Should an American who graduated from high school but never went to college — and who now works as a delivery truck driver, earning $43,950 per year (the median annual earnings for that job) — be forced to help pay off the federal student loans of these two college graduates who make $240,000?

If former President Joe Biden had gotten his way, that truck driver and other hardworking American taxpayers would indeed have seen their tax dollars help pay off those loans.

When Biden was running for president in April 2020, he announced his plan for “forgiving student debt.”

“I propose to forgive all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities for debt-holders earning up to $125,000,” Biden said.

His plan, he said, would also “(i)mmediately cancel a minimum of $10,000 of student debt per person.”

After he was elected president, Biden did not get Congress to enact new legislation to implement this plan. Instead, he took unilateral executive action in an attempt to do so — and his administration claimed this action was justified under a law that had been enacted under former President George W. Bush.

In 2003, Bush had signed the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, aka the HEROES Act.

This act, said its official summary, “(a)uthorizes the Secretary of Education to waive or modify any requirement or regulation applicable to the student financial assistance programs under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 as deemed necessary with respect to an affected individual who: (1) is serving on active duty during a war or other military operation or national emergency; (2) is performing National Guard duty during a war, operation, or emergency; (3) resides or is employed in an area that is declared a disaster area by any Federal, State, or local official in connection with a national emergency; or (4) suffered direct economic hardship as a direct result of a war or other military operation or national emergency.”

As the nation headed into the 2022 midterm elections, Biden announced his student loan forgiveness plan. “On August 24, 2022,” explained the Congressional Research Service, “the Biden Administration announced it would invoke the Higher Education Relief Opportunities Act of 2003 (HEROES Act) to carry out a ‘one-time student loan debt relief policy’ to ‘address the financial harms of the [COVID-19] pandemic for low- and middle-income borrowers.’ Under the one-time student debt relief policy (HEROES Act policy), ED (Education Department) would have cancelled up to $10,000 in qualifying HEA Title IV federal student loan debt for borrowers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) in 2020 or 2021 of less than $125,000 (for individuals or married borrowers who filed federal income taxes separately) or $250,000 (for married couples filing jointly and certain other individuals).”

So, under Biden’s plan, a law that had been designed to help individuals “serving on active duty during a war or other military operation or national emergency” or had “suffered direct economic hardship as a direct result of a war or other military operation or national emergency” could be used to grant general federal student loan forgiveness in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sept. 26, 2022, the Congressional Budget Office sent a letter to Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) that estimated the cost of the Biden plan. “As of June 30, 2022, 43 million borrowers held $1.6 trillion in federal student loans,” said this letter. “About $430 billion of that debt will be canceled, CBO estimates.”

Six states, including Nebraska, sued Biden, arguing that he did not have the legal authority to move forward with this loan forgiveness plan. The Supreme Court agreed with the states, voting 6-3 against Biden’s plan.

“The Secretary (of Education) asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal. It does not,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority opinion.

“The new program vests authority in the Department of Education to discharge up to $10,000 for every borrower with income below $125,000 and up to $20,000 for every such borrower who has received a Pell Grant,” said the court. “No prior limitation on loan forgiveness is left standing. Instead, every borrower within the specified income cap automatically qualifies for debt cancellation, no matter their circumstances. The Department of Education estimates that the program will cover 98.5% of all borrowers.”

“From a few narrowly delineated situations specified by Congress, the Secretary has expanded forgiveness to nearly every borrower in the country,” said the court.

“But imagine instead asking the enacting Congress a more pertinent question: ‘Can the Secretary use his powers to abolish $430 billion in student loans, completely canceling loan balances for 20 million borrowers, as a pandemic winds down to its end?'” said the court. “We can’t believe the answer would be yes. Congress did not unanimously pass the HEROES Act with such power in mind.”

Despite this loss in the Supreme Court, Democrats in Congress have not given up on trying to find a way to make federal taxpayers pay for someone else’s college costs.

Led by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a group of nine Democrats in the Senate and 18 in the House are now cosponsoring the Debt-Free College Act. This bill would appropriate $84 billion in fiscal year 2027 alone. It would provide funding to states so that those states could “distribute the grant funds … in a manner designed to best achieve the partnership’s goal of providing debt-free college for all eligible students at in-State public institutions of higher education.”

This month, the Census Bureau released its report on income in the United States in 2025. It showed that the median household income of a high school graduate who did not attend college was $60,790 last year. The median household income of those who earned a bachelor’s degree or higher was $138,300.

Democrat politicians who would like to make taxpayers subsidize the student loan debt of college graduates are seeking to redistribute wealth to the wealthier.

Written by Terence P. Jeffrey

Official website; http://twitter.com/terryjeffrey

Key Takeaways

• Finance employers need people who can combine financial knowledge with data, technology, communication, and judgment.
• AI can accelerate routine work, but people remain responsible for verifying outputs and making recommendations.
• Career options include financial analysis, corporate finance, risk, investments, fintech, wealth management, and analytics.
• A well-explained project can demonstrate skills more clearly than a long list of software tools.
• Career planning works best when it starts with a specific role and a realistic skills-gap review.

Miami’s position as a global gateway, its active real estate and hospitality sectors, and its connections to banking, investing, wealth management, and technology make it a useful setting for understanding how finance is changing. For students and early-career professionals, the goal is not to master every new platform. It is to develop the financial judgment and practical skills that help turn information into sound decisions.

For professionals considering structured advanced study, the MS in Finance program at Miami Business School offers a graduate finance pathway centered on quantitative, analytical, and career-focused finance learning. As the University of Miami’s business school in Coral Gables, Miami Business School serves the Greater Miami area. It provides a relevant example for people exploring preparation for finance roles in investment, corporate finance, wealth management, and financial services.

Why Finance Careers Look Different

Finance teams still rely on core activities such as budgeting, valuation, forecasting, reporting, and risk assessment. The difference is that many professionals now receive data faster and in greater volume. Routine collection, formatting, and document review can be automated, leaving analysts with more responsibility for checking assumptions, identifying risks, and explaining what the numbers mean.

In Miami, that may mean evaluating a hospitality company’s seasonal cash flow, comparing real estate investment scenarios, reviewing a cross-border client portfolio, or helping a growing business plan capital needs. The work is less about producing a spreadsheet alone and more about building a defensible conclusion from it.

