In The News
Fortunately, once again, there are solutions afoot that we can get behind to start turning back the tide. U.S. Representative John Sarbanes's (D-MD) Government By The People Act would provide refundable tax credits for average Americans who make small donations -- and it would match and leverage those contributions by a 6-1 ratio. A similar bill called the Fair Elections Now Act sits in the U.S. Senate, waiting for action and passage.
Thanks to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the overhaul of No Child Left Behind, millions more students will be rolling up their sleeves and getting their sneakers wet, to become healthier, more successful in school and more engaged with science.
It's taken eight years for the seeds of this success to bloom. Since 2007, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes have championed the changed policy, starting by introducing the No Child Left Inside (NCLI) Act, which provided critical language used in the recent bill.
The NCLI act was supported by a coalition of 2,250 environmental groups, representing over 50,000,000 constituents. This movement capitalized on the momentum following Richard Louv's popular book "The Last Child in the Woods." The book exposed the alarming threats of "nature deficit disorder," or the negative psychological and physical effects — including obesity, loneliness, depression, attention problems and social isolation — that result from American kids spending an average of 6 hours each day in screen time, but only 4 minutes each day in unstructured outdoor play and discovery.
Representative John Sarbanes, a Democrat from Maryland, has worked tirelessly with colleagues to pass viable campaign finance measures.
U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, who announced the grant, said he believes the April unrest was "particularly acute for our city schools," and that the events and the media coverage "shook many students' sense of security and diminished their faith in Baltimore's community."
"This grant funding is another positive step toward healing our city — one that will enable our schools to provide the kinds of social and psychological counseling that can help students feel safe again and that can encourage constructive conversations with students about the many social, economic and political issues facing our society," Sarbanes said.
“On more than one occasion, I’ve been walking in the Annapolis 4th of July Parade, and people have yelled out to me, ‘No Child Left Inside,’” said Rep. John Sarbanes of Maryland, who became one of the cause’s earliest champions in Congress. “So it definitely hit a nerve out there.”
In December, the work paid off. Congress replaced No Child Left Behind with the new Every Student Succeeds Act.
Although other agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have long had environmental education programs, the new law is the first time a bill covering primary and secondary education even mentioned environmental education.
“It seemed to me to be a grand omission,” Sarbanes said. “Those other agency’s involvement is fine and good and important, but educators look to the Department of Education. They are in large part driven by the grant opportunities that are available from the Department of Education.”
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), a leading House advocate for campaign finance reforms, said in an interview that the spending deal was, on the whole, a win for opponents of big-money politics — more because of what it did not include than what it did include.
Not only did they manage to keep out the rider to expand party spending, but they also headed off an effort to hamstring the longstanding system of public financing for presidential campaigns.
“Washington increasingly seems to be captured by big money donors and special interests, and the public wants us to draw the line,” Sarbanes said. “And I think we were able to do that in a significant way by keeping those riders out. Obviously we would have like to have the other two riders excluded as well. … We’ll continue to fight that battle.”
"We have begun, wisely, to turn our healthcare system in the direction of prevention and primary care and delivery of care at the community level and that all make sense. But if you don't have enough caregivers, physicians in place to deliver those services then you aren't going to make progress on that overall vision," Sarbanes said in a recent phone interview.
Sarbanes, who led this year's effort to beat back the McConnell rider, says that Democrats who oppose efforts to roll back campaign finance limits learned from the 2014 episode. He made sure Democrats were prepared to voice their opposition to these amendments and that leadership would actively work to exclude them from a bill.
"The difference between this year and last year is we got organized and got organized early," Sarbanes said.
At the federal level, we’re also advancing real solutions that put everyday people back in charge of our democracy. That’s the idea behind H.R. 20, the Government By the People Act, a reform that would create a new way for candidates to fund their campaigns.
Under this proposal, Americans would receive a “My Voice” tax credit for small-donor political contributions, enabling them to support a candidate running for Congress. Then, if that candidate agrees to voluntary contribution limits, H.R. 20 would boost each small donation using a “Freedom From Influence” matching fund. The combination of the tax credit, which allows more Americans to participate in the political process, and the matching fund, which amplifies the power of each voter’s donation, would empower the voices of everyday citizens against the special interests that dominate the political process.
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) reintroduced a bill Thursday that would help train doctors who have stopped practicing return to the profession at a veterans' center, school or community center.
The Primary Care Physician Reentry Act was introduced last year but stalled mostly because of partisan politics. The team is working now to get co-sponsors, including Republicans. There isn't much opposition to the act, a Sarbanes staffer said.