher at most private schools, which, unlike their public counterparts, can decline admission to any student. Private schools can also charge tuition above the voucher value, forcing families to pay the difference out of pocket. This voucher system, inspired by laissez-faire economists from the University of Chicago, relies on the basic premise of the free market. In theory, consumers ‘shop’ for the best institutions. Schools therefore compete for students, since higher enrollment results in greater revenue. To attract more students, low-achieving schools are forced to improve or risk losing students and funding. To help parents make informed choices, Pinochet introduced standardized tests that allowed Chilean citizens to track the performance of each institution. Notably, the government made no investment to improve teaching in underperforming schools; instead, policymakers expected that competition would naturally improve test scores. However, the studied effects of the voucher program contradict these
“Not only have practices within schools disadvantaged the most vulnerable students, but socioeconomic segregation has persisted, despite increased spending on the least fortunate students.”
original assumptions. After 1981, Chile’s educational outcomes stagnated. Researchers at UC Berkeley and Columbia have demonstrated that shifting spending from public to private schools did not improve education quality. In fact, they found that Chile’s voucher system failed to improve average educational achievement as a whole. Instead, the voucher program resulted in significant structural inequities. Wealthier families benefited most from vouchers, as they could afford additional fees charged by private schools and could transport their children greater distances to higher quality schools. This resulted in what researchers called “[an] exodus of the Chilean middle class from public schools.” Between 1981 and 2013, enrollment in public institutions plummeted
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[CHILEAN EDUCATION SYSTEM]
from 78 percent to 39 percent among school-age children, and funding for public schools was cut in half in the first decade of the voucher system. This drop in funding crippled public schools and led to a dramatic increase in socioeconomic segregation, since the most socioeconomically disadvantaged students were left behind in the weakest institutions. In 2008, reformers moved to correct the increasing segregation and overall stagnation in performance associated with Pinochet’s voucher system. The Preferential School Subsidy Law (SEP) increased the value of vouchers for Chile’s poorest students, referred to as ‘priority students,’ by 50 percent. Schools now receive funding incentives to accept these priority students. Additionally, a new mandate requires
schools to waive any additional fee beyond the voucher amount for priority students so that they can attend private schools. Finally, schools that performed poorly face government intervention in budget matters or, in extreme cases, loss of licenses. Some analysts suggest that these reforms were associated with improved outcomes. Harvard economist Richard Murname has found that average test scores rose after the implementation of the SEP law. Furthermore, the observed achievement gap between low-income students and more privileged students narrowed after the SEP law took effect. Before heaping praise on the reformed SEP, however, it’s necessary to consider other developments in
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In 2012, the wealthiest 25 percent of families sent 80 percent of children to private schools, while only 38 percent of Chile’s bottom quartile attended private institutions.”
Chilean education. Researchers Alvaro Hofflinger and Paul von Hippel, for instance, noted substantial increases in postsecondary education of parents in this period, concluding that “at least half of the rise in test scores was due to increases in parental education.” More importantly, they demonstrated that gains in test scores could largely be attributed to a restructuring of curricula: Teachers were focused on teaching to the test, efforts which may have raised scores, but sacrificed the development of soft skills, project-based work, and conceptual understanding across disciplines.