Core Skills Employers Still Expect

Technology does not replace the fundamentals. A capable finance professional should be able to read income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements, then connect those records to operating performance and future decisions. Financial accounting, corporate finance, valuation, financial modeling, statistics, probability, and risk analysis remain foundational.

Employers also value business writing, presentations, attention to detail, and professional ethics. Financial analysis often influences investments, budgets, customer relationships, and long-term strategy. That makes accuracy and accountability as important as technical speed.

Technical Skills That Add Career Value

Technical skills can make finance work more efficiently without requiring every professional to become a software engineer. Advanced spreadsheet modeling remains highly useful for forecasting, scenario analysis, and presenting results. SQL can help users work with structured data, while Python can support repeatable analysis and simple automation. Data visualization tools can make trends and exceptions easier for decision-makers to see.

AI tools can also assist with document summaries, first-draft reporting, and pattern identification. Their outputs require human review, especially when data may be incomplete, confidential, outdated, or misunderstood. Cybersecurity and data privacy awareness matter because finance professionals often handle sensitive business and client information. Start with one tool that fits a target role, then use it in a real project.

Finance Career Paths to Watch

• Financial analysis: Evaluates performance, builds forecasts, and prepares recommendations for business leaders or investors.
• Corporate finance: Supports planning, budgeting, capital allocation, acquisitions, and growth decisions within an organization.
• Risk management: Assesses credit, market, operational, and regulatory exposures, then helps reduce potential losses.
• Investment management: Researches securities, markets, portfolios, and investor objectives.
• Financial technology: Connects finance knowledge with digital payments, software products, automation, and data systems.
• Wealth management: Helps clients consider investments, retirement, tax coordination, and long-term financial goals.
• Financial data and analytics: Converts large data sets into forecasts, dashboards, and decision-ready insights.

These paths overlap, but each has a different emphasis. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects financial analyst employment to grow 7 percent from 2025 to 2035 and describes the role as evaluating financial data, forecasting trends, and preparing recommendations. That combination of analysis and communication appears across many finance specialties.

What AI Can and Cannot Do

AI can sort information, identify patterns, draft summaries, and support repetitive reporting. It cannot independently establish whether the underlying data is reliable, whether a forecast rests on sensible assumptions, or whether a recommendation is appropriate for a client or organization. People provide context, challenge weak logic, manage ethical concerns, and remain accountable for final decisions.

An analyst might use AI to summarize an earnings release, then compare the output with the original filing, validate key figures, test the implications for a forecast, and explain the business impact to a manager. Fast output is useful only when it is carefully reviewed.

Why Communication Is a Finance Skill

Senior leaders rarely need every line of a model. They need a concise answer to questions such as what changed, why it changed, what could happen next, and which action is recommended. Strong finance professionals can translate technical findings into an executive summary, a focused presentation, or a clear conversation with a non-finance colleague. Communication often distinguishes candidates with otherwise similar analytical skills.

How to Build Evidence of Finance Skills

1. Choose a target role. Review job descriptions and identify recurring skills.
2. Assess your starting point. Separate skills you can prove from those you have only encountered.
3. Create one applied project. Build a company valuation, portfolio review, cash-flow forecast, or risk dashboard using public information.
4. Explain the work. State the question, method, findings, assumptions, limitations, and recommendation in plain language.
5. Request feedback. A professor, manager, mentor, or experienced professional can identify gaps before an interview does.
6. Update your résumé. Describe the decision supported, the analysis completed, and the tools used.

Where Graduate Finance Education Fits

A master’s degree is not required for every finance role. Many entry-level opportunities begin with a bachelor’s degree, internships, and demonstrated technical ability. Graduate study may be useful for career changers, professionals seeking deeper quantitative preparation, or candidates aiming to specialize in areas such as investments, analytics, corporate finance, or risk.

How to Compare Finance Programs

• Does the curriculum match the role you want to pursue?
• Are modeling, analytics, cash flow, communication, and applied decision-making publicly available, making part of the learning experience?
• Can students complete projects, internships, capstones, or recommendations?
• Does the format fit your work schedule, location, and learning preferences?
• What career coaching, employer access, and alumni connections are available?

Common Questions About Finance Careers

Is finance still a good career choice?

Finance remains broad, with opportunities in companies, banks, investment firms, technology businesses, and advisory settings. The strongest candidates pair finance fundamentals with data literacy, communication, and ethical judgment.

Will AI replace financial analysts?

AI is more likely to change tasks than eliminate the need for analysis. Professionals who validate information, interpret uncertainty, and communicate recommendations remain valuable.

Do finance professionals need to learn coding?

Not every role requires advanced coding. Spreadsheet expertise, data literacy, and financial modeling are strong starting points. Basic SQL or Python can be especially useful in data-heavy roles.

How can a beginner stand out?

Build one credible project, seek internship or student-organization experience, practice explaining financial conclusions, and develop relationships with people working in the field.

Conclusion

Finance careers in Miami and beyond increasingly reward professionals who can connect financial reasoning with data, technology, communication, and responsible judgment. Choose a target role, identify one skill that role requires, and complete a project that proves progress. That focused approach is more useful than trying to chase every trend at once.

Staff Writer; Steve Washington

Key Takeaways

• Stop the task safely and clean or flush the exposed area right away.
• Report the incident as soon as possible, even if the injury appears minor.
• Seek prompt medical evaluation rather than waiting for symptoms.
• Document what happened, including the material involved, exposure route, and protective equipment used.
• Use the workplace exposure control plan to guide follow-up and prevention.

A possible blood exposure at work can be stressful, particularly when it happens during a busy shift or an emergency. Knowing the basic steps before an incident occurs can help workers respond calmly and protect their health. Completing online bloodborne pathogens certification can also help employees understand common exposure routes, prevention practices, and reporting expectations.

These steps can be relevant to healthcare professionals, laboratory staff, first responders, custodians, childcare workers, teachers, personal service workers, and others who may encounter blood or other potentially infectious materials. Each workplace should have procedures that match its own risks, equipment, and reporting structure.

