Universal Voluntary Retirement Accounts: Secure retirements, competitive businesses and economic growth for America

Half of all workers lack access to a retirement plan at their workplace. And small businesses face high administrative and cost hurdles that often prevent them from offering retirement plans to employees. Universal Voluntary Retirement Accounts (UVRAs) are a straightforward alternative to the retirement savings dilemma facing today's workers and small businesses. UVRAs allow any individual worker to open a low-cost Individual Retirement Account (IRA), and make it easier for small businesses to recruit and retain employees by offering them a way to save for retirement

Boole's Method I. A Modern Version

A rigorous, modern version of Boole's algebra of logic is presented, based partly on the 1890s treatment of Ernst Schroder

First Class in Learning -- First Class in Life: How Washington's Early Childhood Education Career and Wage Ladder Delivers First-Class Care

High-quality early learning cannot be achieved or sustained when the bonds between teacher and child are broken because teachers leave their jobs to gain higher paid employment in order to support their own families. But a report by the Economic Policy Institute estimates that 40% of Washington's child care center teachers earn less than 200% of the federal poverty level.Based on this knowledge, in 2005 the Washington state Legislature passed -- and the Governor signed -- the Early Childhood Education Career and Wage Ladder (Wage Ladder) into law. The Wage Ladder improves the quality of child care by enabling early learning teachers to earn better compensation, based on educational advancement and achievement, as well as experience and job responsibility.The Wage Ladder is the only early learning program in Washington found to create statistically significant improvements in the quality of care. The cost is about $250 per child per year, and represents a frugal, robust, and evidence-based intervention that has catalyzed high-quality child care in Washington.With the Wage Ladder, early learning educators gain economic security and professional education, just the ingredients needed for high-quality early education and care. If we value our children, we will value their teachers and caregivers, not less so, but especially so in this recession.A suspension of the Wage Ladder will jeopardize the professional and educational progress of over 800 early learning teachers across the state. These early learning teachers will lose critical supports necessary to sustain their participation in the early care and education field -- and the children in their care will suffer the consequences

Pesticides: Can We Do Without Them?

These are the teaching notes for a case study in which students sift through and organize information on pesticide use presented to them from the perspective of different stakeholders. The case asks a fundamental question, "Can we do without pesticides?", and gives students an opportunity to explore the issues surrounding that question. Developed for an environmental issues course, the case would be appropriate for any introductory course that addresses human-environment interactions. As they pursue the case, students will be able to define the terms pest and pesticide and give specific examples; discuss benefits and harmful effects of pesticide use; discuss implications of banning pesticides; and articulate the ecological, ethical, economic, social, and political issues involved. Educational levels: High school, Undergraduate lower division