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WORLD BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU VOUCH FOR
Even more worrisome than these pedagogical changes is the revelation that a large number of schools inflated their scores by compelling low-performing—and typically more disadvantaged—students to be absent on test days. If the lowest-income and lowest performing students are excluded when performance is measured, any purported test score gains or reductions in achievement gaps are suspect. Not only have practices within schools disadvantaged the most vulnerable students, but socioeconomic segregation has also persisted, despite increased spending on the least fortunate students. In 2012, the wealthiest 25 percent of families sent 80 percent of children to private schools, while only 38 percent of Chile’s bottom quartile attended private institutions. In economic terms, these problems are characteristic of a market failure. A study by Antoni Verger on the role of public-private partnerships in education used Chile as a case study to examine how freemarket ideals deviate from optimal conditions when applied to the real world. For example, a free-market model of education assumes that families select schools based on objective and traditional measures of school qualities. However, actual practice may be more complicated. When reflecting on his own experiences, Jonathan Franklin observed that “minimal information is available” on school quality. As a result, parents make decisions
based on imperfect information and are more likely to fall back on biases. Franklin stated that families often select private schools for the prestige of the label “private” regardless of actual quality. This dynamic has caused many Chileans to lose faith in public institutions as private ones gain status. Professor of Education Ernesto Trevino writes, “in a dynamic of universal competition and selection, middle-class families have no choice but to play the game… In this competitive dynamic, to attend a public school equates to losing the game.” As higher performing and more advantaged students opt into private institutions, public schools lose voucher funding and are left with an increasingly disadvantaged population, earning them the label of ‘low performing.’ This school segregation reinforces the public perception that public sector schools are inferior, leading to a vicious cycle of increasing stigma and worsening educational outcomes for Chile’s less fortunate children. Because these failures still shape the voucher system, the effects of the Chilean government’s 2008 reforms have been limited. This begs the question: Given that observed market failures and growing inequality have compelled the Chilean government to increase its investment in vouchers for low-income students, would it not be more effective to invest directly in the institutions that support all
students—public schools—instead of creating a system of inefficiencies and market failures through the voucher structure? In 2017, US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos proclaimed her interest in implementing a voucher system similar to Chile’s model. It is critical for her and anyone hoping to expand voucher use to carefully examine Chile’s educational system. Although an American voucher program may play out differently, Chile’s story reminds policymakers that voucher systems can exacerbate patterns of segregation, distort educational goals, and push schools to prioritize test scores in order to compete. Policies based on efficient-market models fail to account for self-evident social forces. It is the citizenry, particularly the most disadvantaged among them, who suffer from these errors.
AUTHOR Johanna Bandler ’22 is a prospective Public Policy and History concentrator and an Associate Editor at BPR. ILLUSTRATOR Cecile Kim
“Chile’s story reminds policymakers that voucher systems can exacerbate patterns of segregation, distort educational goals, and push schools to prioritize test scores in order to compete.” 42
INTERVIEW JUNE SPEAKMAN
Interview with
June Speakman June Speakman is a professor of political science at Roger Williams University and where she researches on the role of gender in politics. She is the current Democratic candidate for Rhode Island State Representative for District 68, which covers Bristol and Warren. Professor Speakman previously served on the Barrington Town Council for 14 years.
You’ve worked at Roger Williams since 1995. What are some of the most profound lessons you’ve learned from your students over these past 24 years?
What advice would you give to individuals hoping to run for office in the future?
I’ve learned how quickly our language changes. Freshmen teach me new things every year and help me keep up with cultural changes. They also teach me tolerance and open-mindedness. I am deeply impressed by how open-minded this generation of students is. They’re very accepting of people who would have been rejected in the past. This generation is very accepting of the great variety of ways to be human.
I would say that you should get involved in the community in some way or another. Careers in public service aren’t the highest paying jobs in the world, but they are extremely gratifying. You need thick skin and you need to be willing to compromise. We love idealism but we need people who can write legislation that can be enacted now. I also think being an educator is the best career. I have the ability to interact with young folks and bounce around controversial ideas. My advice for any job is to find something that makes your heart sing. Money is important, but you need to be happy.
You were on the Barrington Town Council for 14 years. What made you decide to run?
INTERVIEW BY Alex Leake ’22
I got into politics the same way many women do: through my children. I was active in the Parent Teacher Organization, which is a very normal, expected role as a mom. Then I was approached by the local Democratic office. It never occurred to me once in my life that I would run for office.
ILLUSTRATOR Julie Benbassat
You’re currently the Democratic candidate for the 68th district. Across the country, women are underrepresented in elected office. How have you managed this adversity during your run for state office? My gender never came up in a campaign. It isn’t too bad for women in politics in Rhode Island. Things are changing and there are far fewer obstacles now than when I was younger. You really just have to move forward when things happen. It’s important to find women who support you—other women in the general assembly have been very supportive of me in this campaign.
