We need to talk about this population more often and come up with solutions to help them secure employment. The reality is that more and more people with criminal histories are trying to enter the work force but failed background checks keep thousands of people from getting hired, some for offenses that are decades old and as minor as disorderly conduct, drinking and having too much fun in the street with friends. Some of those being denied work have never been convicted of a crime, only arrested.

Every year, more than 700,000 people are released from state and federal prisons: they all need to find work so that they may support themselves and their families, contribute to their communities and to ensure poverty, frustration and desperation don’t force them to return to a life of crime. There are no federal laws that protect individuals with a criminal past from being discriminated against by employers. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, however, does suggest that employers take in account the severity of the offense, the amount of time that has passed since the crime was committed and how the crime relates to the position being applied for.

We need more than EEOC guidelines. There has to be a conscious effort by the business community to weed out practices that discriminate against ex-offenders. Most accept that some with a criminal past will not be able to work in certain sectors; for example, a child predator cannot work with children. But there are countless other positions this individual can hold that won’t present a danger to society. Employers also need to understand that, just because someone committed a crime once does not mean they’ll do it again. In fact, research shows that the farther back the crime occurred, the less likely the offender will be to repeat that mistake.

Current hiring practices are locking millions out of the work force. This discrimination not only hurts the individuals in question, it damages America’s long-term economic health. We’re losing millions of workers and need to help keep our country moving forward.

Fringe groups have been alleging that Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. since he announced his run for the presidency three years ago. At the time, he submitted an official record of birth, a document most states give to anyone seeking a copy of their birth certificate, as proof of his citizenship. But the birthers–those who maintain Obama was not born in the U.S. – didn’t accept that document; they wanted to see his original birth certificate.

The President, who chose to rise above the foolishness, said it was finally time to dispel the rumors because the media was giving more attention to this non-controversy than it was to important national issues, such as the economy and public safety. When Obama released the document, he pointedly compared those who were making an issue out of where he was born to side shows and carnival barkers…and he was right; that is exactly what Trump has become. No one outside of the fringe is taking Trump seriously as a presidential candidate. Instead, people tune in to see what shocking thing he’ll say next. Americans aren’t looking to Trump to leadership – they are looking to him for laughs.

Now, Trump wants to see the President’s school transcripts, saying he doesn’t know how the President, who admitted to not being the most studious youngster, was accepted into Harvard Law. Trump maintains the President got into Harvard because of affirmative action. We don’t know how Obama got into Harvard Law…but he did. And he went on to edit the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year and became president of the journal in his second year. Even if affirmative action opened the doors of Harvard to Obama, he made the most of the opportunity given to him and excelled. And that is all that matters.

The President should not bow to these latest demands…he should treat Trump like the clown he is: trapped in a big media circus of his own making.

According to a recently released NAACP report entitled “Misplaced Priorities: Over Incarcerate and Under Educate,” state spending on prisons in the last twenty years grew six times faster than education spending. In fact, 33 states increased prison spending in 2009 while simultaneously reducing education funding.

Much of this increase in prison spending can be blamed on mandatory sentencing laws that require mandatory jail time for even low-level, non-violent offenses rob the sentencing judge of the ability to hand down a punishment that is more suitable to the crime. Instead, offenders who might be better served in a drug rehab program are sent to prison, causing prison populations to go up and requiring prison budgets to increase in order to keep up with the ‘demand’.

As states around the country are forced to make tough cuts to balance their budgets, very few are pulling funds from those allocated for prisons. Instead, they are pulling money from education, healthcare and social services, programs that serve those in need. This is definitely not the right approach.

Reducing the prison population and, in turn, reducing prison budgets, stabilizes state budgets so that other key programs won’t have to take such hard hits. Restoring the judge’s ability to use creative sentencing for non-violent offenders is one way to reduce prison populations around the country. Employing alternative sentencing methods, such as home confinement and drug treatment, is another.

Our priorities as a nation are currently skewed…we are placing far more emphasis on incarcerating people than we are on educating and healing them. By taking a smarter approach to crime, one that looks for lower cost ways to punish and rehabilitate offenders, we can free up billions of dollars that can be put to much better use.

Annual prison spending has risen from $10 billion to $52 billion over the last thirty years. Recent data from the Pew Center on the States shows that the additional money is clearly not going to prisoner rehabilitation efforts. More than 40 percent of inmates eventually return to prison, most of them within three years. The recidivism rate hasn’t changed much in a decade and is a strong sign that prisons aren’t doing the best job they can to prepare offenders for life outside of prison.

States around the country are grappling with fiscal uncertainty and are forced to cut programs that serve the poor and elderly in order to balance their budgets. These tactics, however, do not take into consideration the needs of the people, nor do they protect the long-term financial health of the state.

What does? Investing in education. Many, if not the majority, of prison inmates did not graduate high school. By catching students before they fall through the cracks and reducing the number of dropouts will, over time, reduce the prison population and save the states money. Sending low-level drug offenders to rehab instead of prison will also help. It’s less expensive to rehabilitate an addict than it is to incarcerate them. Going this route allows states to help those who need it and reduce their prison costs at the same time.

Critics would say that this approach is soft on crime. No one is saying that criminals should not be punished. It’s just more beneficial to everyone involved if we punish them smartly.

To be fair, this strategy is not going to save money overnight. The goal is to create a plan that is sustainable, one that will bring huge returns over the long term. Reducing prison costs by reducing incarceration rates saves money so governments don’t have to cut services like Medicaid and Medicare that the most vulnerable in our communities rely upon.

