Editorial Roundup: New England
Rutland Herald. January 19, 2024.
Editorial: A silver lining
Back in the days of quarantine, there was a surge in people getting outside. COVID provided an excuse to get some fresh air and exercise.
A new national report would suggest that as inconvenient as the pandemic proved to be on many fronts, many Americans put in place better dietary and outdoor recreation routines. Now, a few years out, we can see that the ripple effect of those actions has had a positive impact on the economy.
Vermont, in particular, has seen significant numbers of folks visiting the state since the pandemic to take in our natural gifts.
According to the state, there are 60 million potential tourists who live within a day’s drive. According to a news release from the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative last year, “many visit to move in our scenic mountains, after which they stay overnight at our lodges, dine at local restaurants, and shop at local retailers, helping to sustain the small businesses that are the fabric of our communities. Visitor spending creates jobs, generates tax revenue, drives growth in the state’s overall economy, and helps maintain our natural landscape as a vital economic resource.”
“The ripple effect of outdoor recreation is visible in our vibrant downtowns and village centers with Vermonters and visitors focused on healthy outdoor pursuits and innovative businesses attracting employees to be part of building the communities we want to live in,” said Kelly Ault, executive director of the Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance, in that news release.
According to VOBA, “the state has 8,000-plus miles of public-access trails, including the Appalachian, Long, Catamount and Cross Vermont trails, and including the newly opened 93-mile Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, along with 40 alpine and ski areas with over 8,800 skiable miles, hundreds of navigable waterways, a growing hut system and the Velomont trail, Vermont is rich in recreational opportunities and assets.”
That comes down to investing in outdoor recreation at the community level can continue to foster Vermont’s visitor economy, through support for workforce recruitment and retention, bike- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, and our small businesses, VOBA said at the time.
So how much of this growth in outdoor recreation can be attributed to COVID?
Maria Villarreal, a survey statistician in the Census Bureau’s Accommodations, Entertainment and Consumer Services Branch, said her division took a “detailed look at estimated revenue of employer firms for select indoor and outdoor recreation industries affected by COVID-19 and a glimpse into their recovery.
According to Villarreal, many fitness, recreation and other social activities moved outdoors when the pandemic began in 2020. An estimated 7.1 million more Americans enjoyed an outdoor activity in 2020 — the first year of the pandemic — than in 2019, according to the Outdoor Industry Association’s 2021 Outdoor Participation Trends Report.
In 2020, 53% of Americans ages 6 and older participated in outdoor recreation at least once, the highest participation rate on record, she wrote this week.
“As the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged communities and forced a nationwide shutdown, outdoor spaces became places of refuge to safely socialize, improve physical and mental health, connect with family and recover from screen fatigue. Remarkably, 7.1 million more Americans participated in outdoor recreation in 2020 than in the year prior. Despite these gains, nearly half of the U.S. population did not share in the proven, positive health outcomes of outdoor physical activity,” she wrote.
The increase in outdoor activity is also reflected in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, inflation-adjusted GDP for the outdoor recreation economy increased 18.9% in 2021, compared to a 5.9% for the overall U.S. economy.
Notably, the Outdoor Participation Trend Report found:
— Just over 48% of females ages 6 and older participated in 2020, up from 46% in 2019.
— In 2020, 160.7 million Americans ages 6 and older participated in at least one outdoor activity.
— In each of the last three years, the number of outdoor participants has grown more than 3% annually, which would suggest that some of those outdoor habits have become routines.
Participants went on a collective 11.4 billion outdoor outings. Despite a COVID-related jump, the number of times that participants engaged in outdoor recreation continued to decline in recent years.
Overall, though, the Census Bureau could confirm that COVID-19 inspired huge participation growth.
Economically, golf courses and country clubs saw decreases initially, but have rebounded since. The same is true for the nation’s ski areas, as well as bowling alleys and amusement and theme parks.
According to the Census report, “While select recreation industries experienced double-digit percent decreases in revenues in 2020, they experienced double-digit percent increases in 2021.”
Still, 2021 revenue for some industries did not fully rebound to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.
At the time of quarantine and the height of the pandemic, we were searching for silver linings. Apparently there was one after all. Hopefully, it means more healthy Vermonters, and a healthy economy for the state’s robust outdoor recreation industry.
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Boston Globe. January 22, 2024.
Editorial: Massachusetts has the nation’s highest child-care costs. If you can find a spot, that is.
Governor Maura Healey has several ideas for bolstering child care, including adjusting an existing grant program to focus on Gateway City 4-year-olds.