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WORLD
Bad Refugees and Recalcitrant Countries American imperialism in Southeast Asia comes full circle
Back in December, The Atlantic broke the story that the Trump administration was in talks with their Vietnamese counterparts to renegotiate a 2008 agreement to expand the number of Vietnamese refugees eligible for deportation. The backlash against this development was intense and immediate: News articles documented fierce protests against the potential separation of families. Opinion columns noted the acute moral irony of betraying refugees whom the United States had fought alongside in a bloody, and ultimately failed, war more than 40 years ago and who are lawful permanent residents. Though there have been consistent reports of mounting Southeast Asian deportations in the past decade, none of these stories gained much coverage. That is, until a couple months ago, when courageous acts of resistance and mutual support among various Southeast Asian-American communities suddenly rose to prominence in the public discourse. Even as the public has recognized discussion of Southeast Asian deportations as important, such discussions have been largely centered around domestic developments in the past decade. Too often
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ignored is the much darker backstory extending decades into the past and miles across the oceans. The deportation of Southeast Asian-Americans is the result of a longstanding policy of American imperialism that began with the Vietnam War, and most recently manifested in the form of sanctions against Southeast Asian nations. Since 1953, American military involvement in proxy conflicts in mainland Southeast Asia has wrought large-scale violence. Such intrusive involvement in the name of limiting the spread of communism has precipitated the mass flight of refugees from the area. The most well-known of these conflicts was the Vietnam War (1965-1975), which killed over two million Vietnamese civilians and displaced another 11 million. But just as pernicious were the ‘secret wars’ that the US waged in Laos and Cambodia around the same time. Largely hidden from public view, the US conducted intensive bombing campaigns in the two countries, dropping more than two million tons of explosives from 1964 to 1973—this is more than double the amount dropped by the Allied Forces in the entirety of the World War II.
“It is entirely likely that Vietnam will become the next target of an increasingly aggressive American foreign policy bent on fulfilling domestic deportation goals.”
The results were devastating: When US troops withdrew, they left behind decimated populations and power vacuums. In order to recoup a moral victory from its military defeat in 1975, the US government turned to refugee resettlement programs. Up until the mid-1990s, millions of Southeast Asian refugees landed on American shores through government and UN-sponsored channels. As scholar Yên Lê Espiritu observed, these “good refugees” became models of anti-communism and rhetorical proof of American goodwill and justice. Unfortunately for these “good refugees,” being worthy of public praise did not translate into public investment and support. Still suffering from the physical and mental trauma of war or genocide, many Southeast Asian refugees were resettled in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods with dilapidated housing, high rates of violent crime, and few resources for adapting to life in the US. In fact, many younger refugees who lived with economic insecurity and struggled with English proficiency became the targets of discrimination at school and work, leading some to join gangs for a sense of community.
WORLD BAD REFUGEES AND RECALCITRANT COUNTRIES
Luckily, initial Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with Cambodia and Vietnam prevented the implementation of most of the deportations. Established in the early 2000s, these MOUs offered protection to refugees in the US. Notably, the 2008 US-Vietnam MOU prohibited the deportation of Vietnamese nationals who landed in America before 1995, the vast majority of whom are refugees. Though these MOUs came under pressure during the Obama administration, community organizing and concerted lobbying efforts from CambodianAmericans helped persuade the Cambodian government to resist deportations. The transition to Trump’s presidency, however, heralded a more aggressive immigration policy to satisfy a more xenophobic electoral base. No longer ‘good refugees,’ those under deportation orders became ‘criminal aliens’ whom Southeast Asian nations had the obligation to take back for the safety of Americans. In an
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unprecedented move, President Trump signed an executive order within weeks of taking office, authorizing diplomatic punishments against so-called ‘recalcitrant countries’ who refused to
The deportation of Southeast Asian-Americans is the result of a longstanding policy of American imperialism that began with the Vietnam War, and most recently manifested in the form of sanctions against Southeast Asian nations.
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Additionally, with little guidance through the refugee process, many Southeast Asians assumed that they already had citizenship when, in fact, they only held green cards. Since they were foreigners, those caught up in the judicial system with felonies would not only be incarcerated, but also slapped with a deportation order. Pressure to join gangs, coupled with the growing list of deportable offenses that included minor crimes such as shoplifting, ultimately converged to serve more than 13,000 Southeast Asian-Americans with final orders of removal since 1998.
accept deported nationals. The first target of this new policy was Cambodia. In September 2017, officials in the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and their immediate families were banned from obtaining US visas. Though the Cambodian government initially pushed back on these bans, the impact of the visa sanctions on these officials and their children studying in the US proved too much to bear. Deportations began again by February 2018, and are now being carried out more quickly and frequently than ever before.