Why a Clear Response Plan Matters

After an unexpected puncture, cut, or splash, it is easy to feel uncertain about what to do first. A simple response plan reduces that uncertainty. It helps workers focus on immediate cleaning, timely reporting, and medical follow-up instead of trying to assess the entire situation alone.

Even a small injury deserves attention when blood or potentially infectious material may be involved. The type of fluid, how it contacted the body, and whether the skin was broken all affect the assessment. The workplace protections for bloodborne pathogens outline the importance of exposure control plans, safer work practices, protective equipment, and employer follow-up after covered exposure incidents.

What Counts as a Possible Exposure?

A possible occupational exposure can occur when blood or certain other potentially infectious materials enter the body through a puncture, a cut, a splash to the eyes, nose, or mouth, or contact with non-intact skin. Non-intact skin can include skin that is chapped, cracked, scraped, cut, or affected by dermatitis.

Common examples include:

• A needlestick or puncture from another sharp object.
• A cut from a sharp object hidden in trash, laundry, or cleaning materials.
• A splash of blood to the eyes, nose, or mouth.
• Blood contacting an open wound, rash, or damaged skin.
• Handling contaminated materials without the required protective barriers.

Intact skin is generally a stronger barrier than broken skin, but a worker should still follow workplace procedures whenever there is uncertainty. The goal is not to diagnose the risk alone. The goal is to report the facts promptly so the appropriate people can assess the incident.

The First Five Minutes After Contact

1. Stop the task safely. Step away from the hazard if possible, while avoiding actions that could cause another injury or expose someone else.
2. Clean the area. Wash cuts, punctures, and skin contact with soap and water. Flush the eyes, nose, or mouth with clean water.
3. Avoid harsh methods. Do not use bleach or other caustic chemicals on the skin. Do not scrub a wound aggressively.
4. Report the incident. Notify a supervisor, manager, charge nurse, safety officer, or other designated contact immediately.
5. Get medical guidance promptly. A qualified healthcare professional can evaluate the exposure details and determine appropriate next steps.

The CDC advises workers to wash punctures and cuts with soap and water, flush splashes to the nose, mouth, or skin with water, irrigate eyes with clean water or saline, report the incident, and seek medical care promptly. Its guidance on blood and body fluid exposure risks also explains why timely reporting supports both treatment decisions and prevention efforts.

How to Report the Incident Clearly

Reporting is not about assigning blame. It begins the workplace response process and creates information that may prevent a similar event from happening again. Give a clear, factual account while the details are fresh.

• Record the date, time, and exact location of the incident.
• Describe the task being performed when the contact happened.
• Identify the object or material involved, if known.
• Explain where the material contacted the body.
• Note whether the skin was cut, cracked, or otherwise damaged.
• List the gloves, eye protection, face protection, or other equipment in use.
• Include witnesses and relevant equipment details when applicable.

What Medical Follow-Up May Include

Medical follow-up should be confidential and based on the specific exposure. A healthcare professional may review the exposure route, the material involved, vaccination history, the source information available under applicable rules, and whether testing or additional follow-up is appropriate.

Workers should not wait for symptoms before asking for medical guidance. Some time-sensitive preventive options may depend on a prompt assessment. Follow all instructions provided by the evaluating clinician and workplace process, including any recommended follow-up visits, testing, precautions, or documentation.

Employer Duties After an Exposure

Employers with covered occupational exposure risks should maintain an exposure control plan and make sure workers know how to use it. Following an incident, the employer should direct the worker to the designated reporting and medical evaluation process, protect confidential medical information, and review what contributed to the event.

A useful review looks beyond individual actions. It may identify a full sharps container, missing protective equipment, unclear cleanup procedures, inadequate training, poor lighting, unsafe disposal practices, or equipment that could be replaced with a safer option.

Common Mistakes That Can Make the Situation Worse

• Waiting until the end of the shift to report a puncture or splash.
• Assuming a tiny scratch or brief contact does not matter.
• Ignoring exposure to the eyes, nose, or mouth.
• Applying bleach, strong disinfectants, or other harsh substances to a wound.
• Handling a sharp object with bare hands instead of following site procedures.
• Failing to document how the incident occurred.
• Returning to normal duties without checking workplace instructions.

How Different Workers Can Prepare

Healthcare and Laboratory Staff

Know the location of sharps containers, eyewash equipment, exposure contacts, and reporting forms. Use safety-engineered devices when provided, dispose of sharps immediately, and follow facility procedures before handling contaminated materials.

Teachers, Childcare Workers, and Personal Service Workers

Keep gloves and cleanup supplies accessible. Understand who receives incident reports and how to handle blood cleanup without direct hand contact. Small workplace preparations can make a stressful event easier to manage.

Cleaning, Maintenance, and Public Safety Staff

Inspect work areas before collecting waste or wiping surfaces. Use tools and approved containers for sharps rather than reaching into bags, bins, or tight spaces with unprotected hands. Report exposures even when the source person or object is unknown.

Questions Readers May Have

Should a worker report a minor scratch?

Yes. The supervisor and evaluating healthcare professional can determine whether the event meets the workplace definition of an exposure incident and whether follow-up is needed.

What if the source person is unknown?

Clean or flush the area, report the incident, and seek medical guidance. An unknown source does not eliminate the need for prompt action.

Can a worker return to the same task?

That depends on workplace procedures and the advice provided during the evaluation. Follow the directions of the designated supervisor and healthcare professional.

Conclusion

Blood exposure incidents require a practical response, not panic. Clean the exposed area, report the event immediately, seek prompt medical evaluation, and document the details. When workers understand the plan and employers review incidents carefully, the workplace is better prepared to prevent future exposures.

Staff Writer; Doug Short

A cardinal tenet of Christianity is that it is imperative for salvation to forgive those that trespass against us. It is one of the more challenging tenets of Christian faith.

For some Christians to address that challenge they believe it is best they forget so they can forgive, forgive and forget. If one forgets the transgression that was directed at them, forgiveness is easy since they don’t recall being transgressed against.

We may want our hearts as required by Christian faith to be righteous. However, there are certain things that cannot and should not ever be forgotten. Forgiven yes but forgotten never. To forget in itself would be a sin. To forget those who suffered and died for no reason other than their skin was darker than blue is a sin.