High-quality child care can set a child up for success in school and life. It’s vital for parents. And when child-care options were limited during COVID-19 lockdowns and employees had to make do, employers realized how crucial child care is for them, too.
“Child care is a lynchpin to the health and well-being not only of families … but it’s essential to everything we do as a state,” Governor Maura Healey said at a Tuesday press conference in Malden, where she announced a plan to expand child-care access.
Healey’s plan, which she also touted in her State of the Commonwealth address, provides important recognition that child care in Massachusetts must be more affordable and accessible.
Right now, Massachusetts has the dubious distinction of the nation’s highest child-care costs — if parents can find a spot at all. That’s a problem for parents with an infant and a problem for parents with an older child ready for an educational pre-K program.
Healey would increase eligibility for child-care financial assistance and give money directly to child-care providers. Her goal of giving every Gateway City 4-year-old access to free or subsidized prekindergarten by the end of 2026 is a noble one and could become a template to expand efforts statewide.
But as with any ambitious proposal, the devil will be in the details, which lawmakers will have to carefully scrutinize. In implementing universal pre-K, Healey will have to ensure that programs have enough capacity to meet the increased demand in a high-quality way and that the programs offered meet the needs of families who seek to use them. The fine print of the Healey administration’s vision would make significant changes to — and eliminate some flexibility in — a grant program that currently subsidizes several cities’ early education programs.
A child-care center in Massachusetts costs an average of $19,961 annually for a toddler, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The state provides subsidies to families earning less than 50 percent of the state median income, meaning a family of three earning less than $61,106 is currently eligible. Healey’s proposal would expand eligibility to families earning 85 percent of the state median income, making a family of three earning $103,880 eligible. The proposal would help an estimated 4,000 additional families next year at a cost of $75 million. (The amount of aid depends on family income and size.)
But increasing subsidies only helps if there is enough money and enough programs to accept these children. The state child-care assistance program today has a waiting list of around 15,000 families.
At Healey’s press conference, Kerry Bryant, a communications professional, said she applied to seven child-care programs while pregnant. Her child only got into one, at a YMCA, before her maternity leave ended. The situation can be harder for families with subsidies since not all providers accept the state payments.
The state is taking steps to expand capacity, and policy makers will have to monitor whether these are sufficient. The Board of Early Education and Care recently increased subsidy rates, giving providers an estimated $65 million more annually, which should encourage more providers to accept subsidies.
Healey’s proposal to spend $475 million extending the Commonwealth Cares for Children grants through fiscal 2025 could also address capacity. These grants, distributed to all child-care providers through a formula, were started to stabilize providers during the pandemic. In a 2023 survey conducted by the Department of Early Education and Care, 1,161 providers with 20,800 seats said they would close without C3 grants. Providers said grants helped them retain staff and delay tuition increases. The licensed capacity of the child-care system now exceeds pre-pandemic, although some spots are unused because of staff vacancies. Some schools are also under-enrolled, suggesting a mismatch between the type and location of care available and parent need.
Ideally, C3 grants would become permanent so providers could rely on them.
The increase in subsidies would help a broad range of parents and children of different ages. The most headline-catching part of Healey’s proposal, though, is much more targeted. She also wants to provide free or subsidized prekindergarten for all Gateway City 4-year-olds, which Healey describes as a first step toward universal statewide pre-K. As the name implies, pre-K is meant to be educational, preparing young children to enter the classroom.
To accomplish this, Healey intends to modify the existing Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative, which is now operating in 21 cities (including 12 Gateway Cities), and expand it to the remaining 14 Gateway Cities.
Currently, the $20.5 million program offers grants for public school districts to partner with private day-care providers to improve preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. Depending on the district, that can mean expanding hours, adding seats, offering subsidies, improving special education, or conducting professional development.
According to state education officials, the goal of the revised program would be for the state to pay for pre-K for all Gateway City 4-year-olds regardless of family income for a six-hour school day during the school year. Aftercare or summer care would be paid for by the family or the school district, if the district chooses to use local money. Programs would be required to use an evidence-based curriculum and offer special education services.
The goal would be to enroll an additional 5,700 Gateway City 4-year-olds by 2026, for a total of 23,000 children in these programs. The cost is estimated at $38.7 million in fiscal 2025 and likely more in future years.
Lawmakers will have to consider whether this is the best model. Other models might, for example, give districts more flexibility in using state money to pay for different hours or subsidies, since most private providers offer full-day, full-year care.
Lawmakers will also have to consider whether Gateway Cities are the right population to start with. Healey’s approach would reach many poor children who tend to have worse educational outcomes. But it excludes other needy communities like rural Western Massachusetts and Cape Cod that have too few child-care providers for their population.