Indeed, in the midst of mounting pressure from the US government, the American ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius, resigned in 2017 and publicly condemned the Trump administration’s attempt to deport refugees. In fact, six pre-1995 Vietnamese-Americans have already been deported in 2018. It is entirely likely that Vietnam will become the next target of an increasingly aggressive American foreign policy bent on fulfilling domestic deportation goals. Many Southeast Asian deportees call America their only home. Deporting Southeast Asian refugees absolves the US government of the pain and neglect inflicted upon these communities. But more significantly, these deportations and sanctions are emblematic of a long history of American imperialism in Southeast Asia, where countries in the region have been forced to pick up the tab to solve problems for the US. In this heated political climate, one thing is clear: It is time that the US steps up to meet its moral obligation to the thousands of Southeast AUTHOR Quinton Huang ’19 is a History and East Asian Studies concentrator and a World Staff Writer at BPR.
The next targets were Laos and Myanmar, two other ‘recalcitrant’ Southeast Asian countries. The US government levied visa sanctions against these countries in July 2018, likely due to the efficacy of its initial wave of sanctions against Cambodia. Furthermore, there are currently speculations that visa sanctions have also been threatened against Vietnam for its refusal to accept certain deportees.
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INTERVIEW ROSEMARIE MARTIN
Interview with
Rosemarie Martin Dr. Rosemarie Martin is an Assistant Professor of Public Health at Brown University’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. She is also a member of Governor Raimondo’s Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force, where she evaluates the Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) program.
How did MAT come to Rhode Island? Compared to the overall Rhode Island population, the criminal justice population has a much higher rate of overdose. With respect to the criminal justice system, 21 percent of overdoses were recent prisoners and 60 percent of those who overdosed had a criminal justice history. Nearly 25 percent of individuals in state facilities reported an overdose in the two weeks immediately following their release. Then, the medical director at the Department of Corrections requested $2 million from the General Fund and contracted with Community Organization for Drug Abuse Control (CODAC), a community provider already providing treatment. Receiving these funds from the state allowed CODAC to expand their treatment program. CODAC has been in the prisons since the 1970s.
How has the administration of MAT changed since the program was first introduced? How do you see the program changing in the future? One example of the changes we have made is adjusting the medication administration time. Patients were complaining that they couldn’t sleep because the medication, which was being administered at night, was interrupting their sleep cycle. As a result, we moved the administration time to morning which has resulted in great improvements. Also, we modified the screening time with the commitment nurse so that more people would get screened. We found that 74 percent of patients continue to engage in treatment after they are released. Of those individuals, the breakdown is pretty interesting. Of those that are already on treatment prior to coming into prison, close to 100 percent will continue their treatment after release. We need to expand access to treatment for new patients. Upon release, only 35 percent of them will reconnect with MAT in the community. To address this issue, we have additional discharge planners that work with newly released prisoners to ensure their health and safety.
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Rhode Island is the first state to implement a MAT program. What kind of barriers to implementation do you see in other states? Going forward, one thing is cost. There are also concerns around skepticism. The purpose of correctional facilities is to keep substances out of the walls. Contrary to this thinking, wardens from other states, when conducting site visits in Rhode Island, have said that there are fewer drugs in our facilities because demands are being met with medication for opioid use. However, the primary concern we hear from other jurisdictions is the burden it will have on the system. For example, medication administration times are becoming exponentially longer. This is burdensome to the staff, nurses, and ward clerks. You have to build capacity within each facility to make this work. You need to have enough providers to prescribe medication and do the assessments, physical exams, and monitoring. Even if you can get the administration on board, it is your security officers who are dealing with the population. It is incredibly helpful when correctional officers buy into the program.
