Goal for the day: To deepen your understanding of our Model Senate Issues
The first half of class we reviewed the homework questions that each group came up with and then I presented material responding to the three areas that each committee wanted more depth on.
First up was immigration reform. And I started with playing two stories from NPR about President Obama's upcoming executive action changing the focus of our deportation enforcement. The first story talked about the constitutionality of this action. The second talked about the type of immigrants affected by the action.
I showed this You Tube video on the immigration process. I threw out some statistics from the Migration Policy Center, including the fact that 1 in 4 children under the age of 18 have a parent who is an immigrant (documented and undocumented). I also offered the following points on the economic impact of illegal immigration:
- low-skill, low-wage labor allows business to be more efficient by getting people with higher skill set doing what they do best
- lower labor costs allow restaurants and farms to get off the ground
- the social programs are already set up and there is marginal cost to providing services to these additional people
- undocumented workers have contributed 10% of funding for the total Social Security Trust Fund
- costs of illegal immigration primarily hit emergency rooms and schools and some public assistance
- these costs are concentrated in specific communities
- lowered wages of U.S. workers w/o diploma (25 million or roughly 10% of U.S. workforce) from 0.4 to 7.4%
After break, I gave a tour of the Student Resources section on my DP that has a wealth of resources on both issues.
We then moved to review and deepen our discussion of climate change. I showed this quick summary of the U.S.-China deal on emissions targets just announced last week. I also created this table summarizing important facts about different sources of energy. I then discussed this recent article in the NY Times about India's embrace of coal as way to promote development. With the U.S. and China joining Europe in setting emissions targets, India is the next in line for action. Getting them on board will make the prospects for a global treaty coming out of the Paris Talks in 2015 much more likely. I also showed some images of mountaintop coal mining in Appalachia and fracking pads that are becoming more and more common across the country.
After break, we caught up with Bob Inglis, the Republican who acknowledge climate change and got voted out of office. I put on an excerpt from Years of Living Dangerously that showed him going door-to-door promoting his idea of a revenue neutral carbon tax in Representative Paul Ryan's district in Wisconsin.
We then broke back down into committees and students decided on what questions to discuss in seminar on Friday.
Homework due on Thursday, November 20th
None. But use the Student Resources page to prep for seminar
The first half of class we reviewed the homework questions that each group came up with and then I presented material responding to the three areas that each committee wanted more depth on.
First up was immigration reform. And I started with playing two stories from NPR about President Obama's upcoming executive action changing the focus of our deportation enforcement. The first story talked about the constitutionality of this action. The second talked about the type of immigrants affected by the action.
I showed this You Tube video on the immigration process. I threw out some statistics from the Migration Policy Center, including the fact that 1 in 4 children under the age of 18 have a parent who is an immigrant (documented and undocumented). I also offered the following points on the economic impact of illegal immigration:
- low-skill, low-wage labor allows business to be more efficient by getting people with higher skill set doing what they do best
- lower labor costs allow restaurants and farms to get off the ground
- the social programs are already set up and there is marginal cost to providing services to these additional people
- undocumented workers have contributed 10% of funding for the total Social Security Trust Fund
- costs of illegal immigration primarily hit emergency rooms and schools and some public assistance
- these costs are concentrated in specific communities
- lowered wages of U.S. workers w/o diploma (25 million or roughly 10% of U.S. workforce) from 0.4 to 7.4%
After break, I gave a tour of the Student Resources section on my DP that has a wealth of resources on both issues.
We then moved to review and deepen our discussion of climate change. I showed this quick summary of the U.S.-China deal on emissions targets just announced last week. I also created this table summarizing important facts about different sources of energy. I then discussed this recent article in the NY Times about India's embrace of coal as way to promote development. With the U.S. and China joining Europe in setting emissions targets, India is the next in line for action. Getting them on board will make the prospects for a global treaty coming out of the Paris Talks in 2015 much more likely. I also showed some images of mountaintop coal mining in Appalachia and fracking pads that are becoming more and more common across the country.
After break, we caught up with Bob Inglis, the Republican who acknowledge climate change and got voted out of office. I put on an excerpt from Years of Living Dangerously that showed him going door-to-door promoting his idea of a revenue neutral carbon tax in Representative Paul Ryan's district in Wisconsin.
We then broke back down into committees and students decided on what questions to discuss in seminar on Friday.
Homework due on Thursday, November 20th
None. But use the Student Resources page to prep for seminar