Sunday morning September 15th started out as just another typical Sunday morning. People throughout the city of Birmingham, Alabama, like places across the US were either at Sunday morning service, traveling to service or preparing themselves to head to their place of worship.

As for 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair, and 14-year-old Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Dionne Wesley and Carole Robertson they were already at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. They along with 200 members of the church had attended Sunday school classes prior to the start of the 11 am morning service.

It would be a similar scene in churches throughout the US. Sunday school classes followed by the main church service at 11 am. Attendees to the Sunday school classes would be grouped by age and a teacher would be assigned to lead a class in instruction about the Bible and tenets and practices of Christianity.

Sunday school classes had ended and Carol Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Dionne Wesley and Carole Rosamond Robertson who were youth choir members were busy putting on their choir robes and preparing themselves for the morning church service. The youth choir would lead the church in song for one of the musical presentations at the 11 am service.

It was Youth Day at the church. There was an element of joy and excitement in the air.

Carol, Addie Mae, Cynthia and Carole talked while putting on their robes. They prepared themselves for the morning service in the church basement ladies’ bathroom.

Like other typical girls, 11 and 14 years of age, they talked about their regular school teachers and classmates. Public schools had been in session just a few days in Birmingham after the summer recession.

The girls busied themselves discussing their new teachers, new and old classmates as well as the subjects they were taking. Eleven-year-old Denise had just started the 5th grade. Addie Mae, Cynthia and Carole had just started junior high and were in the seventh grade. While talking Addie Mae helped Carol tie her robe’s dress sash.

Typical girls their age, they talked about the latest fashion. What was in and what was now out of style.

They talked about shows on television. They talked about the latest movies in theaters.

They spoke about the latest songs that were topping the music pop record charts. They talked about what was happening in their lives at that time.

They also spoke about the future. Like girls typical their age they share their dreams, hopes and plans for the future. The future belonged to Carol, Addie Mae, Cynthia and Carole.

It was a typical September Sunday morning in America. Then just like that it wasn’t.

At 10:22 am a massive explosion ripped through the church. The blast destroyed the church’s rear wall.

The explosion was so violent that it blew a passing motorist out of his automobile. It destroyed automobiles parked on the street outside the church.

Properties located more than two blocks from the church had their windows blown out. Bricks and mortar from the church was sprayed everywhere.

The blast caved in the church’s interior walls and destroyed all but one of the church’s stained glass windows. The only stained glass window left in tack depicted Jesus leading a group of children.

It demolished the basement ladies’ bathroom. The bathroom where Carol, Addie Mae, Cynthia and Carole were preparing for the 11 am church service.

The explosion resulted in 22 injuries. The bodies of Carol, Addie Mae, Cynthia and Carole were found beneath the rubble created by the blast.

Like a thief in the night, the explosion stole the future of Carol Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Dionne Wesley and Carole Rosamond Robertson. They would not give their musical rendition later that day at the 11 am church service. There would be no 11 am church service.

Carol would not be given the chance to graduate from fifth grade to sixth grade. She would not be given the opportunity to eventually attend junior high with Addie Mae, Cynthis and Carole.

Carol, Addie Mae, Cynthia and Carole would not have the opportunity to attend their high school prom. To join with others in celebration upon their graduation from high school.

Years later, they would not have the opportunity to recollect exactly where they were when they learned that John F. Kennedy, the President of the US had been assassinated. Where they were and what they were doing when the news came over the radio and television that Malcolm X had been killed. That the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been murder.

To reminisce where they were when they learned that Robert Kennedy had been shot. What they were doing when the planes went into the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11.

Carol, Addie Mae, Cynthia and Carole would not get the chance to listen and dance to the Four Tops’ “Reach Out I’ll Be There”, “Baby I Need Your Loving”, “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”, “Still Waters Run Deep” and “It’s the Same Old Song”.

They would not get to hear the Temptations’ “Beauty is Only Skin Deep”, “My Girl” and “Ain’t too Proud to Beg”.

They would miss out on the opportunity to hear the Supremes sing “Where Did Our Love Go”, “Stop! in the Name of Love”, and “Love is Like an Itching in My Heart”. They would not get to hear Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell duet “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “If This World Were Mine.”

Carol, Addie Mae, Cynthia and Carole would not get the chance to watch The Beverly Hillbillies, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, and The Flip Wilson Show.

They would be denied the opportunity to experience the anticipation, excitement and joy of opening college acceptance letters. Of attending college and graduating.

Denied the opportunity after graduation to embark on careers. Perhaps becoming teachers, college professors, lawyers, doctors, nurses, scientists, business owners, council members, state legislators, mayors and members of Congress. Carol, Addie Mae, Cynthia and Carole would not be given that opportunity.

Carol was a friend and classmate of Condoleezza Rice. Condoleezza Rice went on to become the first female Black US Secretary of State and the first woman to serve as National Security Advisor.

Perhaps, Carol would have become an aide to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Then again, maybe Condoleezza Rice might have been an aide to Secretary of State Carol Denise McNair.

Carol, Addie Mae, Cynthia and Carole were not given the opportunity to be bridesmaids in the weddings of family and friends. They would not be given the chance to date and marry becoming brides themselves.

They would not be given a chance to experience the wonder, magic and joy of motherhood. They would not have the opportunity to see their children attend kindergarten, graduate high school, college and have successful careers of their own.

To see their children have children making them grandmothers. Their children’s children make them great grandmothers.

Carol, Addie Mae, Cynthia and Carole would not be there to take care of elderly parents and family. They would not be there to assist their grandparents and eventually their parents take their final breaths prior to transitioning to sit at the foot of Jesus.

They would not be there to celebrate the joy and comfort the sadness of other family members and friends during good times and tough times. Friends that they may have known from childhood, college or career. Carol, Addie Mae, Cynthia and Carole would be denied all of that.

They would be denied being able to see Roots, Soul Train, Amen, 227, Laverne & Shirley, Love Boat, The Cosby Show, Dallas, Dynasty, Good Times, Hills Street Blues, Sanford and Son and The Jefferson. They would not get to see Martin, Law and Order, ER, In Living Color, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, 60 Minutes, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Donnie Simpson’s Video Soul, Bobby Jones Gospel, BET Gospel and West Wing.