Healey also signed an executive order creating a task force to examine additional ways to reduce costs, increase capacity, and improve the quality of child care and early education, including by training new workers. That is an important recognition that while her proposals are a strong first step, they’re only that — a first step.
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Boston Herald. January 23, 2024.
Editorial: Healey plans add to struggle for Mass. restaurants & hotels
If the Healey administration made Massachusetts as welcoming to businesses as it does to the influx of migrants, we might not be feeling the fallout of a revenue shortfall.
We have a “right to shelter,” how about a “right to thrive” for restaurants, hotels and others doing business in the Bay State?
Healey and Co. succeeded in ramping up the work authorization process for immigrants. Under Healey, anyone who attended a Massachusetts high school for three years is now eligible to receive in-state tuition and apply for state financial aid, documented or not. And Massachusetts residents can apply for a driver’s license, regardless of immigration status.
All these steps are to set immigrants and their families on the path to success.
But how about established businesses trying to get by or get ahead?
Healey threw spike strips on their path last week when she announced legislation allowing cities and towns to hike taxes on meals and hotel stays.
Healey’s plan calls for raising local taxes on meals by as much as 33% and on hotel stays by up to 15%. That’s just what the restaurant and hospitality industry in this state needs.
Massachusetts Restaurant Association CEO Steve Clark said he does not think increasing the meals tax is “necessary” because it is always indexed to inflation. As menu prices rise, so does the amount collected from the tax, he said.
“The vast majority of meals tax payers are residents and citizens of the towns. So why are we taking more money out of household budgets when budgets are strapped right now?” Clark told the Herald.
Because taking more money out of household budgets is a revenue stream, and Massachusetts wants it.
There will be consequences in addition to people thinking twice about going out for a nice dinner.
Massachusetts, and Boston in particular, pitches itself as a prime spot for conventions. The city took a hit during the pandemic, but business is coming back. But there’s a new problem.
Milt Herbert, executive director of the Boston Convention Marketing Center said last week that the city is short of the number of hotel rooms it needs near the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, the State House News Service reported.
“We don’t have enough hotel inventory that’s approximate to the BCEC,” Herbert said. “We are short compared to most other cities that we usually, typically compete against.”
And Boston is one of the most expensive cities to hold conventions in, he said, partially driven by hotel prices. “We’re regularly dealing with customers into the future where the rate barometer is $350 a night, that’s what our customers are signing contracts for. And San Diego is not saying that. San Francisco is not saying that. Dallas and Houston are not saying that.”
Add a spike in taxes on meals and hotel stays, and Massachusetts gives convention planners more reasons to add us to the “maybe” pile.
Restaurant and hotel owners aren’t the enemy, they provide jobs for residents and revenue to cities and the state. And they do it in a tough, competitive climate.
Healey should do at least as much for people and businesses who’ve hung on through hard times and are trying to thrive as she does for those who’ve arrived looking for a better future.
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Bangor Daily News. January 23, 2024.
Editorial: It’s good that America and Maine are becoming more diverse and tolerant
This is an editorial we shouldn’t have to write.
We aren’t naive. We know racism and racist people exist, across the country and in Maine. Still, we are sometimes shocked that these people are emboldened to share their racism in such open and threatening ways.
That latest example is a disgusting email that was sent to the diversity, equity and inclusion coordinator for the South Portland school system. Mohammed Albehadli was so upset by the email that he quit his job, and may leave Maine.
Superintendent Timothy Matheney described the message as “the most vile email” he’s seen in his 35-year career. The email is being investigated by South Portland police and the Cumberland County district attorney’s office, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations has asked federal and state law enforcement to investigate the email as a possible hate crime.
Matheney did not provide the full email to the Portland Press Herald, which first reported about it. But he provided this sickening excerpt:
“White parents don’t want their children going to school with black and brown kids who don’t belong in the United States,” one part of the email reads. “White people in Maine don’t appreciate what you are trying to do in (South) Portland.”
Matheney and South Portland School Board Chair Jennifer Ryan stressed that the diversity, equity and inclusion work will continue.
“We will continue that work and not allow the vocal minority to deter us from our long-term goals,” Ryan told the Press Herald.
“I think this is a reality check for all of us that hatred and racism is in our region and in our very midst, and we need to continue to work on ensuring a safe place for all our families regardless of their race, ethnicity or other differences,” Matheney said.