INTERVIEW BY Sai Allu ’21 ILLUSTRATOR Julie Benbassat
WORLD TOUGH DAYS AHEAD
TOUGH DAYS AHEAD
WORLD
Bolsonaro’s land policies threaten long-term sustainability in Brazil In his inaugural address, newly elected Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro declared he would free the country from “socialism and political correctness” in order to bring rapid marketization to Brazil. So far, Bolsonaro has stood by this vision for Brazil: In fact, he began his term with an executive order that transferred control of indigenous lands from the Indigenous Affairs Agency (FUNAI) to the Ministry of Agriculture, a major concession to Brazil’s massively powerful agriculture lobby. Now, the Ministry of Agriculture will handle the “identification, delimitation, demarcation, and registration of lands traditionally occupied by indigenous people.” This order functionally reclassifies the land from a space of immense cultural history and value to a simple economic resource—a move which not only further marginalizes Brazil’s indigenous populations, but also threatens the long-term economic sustainability of these lands. The order is a product of a long history of tradeoffs between the social well-being of Brazilians and economic profit. As Brazil has sought to bolster development, its policies have consistently emphasized economic growth at the expense of
other issues. While this strategy has contributed to rapid industrialization, it is ultimately unsustainable, particularly when it comes to issues surrounding corporate control of indigenous land. Indigenous people currently only live on 12.5 percent of Brazilian land, and it is important that this share is protected: The cultural and spiritual ties between these communities and the land they live on represent a profoundly different relationship than those involving corporations or the government. Although these cultural connections may seem unimportant to politicians and economic strategists, they lead to far more sustainable structures and practices for land development and future growth. Throughout the Americas, indigenous people have long supported agricultural success using knowledge cultivated through generations of engagement with the land. North American natives have been practicing complex companion planting for over 3,000 years, a practice which combines several native crops into a polyculture that maintains soil nutrients, prevents erosion, and controls pests. Another example is the Triqui people of southern Mexico, who have helped
“Although these cultural connections may seem unimportant to politicians and economic strategists, they lead to far more sustainable structures and practices for land development and growth. ”
restore productivity to damaged land with ancient farming techniques such as seed saving. Meanwhile, agricultural giants in the corporate world are experimenting with new machinery, pesticides, and GMOs to accomplish the same tasks. In southern Mexico, development-driven bodies, such as government and corporate forces, have attempted to solve sustainability and productivity issues by promoting GMOs and building dams. Yet, by taking over indigenous land and disregarding the ways in which these indigenous communities have tilled it, governments are putting sustainable land policies on the backburner. Such an attitude incurs high economic costs in the long run. The preference for policies that prioritize corporate goals is hurting Brazil’s biodiversity. One such example is the modern “Green Desert” in Sapo de Norte, which stretches across acres of what was once a fertile and agriculturally diverse region. Now owned by the paper company Fibria Celulose, the land is blanketed in an ever-spreading forest of fast-growing Eucalyptus trees. This monoculture began during the hyper-capitalist military dictatorship in
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WORLD TOUGH DAYS AHEAD
power from 1964 to 1985. In the absence of official ownership, land was taken from Quilombolas, communities of people descended from slaves. Promoting such a monoculture not only immorally pushes indigenous populations out of their homes, but also threatens the environmental and economic longevity of the region. First, the environmental concerns: Eucalyptus trees consume exorbitant amounts of water, and, as of 2017, they had already dried up 130 streams. Moreover, these trees have altered forest dynamics. Species that support intricate food chains and sustain biodiversity have significantly decreased in population. Additionally, eucalyptus trees prevent sunlight from reaching the forest floor, but grasses need light to survive. Without grasses to hold the soil down, rain, floods, and wind can sweep away massive amounts of soil. Eventually, the lack of water and fertile soil in the region will make it significantly more difficult for plants and crops to grow. Thus, it is reasonable to predict that these changes will stunt the economic growth derived from the region’s agricultural industry. Research shows that land degradation policies have stunted economic growth by 10 percent, a problem that could be remedied by switching back to more sustainable farming methods. One particular example is the 2015 mega-drought
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Rather than welcoming abuse and exploitation by monopolies, it is time for Brazil to invest in the people who have been investing in Brazilian land for decades. that caused hydro-power systems to fail. The drought was exacerbated by tactics used by Fibria Cellulose, and the system failure was certainly a costly incident. Fibria Cellulose’s unchecked expansion of eucalyptus habitat has also damaged corn and cotton yields, killed livestock, and, one year, even destroyed 30 percent of sugar cane crops. This loss of biodiversity can be devastating to agricultural economies: A study by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) found that biodiverse ecosystems contribute a value of about $24 trillion per year worldwide. Loss of biodiversity means a direct loss of economic value. For example, biodiversity loss poses a serious threat to the pharmaceutical industry. As monoculture trumps diversity, we begin to lose species with medicinal properties. Some studies estimate that the planet is losing one important drug every two years. In addition to being the source of new resources, biodiversity also regulates the climate and controls pollution, which are both integral to plant survival.