More than 200,000 jobs were created in February and March 2011 – the most jobs created over a two-month period since 2006. Big cities, which need jobs the most, are fairing very well. According to the Department of Labor, more than 75-percent of America’s 372 cities reported lower unemployment rates in February 2011. Among those cities that saw a drop in unemployment claims are Los Angeles, New York and Miami.

This is good news for African Americans, who primarily live in large cities and struggle to find work more than other ethnic groups during economic recessions, and for the nation as a whole. Continued job growth – no matter how slowly it happens – is a sign that our economy is, indeed, rebounding.

President Obama recently launched his bid for re-election. With Republicans, and even some Democrats, constantly taking shots at his presidency, Obama is in for what will arguably be one of the hardest fought campaigns of his political career. One of his key messages on the campaign trail should be that his approach to job creation is working. Republicans, with all their spin and fear mongering, will try to convince the voting public that there are no jobs and that America is worse off than it was in 2008. President Obama has the data to prove that he delivered on one of his biggest campaign promises. He has to make sure that his messaging rises above the conservative noise and that, despite push back from political opponents, he is working in the best interest of the average American.

At the same time, elected officials at both the national and state levels must continue to ramp up job creation efforts. Re-election or no, getting Americans back to work is one of this country’s top priorities. Those in power should make sure they are doing everything possible to ensure that the unemployment rate continues to fall.

An investigation by USA Today into drastic test score turnarounds at Noyes elementary, a Washington, DC public school, revealed that seventh grade students in one classroom at the school each had, on average, nearly 13 wrong answers that were erased and changed to the correct answer.

Coincidence? Maybe not. In 2006, 10% of the school’s students “passed” the standardized math test. In 2008, nearly 60 percent did. Tests scores showed the school made similar gains on the reading portion of the test. Perhaps the teachers simply worked harder and ensured students absorbed the lessons? Maybe. But it’s important, for comparison, to note that the average wrong to right erasure for seventh graders throughout the D.C. public school system was less than one.

Noyes elementary school isn’t the only one with questionable score improvement. 58 Atlanta schools are under investigation because high rates of wrong answers changed to right on student answer sheets raised flags. Similar occurrences have raised red flags in Detroit as well.

If this is, in fact, cheating, who is responsible? Teachers? School principals? No one is sure but one thing is certain: if it’s happening in DC, Detroit and Atlanta, it is happening in other cities. Changing test answers to fake improvement doesn’t help our students. It hurts them. That is why a federal task force needs to be formed to investigate drastic improvement on standardized tests at our nation’s public schools. We want to believe that our teachers and principals are honest but we also know that fear – of being fired if students perform poorly – or greed – teachers and principals at Noyes received bonuses when scores improved – are powerful motivators.

There also needs to be another way to measure student performance. We cannot simply rely on standardized tests. Periodic monitoring can easily show how students and teachers perform in the classroom. Required essays and math ‘projects’ will show us that students can actually apply what they are taught. Diversifying the way we measure student performance – and deciding the fate of teachers, principals and schools – will also help keep things honest.

The United States Justice Department spent 10 months investigating the city’s police department, at the mayor’s request, and discovered a deeply dysfunctional and corrupt system, one that regularly abuses its power and the city’s residents.

New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu contacted federal officials just after he took office, making good on a campaign promise to clean up the Crescent City’s long dirty police department. The first step? Figuring out just how widespread the problem actually was.

The investigation uncovered some shocking truths about the New Orleans Police Department, truths that reek of racial profiling and discrimination. For every one white person that is arrested in the city, 16 blacks are arrested, and calls for police assistance by non-English speakers were often unanswered.

But the troubling news doesn’t stop there. Reports of the use of excessive force by officers are widespread and the department has been accused of failing to investigate serious crimes.

So what’s next for the N.O.P.D? How does this troubled department ‘make it right’?

Obviously, city officials can’t be trusted to do this alone; they’ve dropped the ball for far too long. Federal oversight is necessary to help clean up the department and manage it until it proves it can manage itself properly.

New Orleans has made great progress since Hurricane Katrina roared in, causing billions in damage and taking thousands of lives. But the city, with all of its history and culture, cannot be truly great – or say it has rebounded – until its police department gets on the right side of the law.

The Head Start Program is yet another social program the Republican Party has targeted for major cuts. Head Start provides educational and health services to low-income children and their families. Head Start has been one of the most studied early education programs since it began more than 40 years ago. The program has proven itself to be one of the United State’s most successful social experiments and an efficient use of taxpayer dollars. Research shows students who complete Head Start do better both socially and academically and are less likely to drop out of high school.

Yet, Republicans want to cut the program by more than 22-percent. They say Head Start isn’t as effective as supporters claim. To be fair, some studies show that achievement levels of some Head Start attendees start to drop off after first grade. However, this could speak to the quality of the school they enroll in after the program. Additionally, the program’s opponents say too much money is spent maintaining the program and not enough on enrolling new students.

It’s not clear if the Republican Party is against poor people, working mothers, low-income children or all three. All of the cuts it’s leaders have moved to make have been to programs the support and empower the poor. If they are successful in taking away the building blocks that many have used to create a foundation for future success, America’s middle class will continue to shrink and the number of families living below the poverty line will increase.

If the Republicans were serious about balancing the budget they’d take a look at programs with inflated and misappropriated budgets, starting with the military. Sure, it’s critical that the U.S. has a strong military in place but studies have shown that program is rife with wasteful spending. It’s not the only area where money is either being wasted or being misused. A good, honest budget scrub will show the Republicans – and Democrats – just which programs can handle significant cuts.
If you believe in the power of Head Start and can testify to how it helped a child – past or present – in your life, call your elected officials. Let them know that they absolutely cannot cut Head Start. Our children’s – and our nation’s – success depends on it.