They would not get to watch The Wire, Sex in the City, Suits, House of Cards, Power, Game of Thrones, Greenleaf, Sistas and Queen Sugar. They would be denied the opportunity to see Shameless, Red Shoe Diaries, The Handmaid’s Tale, Harlem, Being Mary Jane, And Just LIke That, Godfather of Harlem, Bel Air and Run The World.

They would not hear Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing”, Luther Vandross with the group Change singing “The Glow of Love”, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Isaac Hayes, Patti LaBell, Michael and Janet Jackson, The Jackson Five, Sounds of Blackness, Beyonce and so much more, so much more.

They would not get a chance to experience the profound joy of seeing President-elect Barack Obama raise his hand and take the oath of office becoming the first Black President of the US.

To see Kamala Harris become the first Black and woman to become Vice President of the US. Of seeing Venus, Serena and Coco. Joining with family and friends doing the Boogaloo, Robot, Worm, Cabbage Patch, Running Man, Harlem Shake and Electric Slide.

The opportunity to see and experience all of that and so much more was stolen from Carol Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Dionne Wesley and Carole Rosamond Robertson.

The explosion that stole the future of Carol Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Dionne Wesley and Carole Rosamond Robertson was the result of no less than 15 sticks of dynamite being placed beneath the stairs of one of the 16th Street Baptist Church’s entrances. Immediately, church members and others knew exactly what had happened.

The terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church was the third bombing in 11 days in Birmingham after a federal court order mandated the desegregation of Alabama’s school system.

The church had been targeted because many of the civil rights protest marches that took place in the 1960s began at the steps of that church. It had long been a significant religious center for the city’s Black population and a routine meeting place for civil rights activities.

The horrific church bombing was viewed by many in the US and throughout the world as not just an attack on Black people but the very body of Jesus itself. Roughly 2000 years earlier while Jesus was on the cross a Roman soldier took a spear and thrusted it into the body of Jesus.

Now roughly two thousand years later no less than 15 sticks of dynamite had been used to once again attack the body of Jesus.

But why are we recalling this incident which happened so very long ago? Isn’t it time to move forward to stop looking back at the past. Isn’t it time to turn the page?

Are we too busy looking behind us that we are unable to see and enjoy today and tomorrow? Can we just forget about the past?

The answer is an explicit and emphatic “No!” Yesterday is so very much who and what we are today. The past is today and today is so much the past.

In so many ways we never left the past. The same attitudes and forces of bigotry, discrimination, intolerance, racism, hate and evil never vanished. They remain just as alive, just as ugly and vicious as that fateful September 15th Sunday morning.

Those who have such attitudes might not march around as cowards hiding behind and covering their heads and faces with soiled white sheets. Instead like cowards they hid behind keyboards and keypads emitting their insanity, ignorance, racism and evilness.

Just as sadly and unfortunately, there remain so many people in the US who are unable or just refuse to see in the faces of Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson their child, their grandchild or great grandchild. Their inability and/or refusal makes them just as indirectly compliant today as so many others had been on that September 15th Sunday morning that they might as well had planted the dynamite under the stairs of the church themselves.

It is important for Black people to remember their history and teach their children and their children’s children their history. That the history is passed down from one generation to the next.

Such an act is not about seeking revenge or retribution. It is not about the continuation of hate, inhumanity and evil. But it is about making sure that such inhumanity and evil never ever happens again to them or anyone else.

If Carol Denise McNair who was born on November 17th had lived she would have been 73.

Addie Mae Collins who was born April 18th, Cynthia Dionne Wesley who was born April 30th and Carole Rosamond Robertson who was born April 24th would be 77.

Carol Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Rosamond Robertson lived. Their lives, like all lives, were sacred. They were like all children, regardless of race, gender, country of birth, religion, creed, languages they speak, children of God.

To that end, we remember and will not forget Carol Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Rosamond Robertson.

Staff Writer; Al Alatunji

Question or comment regarding this article? Feel free to send a message to: Alatunji@ThyBlackMan.com.

Across the country, reading achievement continues to decline. Nearly 40 percent of fourth graders read below the basic level and roughly a third of eighth graders are reading below basic, the highest share ever recorded.

Taken together, these numbers reveal a national literacy crisis that threatens economic opportunity, educational equity, and our nation’s future competitiveness.

Reading is not merely another subject in school. Reading is the foundation upon which all learning rests. A child who struggles to read struggles to learn history, science, mathematics, and civics. A young person who cannot effectively read and analyze complex information faces barriers to college completion, workforce success, and informed participation in our democracy.

That is why the growing literacy crisis is fundamentally an opportunity crisis. Behind every percentage point is a child whose future opportunities hang in the balance. Persistent achievement gaps mean that Black and Latino students continue to bear a disproportionate share of the consequences when reading instruction falls short. If we are serious about economic mobility and educational justice, literacy must be at the center of the conversation.

For more than two decades, many schools embraced Balanced Literacy approaches that sought to cultivate a love of reading by putting books in students’ hands and encouraging independent reading. The approach was well-intentioned, but too often foundational skills instruction, particularly phonics and decoding, suffered.

The evidence is increasingly clear that explicit, systematic instruction helps more children become successful readers. States and school districts that are embracing these principles deserve credit for moving in the right direction. But millions of students are already in middle school, high school, and even college struggling to read complicated texts, analyze difficult arguments, and complete entire books.

What is our plan for them?

Too many students arrive in high school lacking the reading stamina necessary to engage deeply with literature, history, or complex informational texts. College professors increasingly describe students who struggle with lengthy assignments that previous generations navigated more comfortably.

To be clear, Balanced Literacy alone cannot explain these trends. Increased screen time, constant digital distractions, shortened attention spans, and the dominance of algorithm-driven content all influence students’ reading habits and learning experiences.

Yet recognizing these factors cannot become an excuse for inaction.

Instead, it should compel us to think more broadly about literacy.

The challenge before us is not simply helping children sound out words. It is helping them develop the capacity to wrestle with complex ideas, sustain attention, evaluate evidence, and build knowledge through reading. It is helping them become informed citizens and lifelong learners.

And that requires a comprehensive, systemic strategy.