“As Brazil has sought to bolster development, its policies have consistently emphasized economic growth at the expense of other issues.”
hoods off of its land. Instead, Brazil is deferring to massive companies with generalized knowledge and little investment in the well-being of Brazil’s land and people. Bolsonaro’s vision of a powerful, capitalist Brazil that refuses to consider cultural histories is a Brazil fueled by unsustainable growth and short-term prominence on the world stage. Rather than welcoming abuse and exploitation by monopolies, it is time for Brazil to invest in the people who have been investing in Brazilian land for generations. AUTHOR Mia Stone-Molloy ’22 is a prospective History and Political Science concentrator. ILLUSTRATOR Katie Kwak
Brazil is eager to become a major economic power, and it is trying to do so by churning its natural resources into profit. Yet it is ignoring an incredibly valuable economic resource within its borders: the expertise of populations who have built cultures and sustained liveli-
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INTERVIEW NICK BENSON
Interview with
Nick Benson Nick Benson is the owner and creative director of The John Stevens Shop, a stone inscription shop founded in 1705 in Newport, Rhode Island. Some of his shop’s most notable work includes the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, the Boston Public Library, the National Gallery of Art, the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC, and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, DC.
You started working at The John Stevens Shop at age 15 under your father. What was your first job at the shop?
very busy producing the work for the shop that it has always produced. This is not a growing industry.
I was doing grunt work: sweeping, weeding the backyard, and getting coffee. My dad was also teaching me how to carve stone. I started working summers initially.
What are some of the most valuable lessons you learned about running a business from watching your father for so long?
Moving on to your education, you studied drawing and design in New York and then continued your studies abroad in Switzerland. What was returning to stone inscription in Rhode Island like after that? Yes, I went to SUNY Purchase in New York. My professor saw some of the work I had done here in the shop. He told me that if I was serious, I should look into going to school for this, so I went to Switzerland. There, I was involved in a 10-month intensive program in order to gain foundational skills so that I could come back in and work with my father. It was very intense. When I came back to the shop, the curtain had been ripped away, having been exposed to so many varying designs and frames of thought, everything looked different.
Your shop has been open for over 300 hundred years. You took control over 25 years ago. How do you maintain this rich tradition and history as you move into the future with your shop? It’s a difficult thing. Up until about the mid-70s or so, there was always room for old-world businesses like this. As the evolution of technology moves forward at this frightening pace, I find that we are slowly getting to the point where people aren’t seeing the need for businesses like this. I’ve been moved to make art about this change.
What do you depict in your art? The art shows the expression of this shift and perception of aesthetics, and the conflict between technological standards and the soul of this business. It’s a complicated shift. I’m still
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That’s hard. Direct experience has helped. I’ve really learned from osmosis. I’ve learned wonderful practical sides—what he knew about craft, the subtleties of letterform. Calligraphy is a really tough part of this trade—not just the physical carving.
In your line of work, when do you feel you connect the most to the people of Newport? It’s tough growing up in a town like this. Newport was a different kind of town when I grew up here. There used to be a much stronger sense of community. It was like this into my teens because the town hadn’t given itself over to tourism. You don’t really get that sense of community anymore. I connect with other artists and artisans a lot of the time. Still, there’s a lot of personal history here. INTERVIEW BY Alex Leake ’22 ILLUSTRATOR Julie Benbassat
What’s going on at
BROWN POLITICAL REVIEW BPRadio Join BPRadio hosts Aidan Calvelli ’19 and Noah Cowan ’19 in exploring some of the most pressing challenges that policymakers face: disparities in attitudes towards drugs, inequalities in food access, and more. In our latest episode, we explore the contentious politics surrounding grizzly bears, biology, and hunting tags in Grand Teton National Park, as well as Brown’s own history with these iconic carnivores. Follow BPRadio on SoundCloud and subscribe on iTunes. Check out the Pulse. Our first seven-part miniseries highlights homelessness in and beyond Providence. We interview anthropologists, policy analysts, and others to ground homelessness in its socioeconomic and political complexity. In collaboration with Interviews Board, BPRadio is publishing conversations with Bill Kristol, Jorge Elorza, and Tulsi Gabbard.
