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🎓 The first university to do so, Harvard rejected policy changes requested by the Trump administration, like overhauling hiring and reporting rule-breaking international students, which it said were illegal. (Gifted link)
⚓️ The U.S. Naval Academy removed hundreds of books from its shelves, including Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” — local alumni, residents, and former USNA faculty held a public reading of the book in protest.
Governments doing good
Photo: Isabel Miranda/The Guardian
New Mexico made childcare free and lifted 120,000 families out of poverty
New Mexico is one of the poorest states in the U.S., and has long ranked worst in the nation for child wellbeing. But three years ago, it became the first U.S. state to provide free childcare to a majority of families — and its poverty rate began to fall.
The state made childcare free for families making up to 400% of the federal poverty level — about $124,000 for a family of four. About half of children in New Mexico qualified. It also raised wages for childcare workers, notably subsidizing its reimbursement rates on the actual cost of providing care, and lifting them out of poverty, too.
The result: one of the biggest changes in the country of the number of people falling below the federal poverty line and 120,000 fewer New Mexicans living in poverty.
Why is this good news? The U.S. ranks 40th on a UNICEF ranking of childcare policies in 41 high-income countries (only Slovakia is worse), with no federal, universal childcare and some of the highest childcare costs in the world. New Mexico sets an incredible example for what’s possible around the country.
Sierra Leone has reduced maternal mortality rates by 74% since 2000
Maternal mortality rates have fallen by 74% in Sierra Leone since 2000, from 1,680 pregnant people dying for every 100,000 live births, to 440 per 100,000 in 2020.
While that is still heartbreakingly high — rates in the safest countries are around 100 times lower — this incredible progress, especially considering that in 2000, Sierra Leone had the highest maternal mortality rate in the world alongside South Sudan.
The country achieved this turnaround by focusing on expanding healthcare, increasing skilled medical staff retention, and improving access to medicines and treatments. In 2010, it rolled out free healthcare to both pregnant women and children.
🧦 More good: You may remember that John and Hank Green’s Awesome Socks Club and Awesome Coffee Club are building a maternal health hospital in Sierra Leone to help keep this progress going, too!
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