We need high-quality literacy instruction beginning in early childhood settings and extending throughout elementary school. We need to strengthen early intervention so that struggling readers receive support before learning gaps become entrenched. We must carefully examine the quality and effectiveness of programs serving our youngest learners, including Head Start and other early childhood initiatives.

At the same time, we need a national commitment to literacy recovery for older students. Districts and states should be developing evidence-based strategies that help adolescents strengthen comprehension, vocabulary, knowledge-building, and engagement with complex texts. Students who fell behind during the pandemic and those who continue to struggle deserve intensive support, not lowered expectations.

We should also have serious conversations about the role of technology in children’s lives. Restricting unnecessary screen exposure, particularly in the early grades, should be part of a broader effort to rebuild reading habits and attention spans that support learning.

More concerning than the decline in reading scores is the absence of a clear, large-scale strategy to address the growing crisis. Every year that a struggling reader falls further behind increases the likelihood that they will face lifelong educational and economic disadvantages.

The recent reading results from New York City are a warning. The national NAEP results are an even louder one. Together, they tell us that incremental change is not enough.

We know more about how children learn to read than ever before. We know that literacy is the gateway to opportunity. What remains to be seen is whether we have the collective will to act with the urgency this moment demands.

Our children cannot afford for us to wait.

Written by Marc Morial

Official website; http://twitter.com/MARCMORIAL

My Mom held onto our hands and took us out of the place. I was born in Louisiana, but as a young person, I can remember a lot of situations I now know as racism. In many ways, Louisiana hasn’t changed. Louisiana has always been a place where color matters.

Many in our family are of various colors—but we have always had the One-Drop rule in Louisiana. That means if you had one drop of Black blood, you are Black. The one-drop rule was a legal principle of racial classification that was prominent in the past. It asserted that any person with even one drop of Black blood was Black. Of course, we were called Negro or colored in historical terms.  Because my mother had no Black blood, but my Dad is Black, so my Mother’s children were called colored.

That leads me to a story where after growing up, I became the first Black person in the State of Louisiana to run a viable campaign for the U.S. Congress I was named the winner, and had the race called back and told I had lost by a tiny bit.  I became known as Louisiana’s Congresswoman in Exile.  Cleo Fields won the seat later with some changes in the District he was able to do while he was in the state’s legislature. He didn’t last long before they took the seat from him recently.

I mention that background to say when I ran, I wanted to share with you a bit about how I, a Black woman, was still referred to.  One night after speaking for a mixed crowd, a man walked up to me and said, “Young lady, that was the best speech I ever heard, but it must be awfully difficult to have all that education and still be colored.” I thanked him because he was telling the truth, however, he said it.  During the same period, a person who knew me said another man told him he never thought he’d have to choose between a “nigger“ woman and a Republican (I’m a Democrat), but he believed he was gonna vote for the “nigger” woman (That’s me!) I appreciated the fact that he would vote for me despite my color! I never learned how the first gentleman was going to vote!

I don’t think Louisiana has changed a lot.  I know for the first time there is a Black man who is running for the United States Senate on the Democratic ticket.  Just as I ran first for the United States Congress, he is the first to run for the United States Senate. Not that Louisiana has changed a lot,  but it sounds like he has a pretty good chance to win. His name is Jamie Davis, so please keep him in your prayers.

Now the point I started to make is that things have changed in some places and some Black people have a real chance of winning important seats—if only we’d come out in great numbers—so please look out for the seats in which Black people are running, but be sure to check out what they stand for. The one Black male on the Supreme Court has been deceptive. With the Black woman, it’s been different. “Just look at the Supreme Court now!” Obviously, I am talking about Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and if she were not on the Court, we wouldn’t have anybody there who votes fairly for us other than Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan. We thank God for them.

Now, in the last Presidential election, too many of our White sisters voted against our interests and theirs, but I believe many are ready to get it right and rebuild what we lost.

Written By Dr. E. Faye Williams

Official website; http://www.efayewilliams.com/

When I graduated high school in New Orleans, America was a different place. Black Americans were all but locked out of economic opportunity because of the color of our skin and the racial caste system that saw us as no more than servants to White Americans; many of whom benefited financially and socially from our enslavement for centuries.

Growing up in a city rife with segregation, I channeled my frustrations into my studies. When I enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution that was built in part by enslaved people, my people, I knew the best way to reengineer the system was by understanding how it worked and its connection to the conditions of Black Americans in this country. My double major was in economics and African American Studies.

That education prepared me to become a leader who understood that, for America to progress as a nation, it had to provide pathways to financial independence, safety, and sustainability for the people who built it. It was clear to me that at every juncture in this nation’s history where African Americans began to create opportunity for themselves, the efforts were cut off systemically or with physical violence, as we saw in the case of the bombing of Tulsa in 1920.

The fallout from these events, and from policies that blocked the ballot box like literacy tests and poll taxes, has shown us that every effort to stifle us leads to cultural disarray and stalls our ability to move forward.

Yet, today, we find ourselves once again succumbing to infighting about the same struggles we could have extinguished generations earlier by tackling systemic racism and its impact on our economy, our standing in the world, and our collective understanding of one another.

We have an administration that entered a zero-sum game targeting diversity initiatives with executive orders that so thinly veil their racism it’s laughable. The result of those orders has been a massive spike in unemployment, creating a ripple effect through our entire economic system. It’s been cuts to university budgets and to schools that are simply trying to uphold our nation’s values of ensuring that all Americans have access to the American dream regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or faith. Those cuts have stifled essential medical breakthroughs, cancer research, clean energy development, and the development of equitable, ethical artificial intelligence.

The next victim in the cutting spree is African-American studies.

The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Iowa, and the University of Kansas are just a few institutions that are shuddering or consolidating their African-American studies programs in this climate. Some are citing low enrollment as a reason for their reductions. But it is impossible to ignore the threats of budget cuts and the evaporation of essential federal dollars from an administration circling diversity programs like a hawk.

The restrictions have been so significant that simply mentioning the words “black,” women,” “disabled,” or “inclusion” can risk financial ruin.

But as Dr. Marcus Garvey stated, “A people without the knowledge of their history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.” I’d take it a step further and say that a nation without knowledge of its past, its origins, and its culture is like a tree without roots.