Content: World Section The Shifting Role of Film Censorship in China’s Political Dominance, Ye Chan Song ‘21 For decades, China has controlled its film industry with a strong grip. Now, as China grows into one of the world’s most important movie markets, that grip may be transcending its own borders. In this article, Ye Chan Song offers a history of the Communist Party’s oversight of media creation and distribution and the implications of these restrictive policies on the global film industry.
Data Board Data Board produces interactive, data-driven stories. This semester, we look forward to publishing features on the relationship between Ubers, taxis, and income in New York City; gender representation in Marvel movies; and the popularity of Spring Weekend acts before and after they perform at Brown. data.brownpoliticalreview.org.
Media Board BPR Media is the online visual counterpart to the print magazine. We create documentary shorts that feature original reporting and cover issues both local and abroad. Et tu, Providence? This op-ed takes an in-depth look at local perspectives on immigration. We hear about hot-button issues such as the wall from a variety of sources. Give Tampons a Chance Always necessary, always taxed. In this short, we take a look at the unequal access to menstrual hygiene products and learn more about how some students at Brown are trying to change the status quo.
Content: US Section No Evictions without Representation: Right to Counsel in Housing Courts, Cynthia Lu ‘20 Most people recognize the Miranda rights as an integral part of the criminal justice system, but few are aware that these rights only apply to criminal cases and exclude civil cases. In this article, Cynthia Lu discusses why Providence, which has one of the highest eviction rates in the nation, should implement a Rights to Counsel program to combat this injustice.
Content: Culture Section Content Board
Progressivism, Representation, and Voter Demographics Daniel Steinfeld ’20
BPR Content Board is home to more than 50 staff writers and publishes approximately 150 articles per semester exclusively online.
As America moves closer to being a majorityminority nation, progressives and Democrats are increasingly putting forward diverse candidates. What this strategy misses, Daniel Steinfeld argues, is that candidates with minority backgrounds don’t automatically appeal to minority voters. Rather, these voters often prioritize the ability of incumbent officials to pass favorable policies.
We wanted to celebrate the incredible work of our writers by highlighting a few exceptional pieces. If you are interested in reading more, please visit brownpoliticalreview.org.
DATA FEATURE KEEPIN’ IT BRIEF
KEEPIN’ IT B White House press briefings in the age of Trump
In the age of social media, Twitter serves as the main method of communication between the leader of the free world and his electorate. Still, the White House press briefing remains the traditional channel of nationally relevant news directly from the administration. Press briefings correspondents from nationally syndicated media outlets can ask any questions they want. The Q&A format of the briefing is intended to create a dialogue that is both rehearsed and extempora-
neous. While press secretaries are trained to craft careful responses and answer at their discretion, the direction of the conversation is determined by the press corps and the questions the Secretary takes. The cameras and microphones might be on the podium, but the content of the dialogue remains in the hands of the press. As the Trump administration threatens to abolish press briefings altogether, a historical analysis
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1993
Dee Dee Myers
1994
1995
Mike McCurry
Bill Clinton 1993-2001
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1996
1997
1998
Joe Lockhart
1999
2000
Jake Siewart
2001
2002
Ari Fleischer
2003
2004
Scott McClellan
George W. Bush 2001-2009
2005
DATA FEATURE KEEPIN’ IT BRIEF
BRIEF of the press briefing in America’s politicized media landscape illuminates what this disappearance could mean for the future of White House communications. In order to analyze trends, press briefings from 1993 to 2018 were separated by year and speaker (press secretary or press corps), then analyzed with a natural language processing software known as the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). The LIWC is designed to capture important linguistic, psycholog-
ical, and social processes in samples of text. The algorithm reports on a range of metrics, including the degree of perceived authenticity, analytical thinking, expertise, and emotional tone of the speaker, as well as male and female references and orientation of language toward the past, present, or future. President Trump often alleges that newspapers and the news media have treated him differently from past presidents. With regard to
index
“The cameras and microphones might be on the podium, but the content of the dialogue remains in the hands of the press.”
