The Red Folder

Archived from September 23, 2024.

Key stories for the week, brought to you by Lindsey Zhao and the Red Folder team.

Reading for the sake of reading sucks. Telling yourself to read to win a round is nice but ineffective. This condensed news brief helps you understand current domestic and international issues, analyze the news, and gives you opportunities to read more.

Publishing since January 2024.

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Domestic Stories

4 key domestic stories for the week:

1) Stopgaps, Shutdowns, and Showdowns Christina Yang

Every year as the fiscal deadline approaches, Congress faces a federal budget impasse as they race against the clock to navigate quarreling political factions, temporary stopgap solutions, and looming government shutdowns.

Today, the two political parties have entered into another budget brinkmanship as they use the approaching fiscal deadline to gain leverage over one another. The two parties differ profoundly in the courses of action they believe the government should take to control its debt. Republicans are known for encouraging federal budget cuts, while Democrats are known for encouraging lifting the debt ceiling. Historically, this budget bickering has led to 21 government shutdowns in the last five decades, and Congress has just narrowly averted a shutdown over five times in this past year. Even though we have seen this film before, the latest iteration of this story has become increasingly dramatic with election politics racking up stakes even higher than the US debt.

On Sept. 18, 2024, just 12 days before the fiscal deadline, the House defeated yet another funding bill—Speaker Mike Johnson’s $1.6 trillion stopgap spending bill. Johnson’s proposal combines a six-month stopgap spending measure called a continuing resolution with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a contentious proposal that would require all individuals to present proof of citizenship in order to vote. Critics feel that the SAVE Act is unnecessary as it is already required to present identification at voting booths, so they believe this act should not be tied to any continuing resolutions regarding federal spending. However, Johnson and proponents of the plan believe that incorporating the SAVE act into the continuing resolution displays our dedication to election integrity and helps avoid future omnibus bills. Thus, he criticizes the mostly Democrat-controlled Senate for not being ahead enough on the annual appropriations process and even entertains a government shutdown. But this proposal couldn’t even pass in the GOP edged House, as it lost with a 220-202 vote.

Some Republicans are using Johnson’s budget proposal as a political tool and campaigning maneuver to force vulnerable Democrats into a catch-22 decision that gives Republicans the upper hand ahead of election season. In particular, former President Trump has endorsed Johnson’s proposal numerous times and has strongly urged a government shutdown in light of the bill being defeated. This further reflects the stakes at November’s election as the SAVE Act would represent a major victory for Trump on an issue that weighs heavily on the upcoming election.

Trump even took to social media to write: “If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape or form. YOU’VE BEEN PUSHED AROUND LONG ENOUGH BY THE DEMOCRATS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN.” However, the culmination of the budget issue reflects bigger problems than Trump’s political showdowns, as a potential government shutdown before an election yields serious consequences.

If a shutdown were to occur, thousands of federal workers would be furloughed, missing out on essential paychecks, and posing potential struggles for them to pay for necessities like rent and groceries. Additionally, the public would experience the disastrous impacts of a decrease or complete halt in essential federal services such as social security, Medicare, SNAP, and more. That’s over 38 million families who rely on these federal services left in limbo. For many, a government shutdown isn’t just a political showdown, but a time of genuine crisis. Thus, bipartisan cooperation is the only way to avoid government shutdown.

Bipartisan cooperation is not impossible this time around as Democrats entertain a straightforward and shorter three-month continuing resolution that is not tied to any voter legislation in order to finalize federal funding plans before a new president takes office. Many Republicans support this as they understand that the Senate would never pass Johnson’s legislation, and they also believe that six months is far too long to wait for increases in the Pentagon budget.

Given these circumstances, the majority of lawmakers, regardless of political party, do not support Johnson’s spending plan and are open to negotiations in order to prevent a shutdown at all costs. However, with Trump’s foot in the door, this issue will not die down any time soon. No matter what happens next, we do know that the outcome of the election and which party will subsequently control the White House and Congress will influence how the House and Senate combat future dollar dilemmas.

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3) Career and Technical Education: Technically Flawed Charlie Hui

When you enter the wild world of Google and search for Career and Technical Education, more likely than not you will find yourself clicking on a link from the Department of Education(DEA) claiming to explain the term, just to find a page not found- 404 error in your face. Honestly, the DEA’s website is a perfect representation of the current state of Career and Technical Education in the U.S.- an attempt to teach individuals about technology- that doesn’t work.

On July 31, 2018, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act was signed into law. Endorsed by the Perkins Institute, the legislation seeks to build upon a previous initiative back in 2006 (Perkins IV) to revamp the curriculum in American high schools and provide new opportunities for individuals to explore the jobs on the forefront of the changing labor market.

Despite the idea sounding great on paper, the program has serious shortfalls. To begin with, funding and allocation of funds for CTE vary greatly by state, with New Jersey and New Mexico having similar levels of enrollment yet New Jersey seeing more than double the funding of New Mexico ($350 per pupil vs $152) and a much looser discretion with how to spend it.