African-American studies teaches college students, the young people preparing to lead us into the future, why our country operates the way it does today and provides a blueprint for how to leverage our Democracy and constitutional rights to drive change.

African-American history is not only about the challenges that Black Americans have faced since we arrived in the 13 colonies in bondage; it shows the power of protesting, the endurance of community, and the meaning of community.

It’s a field of research that challenges harmful narratives, as Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois did in his 1935 book Black Reconstruction in America, overturning the prevailing racist Dunning School narrative, proving that post-Civil War democratic experiments failed not because of Black incompetence, but because white elites deliberately fractured multi-racial labor solidarity to re-establish control.

It was also the focus of Kevin Roberts’s Ph.D. dissertation, the President of the Heritage Foundation. The irony of studying slave communities, kinship networks, and survival strategies in Louisiana during the 18th and 19th centuries, while authoring Project 2025, a document designed to strip Americans of our Constitutional rights, cannot be overlooked.

There’s power in these programs and understanding Black history. There is also power to be gained by blocking an increasingly frustrated population’s access to historical practices, thereby demanding more from our leadership and government.

Philosopher George Santayana once said that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

We are at a critical juncture in our history, inching toward repeating the worst parts of our past and recreating a system that serves only a few. And the only way we will survive it is by standing together. And we can only stand together by understanding and accepting the flaws of our past to build a better future.

We cannot allow a field as precious as African-American Studies to die because of political pressure. Not now, not ever.

If we do, it will be at our own peril.

Written by Marc Morial

Official website; http://twitter.com/MARCMORIAL

Let me rewind for the younger brothers who might not know the full weight of what this fighter pulled off. Over two decades in the sport, Floyd Mayweather earned an estimated $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion from his fights. That is not a typo. Billion, with a b. His 2015 night against Manny Pacquiao brought him close to $250 million. Two years later, his bout with Conor McGregor reportedly produced another $275 million. Few athletes have ever squeezed more money out of a single event than this fella did. He built an entire brand off the nickname and sold folks on the notion that watching him get rich was worth the price of admission.

So how is it, then, that the same champ spent the first half of this year tangled up in lawsuits, a federal tax lien, felony charges and public questions about his financial arrangements?

That question sits underneath everything here. At the end of 2025, a lengthy Business Insider investigation reported that Mayweather had borrowed $54 million at roughly 9 percent interest, using 14 homes, his Las Vegas strip club and his jet as collateral. It also reported that two of his commercial properties had been foreclosed and detailed several lawsuits and liens alleging unpaid bills. His attorney denied that Mayweather was experiencing financial strain. That investigation must be kept separate from his defamation case against the publication. Mayweather filed that lawsuit in April 2025 over an earlier story questioning his public claim that he had purchased 62 Upper Manhattan apartment buildings for $402 million. In May 2026, he voluntarily dismissed his claims with prejudice, Business Insider dismissed its counterclaims, and both sides agreed to cover their own costs. No judge ruled on the truth of the underlying reporting. In March, the IRS filed a lien for approximately $7.28 million in unpaid federal taxes from 2018 and 2023. Mayweather also sued Showtime and former Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza, alleging that at least $340 million from his fights was missing or unaccounted for. His complaint claims money was routed into accounts controlled by former manager and adviser Al Haymon, although Haymon was not named as a defendant. Paramount, Showtime’s parent company, rejected the allegations as lacking legal and factual merit. Mayweather and several of his companies later filed another lawsuit accusing Jona Rechnitz, Ayal Frist, Frist Apex Ventures and attorney Alexander Seligson of participating in a scheme involving at least $175 million. Those accusations remain allegations that have not been decided in court.

There is more still. In April, Clark County prosecutors filed two felony charges based on allegations that Mayweather used one $200,000 check to purchase a luxury watch in Las Vegas in December 2024 even though the account lacked sufficient funds. The charges are theft and drawing or passing a check with intent to defraud. Mayweather has not been convicted, and his attorney represented him at a June court appearance. Another hearing was scheduled for September. That still stings. A fighter who once collected purses the size of a small nation’s budget is now defending himself against criminal allegations involving a check that prosecutors say would not clear the bank.

Now I am not sitting here in judgment of a grown man’s ledger. I do not have his books and neither do you. Borrowing against property does not automatically mean a person is broke, and allegations written in a lawsuit do not become facts merely because somebody filed them. Mayweather’s representatives have disputed the idea that he is under financial strain. Still, strip away the speculation and a pattern of complicated debts, tax obligations, disputed payments and questionable advisers remains visible, the kind far too many Black men recognize from our own kitchen tables and the old running buddies who hit a lick and could not hold it.

Bringing in cash and stewarding it are two entirely separate crafts.

The champ mastered that first craft better than nearly anybody who ever entered a boxing ring. Earning was his art. His sense of timing had no equal in the business. Put him across a negotiating table and he read the leverage in a room the way a seasoned preacher reads a restless congregation. Somehow he got the wider world to line up and pay just to watch him get richer. That part deserves its flowers. But the second craft, the quiet and unglamorous work of protecting what you built, lives in a different classroom. The tax code has never once been impressed by footwork. Estate planning will not respond to a shoulder roll. Figuring out where your dollars actually land once they leave your hands is a whole other education, one that means sitting with people who speak a language most of us were never taught at home.

That is the real ache in this story for me. Nobody handed our grandparents a course on trusts, tax planning and lasting protection. Plenty of us grew up in houses where the entire financial lesson amounted to keeping a little something in a coffee can and paying the rent on time. Honorable, sure. Nowhere near sufficient for the kind of figures a Mayweather generates, though. When a person travels from a rough block to a private jet without building the knowledge and oversight needed to understand compound interest, capital gains, debt and asset protection, trouble can arrive quickly even when the checks were enormous.

I want the Black men reading this to hear me clearly. Go and get the education. I do not necessarily mean a four year degree, though Lord knows there is nothing wrong with one. What I am pointing at is the deliberate study of how money behaves once you have some of it in hand. Read the boring material, the pages that make your eyelids heavy. Find yourself an accountant who is not your cousin doing you a favor over the holidays. Learn what a fiduciary actually is and why that title ought to matter to you personally. There sits a genuine difference between an asset that feeds you and a liability dressed up to look like arrival. The chain, the whip, the watch that costs more than somebody’s house, all of it whispers wealth while quietly draining it out the side door.