press briefings, this complaint has limited, though not insubstantial, merit. According to the LIWC authenticity metric, the questions asked by the media of President Trump’s press secretaries reflect a more guarded, distant stance toward the president and his administration. Results for the other three metrics, however, indicate that the press has approached the current administration with similar levels of confidence, expertise, and intellectual rigor when compared
presidential approval rating emotional tone (media):
a high number is associated with a more positive, upbeat style; a low number reveals greater anxiety, sadness, or hostility; a number around 50 suggests a lack of emotionality or different levels of ambivalence.
2006
2007
Tony Snow
2008
Dana Perino
2009
2010
Robert Gibbs
2011
Jay Carney
Barack Obama 2009-2017
2012
2013
2014
Josh Earnst
2015
2016
2017
Sean Spicer
2018
Sarah HuckabeeSanders
Donald Trump 2017present
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DATA FEATURE KEEPIN’ IT BRIEF
with previous administrations. In fact, the positivity exhibited by the press corps toward the press secretaries is currently higher than it was in the Obama administration. While this increase in positivity might be surprising, the trend may reflect a constructive adjustment by the press toward President Trump’s press secretaries, Sean Spicer and Sarah Sanders, whose lower analytical scores reflect more informal, off-the-cuff styles of speech. The less-analytical language by the secretaries may be in response to President Trump’s highly personal, informal style of rhetoric.
Despite increasing positivity levels among the press corps during recent press briefings, the current administration is threatening to discontinue or diminish this time-honored tradition. This risk should be of great concern: In an era of fake news and misinformation, the White House press briefing is a particularly important channel of direct communication between the White House and the people. Nevertheless, the presidential press briefing has been in decline in both duration and frequency under the Trump administration. From June to August 2018, the current press secretary, Sarah Sanders, spent 3 hours and 58 minutes behind the podium.
Bill Clinton 1993-2001
90 80 70 60 50 40 30
*a high number reflects formal, logi bers reflect more informal, persona
20 10 0 1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
70
60
Authenticity*
50
40
30
20
10
index:
*higher numbers are associated with a more honest, personal, and disclosing text; lower numbers suggest a more guarded, distanced form of discourse.
0 1993
1994
1995
1996
Bill Clinton 1993-2001
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1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
George W. Bush 2001-2009
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2
Barack Obam 2009-2017
DATA FEATURE KEEPIN’ IT BRIEF
George W. Bush
Donald Trump
Barack Obama
2001-2009
2017-present
2009-2017
Analytic thinking*
index:
ical, and hierarchical thinking; lower numal, here-and-now, and narrative thinking.
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Answers (Press Secretary) Questions (press corps)
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Comparatively, the Obama administration held approximately 39 hours of formal Q&A during an equivalent period in the summer of 2016. More recently, Sanders held just one briefing in September 2018, two in October, and one in November. Traditionally, press briefings happen on a daily basis.
“The current administration’s lack of regard for the briefings signals a clear break from tradition and a disinterest in directly informing the public of day-to-day administrative efforts. ”
Answers (Press Secretary) Questions (press corps)
2012
ma
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Donald Trump 2017-present
2018
While press briefings have certainly fluctuated in frequency and duration since they first became regular occurrences in 1993, the current administration’s lack of regard for the importance of the briefings signals a clear break from tradition and a disinterest in directly informing the public of dayto-day administrative efforts.
2015
2016
2017
2018
In recent years, social media has transformed the national political dialogue. Given this trend, Trump’s preference for Twitter over formal briefings could be a careful strategy to secure more personal control over political discourse. Sanders defends the president, stating that he “directly engages and is more accessible to the press than any president before him.” But as more informal channels of communication continue to replace the validity and professionalism that press briefings demand, the White House is increasingly becoming the exclusive author of its own national narrative.
AUTHOR Erika Bussmann ’22 is a prospective Applied Math-Economics and Behavioral Decision Sciences concentrator and a Data Associate at BPR. INFOGRAPHICS Klara Auerbach
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