This gap in funding should not be surprising. When CTE was passed the innovation it was supposed to bring suddenly found itself in bureaucratic purgatory as the archaic infrastructure of different states took hold. To put it simply, states that already had advanced education infrastructure, like New Jersey ranked fourth in the country for education, would be able to capitalize on the new funding more effectively than ranked dead last in the country New Mexico.

But what does all this mean? It means that Career and Technical Education can’t truly work as intended until each state revamps its own definitions and ideas of what truly makes quality education. And that dear reader, starts with the respect (or lack thereof) school districts are currently showing our teachers.

Despite many states allocating funding for teachers to be trained to teach CTE curriculums and schools buying up new computers, printers, and other pieces of technology by the hundreds, what isn’t being upgraded is teacher pay. Specifically, there’s been a rapid turnover rate amongst educators, but where it’s the most evident is in CTE education. National reports showcase that 57% of administrators have difficulty staffing their CTE department compared to 39% for regular positions.

When you dig a layer deeper, the reason why becomes evident. Teachers simply aren’t getting paid enough. A CTE teacher is estimated to make 20% more in private industry, and in an increasingly expensive era to live in, more and more educators have been stuck making difficult decisions. This has resulted in schools staffing classrooms with lower-quality candidates or worse, staffing classrooms with no new teachers at all.

Across the state of Texas, students have observed their classes getting larger, their hallways getting smaller, and their teachers getting more strained than ever before. If Career and Technical Education is truly the future, its first priority needs to be revamping each state’s education curriculum using states like New Jersey as the model. Once funding is stabilized schools need to continue spending it on training and infrastructure, but each state needs to understand that the most important piece of infrastructure a school can have are educators who are truly valued.

4) Back to the Nuclear Age Boyana Nikolova

In the late 20th century, Americans were marred by constant worries: panic that war, economic collapse, but most importantly, nuclear disaster were imminent. This period of nuclear anxiety was therefore also earmarked by a change in US foreign policy. In the name of “national security,” government officials approved hundreds of new nuclear projects, all with the intent to proliferate and threaten the enemies of the country. Most of the reactors, facilities, and related materials from this era have now been shut down. One nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, however, is changing the narrative.

The Three-Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, a nuclear plant based in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania, was once a crucial production point during the Cold War. Once. In March of 1979, the most significant nuclear meltdown in the history of domestic nuclear energy production occurred. The accident was shockingly devoid of casualties: no immediate deaths or accidents were tracked to the meltdown, nor were any disease or cancer-related casualties.

Naturally, the plant was decommissioned after the incident. It represented the end to an age of mindless competition with the USSR, one which only ended in faux threats and avoidable accidents like this one. Nuclear worries could finally be put to rest, at least up until a few days ago.

Tech giant Microsoft and carbon-free energy producer Constellation Energy have announced plans to revive the Three-Mile Island plant with ambitions to reopen it by 2028. Needless to say, the country has responded in vastly different ways. Environmental activists are celebrating the action, calling it a step in the right direction for green energy. Nuclear energy has been lauded for its versatility and for the transition to more sustainable but equally capable energy sources, it's been a top candidate. The word “nuclear” has never truly had the best track record despite this, meaning safety and biohazard concerns have constantly gotten in the way of growth.

Now, the global community is aligned in its mission to promote sustainable energy and rebrand the nuclear industry. The new plant is expected to offset all of the electricity use from Microsoft’s data centers and still achieve more, given Londonderry Township is to reap major benefits. More than 3,400 jobs will be created for the city, while Pennsylvania gets an estimated 835 megawatts (enough to power 700,000 homes) added to its power grid and an additional $16 billion for its economy. All of this has sufficiently proved that nuclear energy may finally be worth the commotion, especially if it boosts economies and supplies jobs instead of just providing energy.

Furthermore, the Three-Mile Island will do more than add to the empirical data on the benefits of going nuclear. It’s going to rebrand the plant where the most serious nuclear meltdown in the history of the United States took place. The Three-Mile Island Nuclear Generating Situation will be renamed to the Crane Clean Energy Center, paying homage to the ex-chief executive of Constellation Energy, Chris Crane. This, compounded with ambitions to ramp up security on and off the plant, will literally give nuclear energy a new name and hopefully, a better reputation.

Best of all, Microsoft is aiming to inspire other tech companies to follow in its footsteps. The exigence behind reviving the plant all stemmed from the sheer amount of carbon Microsoft’s data centers were emitting. Of course, they’re far from alone. A report by the Guardian suspected that actual data emissions for four of the five “Big Tech” corporations are 662% higher than officially stated, with the reported numbers being concerning enough on their own. The current state of the tech industry is expected to worsen this: the proliferation of artificial intelligence is poised to increase demand for data centers (and thus, increase their emissions) by 160%. If data center activity does indeed follow these trends, Big Tech will have a lot to explain. If Google, Meta, and Apple don’t follow the trajectory Microsoft has set for them, they may soon be paying up for their carbon expenditures, losing both money and face.

Nuclear plants used to represent one of the most conflict-ridden parts of American history. Now, they’re being repurposed. By being turned from potential weapons to effective energy sources, nuclear facilities across the country could be impacted. All the US needs to do is to embrace going back to its former plants or more directly, back to the nuclear age.