We understand Albehadli’s fear and frustration. It is a loss to everyone when people like him are driven out of these jobs and our communities, even those who feel threatened by Albehadli and his work. Perhaps more than anyone, it is these people who need to engage with different ideas and people, and grow from that experience.
The person who threatened Albehadli didn’t do so because they are strong and powerful. They did so because they likely feel weak and insecure. They likely feel unsettled, maybe even threatened, by the changes that are happening in this country. Although it is sometimes difficult, and progress toward equality is frustratingly slow and uneven, America, in general, is becoming more diverse and more tolerant. That is a good thing.
More important, the author of this malicious email doesn’t speak for Mainers, or even the residents of South Portland.
Like us, many people here do appreciate work to ensure Maine is a welcoming and increasingly diverse state. Many people here do want their children to go to school with children of different races and backgrounds. And to suggest that some Black and Brown kids don’t belong in the U.S. is just plain offensive. Black and Brown people have been in the U.S. for centuries, many of them longer than the families of current white residents.
While there has been a backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion work, like what Albehadli led, there also has been much-needed backlash against white supremacy in Maine. Last year, the leader of a neo-Nazi group said he was abandoning plans for a training ground in Springfield because people had made it “ too dangerous ” to continue his vile work in Maine.
Still, hate crimes are on the rise, nationally and in Maine. That, and the shameful intimidation of Albehadli, are a reminder to the majority of Mainers who are not hateful that there is a lot of work yet to be done to support people of all backgrounds who have chosen to make the Pine Tree State their home.
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Portland Press Herald. January 20, 2024.
Editorial: Poverty, not parenting, is the reason students are missing school
Families are getting help from local schools. What they really need are the resources to get by.
If you came from a family where going to school each day was a given, and the idea of missing class was unheard of short of emergency or illness, it’s easy to think the worst of parents whose kids are chronically absent.
Maine students missing school at alarmingly high rates, particularly since the pandemic, and educators say it’s not the result of widespread neglect by parents or guardians. Instead, there are too many families without the resources to get by, making daily attendance difficult.
Schools have been creative in dealing with chronic absenteeism, using new programs that reach out to struggling families and help them overcome barriers that are keeping their kids from getting to school every day.
Every effort to strengthen the relationship between schools and families is welcome. But a problem this size isn’t going to be solved on a case-by-case basis, and it cannot be left to the schools alone.
It may manifest itself in different ways, but the chief reason students are missing so much school is not wayward, neglectful parents but poverty, which too often leaves people with nothing but bad choices.
EVERYDAY STRUGGLE
Last year in Maine, 27.3% of K-12 students missed more than 10% of the school year, down only slightly from 31.5% the previous year. Prior to the pandemic, the rate was 16.8% – still too high. However, the rate is twice as high for poor students as it is for their better-off counterparts.
It’s no surprise to the people who work with these families every day and know the challenges they face. Teachers and administrators say the kids who miss school often have difficult home lives. They may have to care for siblings or work a job to help out. Their parents, or the students themselves, may be dealing with physical and mental illness that is not getting the treatment it needs. Or they may be homeless, couch-surfing from one place to another to find shelter.
When simply finding food, shelter and care is an hour-by-hour struggle, getting to school some days becomes a low priority. Sometimes, with unstable transportation and housing, it’s impossible.
Schools have responded by reaching out to these families. It’s the right thing for schools to do, and it’s certainly appreciated by the families who are helped. It would be far more effective, however, to target the poverty. We allow this stark economic disadvantage to persist even though we have policy tools to fix it.
HOW TO FIX IT
Millions of children were pulled out of poverty when the child tax credit was expanded during the pandemic. They were plunged back into poverty when the expanded credit was repealed in 2021; in all, the child poverty rate went from 5.2%, a historic low, to 12.4%.
Why are we surprised that more families are struggling to get by, and to get their kids to school on a regular basis?
Congress could deal a significant blow to this problem, and many others stemming from the poverty rates we’ve enabled, if it just committed to a robust child tax credit that sufficiently targets the most vulnerable families.
Maine included an enhanced state-level credit in its most recent budget, but that can only go so far. An expanded credit has been included in federal budget discussions in Congress, but the proposal is relatively weak compared to the one passed in 2021 and later repealed, and even that hasn’t won support from Republicans.
Three years ago, one decision by Congress cut the child poverty rate in half, a resounding victory. It should have been the first step toward recognizing that the problem is poverty, not the people experiencing it, and that a relatively small amount of help for these families can go a long way.
Instead, Congress ended help for millions of families. Parents and kids who were just keeping their heads above water had a lifeline cut – and still we wonder why so many families are drowning.
END