Here is the piece that troubles me most about this entire affair. If the allegations in Mayweather’s own lawsuits carry any truth, then a fella who generated more than a billion dollars may not have maintained a firm grip on where a massive portion of it wound up. Sit with that for a minute. You can become one of the highest earners in boxing history and still find yourself in a courtroom trying to locate money you say belongs to you. That is no knock on his intelligence. It is a warning about what can happen when you hand off your own understanding completely and trust the wrong people to guard the vault.

Money himself is 49 now and continues to train while trying to arrange more appearances in the ring. His proposed September 2026 rematch with Pacquiao was postponed indefinitely, with tentative discussions shifting the contest into 2027. A planned exhibition against Mike Tyson has faced delays as well. None of us standing outside his circle can say whether the motivation is legacy, money or some combination of the two. Either way, the image of a champion his age preparing to climb through the ropes again tells its own quiet story about how thin the line can become between earning a fortune and holding onto one.

Take this lesson without paying the tuition he may have paid for it. Earning is something our people have demonstrated across every generation you can name. What got kept from us, and what we too seldom went out and found for ourselves, was the knowledge of how to make a dollar stay put. Learn the game underneath the game. Then sit your children down and pass it along before the world teaches it to them the rough way.

Staff Writer; J.G. Lacour

Covering the NBA, NFL, college basketball, college football, and Major League Baseball from a Black man’s perspective. He loves the full world of sports, but the NFL remains his favorite.

Need to contact this bro, feel free to use this email address; JGLacour@ThyBlackMan.com.

The statute is the Jones Act, passed in 1920 to rebuild and protect the U.S. merchant marine fleet after World War I disrupted American shipping capabilities. It requires that any vessel moving cargo between two American ports must be built in an American shipyard, be American-owned and be at least three-quarters American-crewed. Miss any one of these marks and the shipper is barred from carrying a single barrel of fuel from Houston to Honolulu.

The stated justification for the act is national security. We need American ships and American sailors to fight wars. But 100 years in, it’s hard to repeat this justification with a straight face.

An American-built cargo ship costs $190 million to $250 million to build; the same vessel costs about $30 million from a foreign shipyard. U.S. shipyards now build less than 1% of what China and South Korea do, and roughly 300 U.S. shipyards have closed since the early 1980s. Legislation meant to sustain a merchant fleet has presided over its collapse.

Fewer than 100 oceangoing ships qualify under the Jones Act today, and the American tanker fleet is so thin that moving oil from Texas to the Northeast costs about three times what it would to ship it from Africa. Michael Bloomberg recently called the act “a national sales tax” — except that Washington never sees a dime. Instead, the premium is captured by a few U.S. shipyards and carriers operating relatively free of competition. Economist Thomas Grennes found that consumers lose more than what the statute hands to sailors, shipbuilders and carriers.

In March, the Trump administration suspended the Jones Act for energy and fertilizer shipments. It’s not the first waiver of its kind, but it is the longest in recent history. With the waiver’s expiration looming, the administration just announced a 90-day extension along with stricter terms.

The numbers speak for themselves. The Cato Institute’s Colin Grabow documented that in under five months, Puerto Rico took in more mainland fuel than in any full year since 2015. Shipments to the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii hit nearly 14 million barrels, about 170% of the recent annual average. Whole trade routes quickly appeared: Gulf Coast fuel to Hawaii, New Jersey jet fuel to California, propane to Puerto Rico.

America’s government-protected fleet seldom served these locales. Remove a prohibition and the market pours resources where they are needed. As Grabow noted, “That’s strong evidence for the longstanding critique that the Jones Act suppresses domestic commerce by preventing economically viable trade between Americans.”

The question then becomes: Why won’t the Jones Act die? The answer, as the oldest story in political economy tells us, is that it benefits a few special interests at the cost of all the rest of us.

The handful of shipyards, carriers and labor unions that profit from the Jones Act defend it vigorously. The average person pays just a few cents more at the pump or the register. It adds up, but not many people trace it to a statute they’re mostly unaware of. One side is lobbying. The other is you, and you’re busy.

The lobby mobilized against a limited waiver as if the republic were under siege. Grabow described a national ad campaign drawing millions of views from an account with just a few hundred subscribers, a 10-state media blitz, a form-letter-writing machine and roughly one op-ed or letter per week, mostly written by people on the industry payroll.

Two influencers who had never mentioned shipping policy, Kaya Jones and Olivia Krolczyk, posted identical lines about “protecting 650,000 Americans” a day apart, and one disclosed a paid partnership. A commissioned study for the Transportation Institute warned, with gross exaggeration, that 100,000 jobs were “at risk.” Fifty-two House Republicans, the speaker among them, bought into the economic illiteracy and urged the White House to let the waiver die.

Such machinery does not stop at persuasion. A few years ago, documents pried from the Maritime Administration revealed that an advisory committee meeting participant suggested, probably half in jest, that every past and present Cato Institute and Mercatus Center scholar (presumably including me) be charged with treason for criticizing the Jones Act. As economist Art Carden observed, that dragnet would have to be enormous, since the critics run from free-market economists to the far-left Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.

Unfortunately, the Jones Act is representative of much American legislation: a narrow group harvesting a fortune while the costs are spread across hundreds of millions of us. By design, those costs are all but invisible. Whether it’s protectionist sugar quotas, occupational licensing laws or bespoke tariffs for connected companies, you, dear taxpayer and consumer, fund them all.

Ask yourself how many statutes you are paying for right now. It’s more than you think.

Written by Veronique de Rugy

Official website; http://twitter.com/veroderugy

Throughout most of America’s history, the answer has been an emphatic yes. Scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, artists and strivers from around the world have chosen the United States because they believed they could build something, discover something or start a business while making a better life in this country.

We should worry about the day when this is no longer true.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration seems determined to make that day arrive sooner rather than later. Its destructive embrace of protectionism is not merely directed against foreign goods and capital. It’s not limited to low-skill immigrants, either. It’s also directed against in-demand foreign talent.

For instance, a rule finalized in early July replaces “duration of status” for foreign students, exchange visitors and foreign journalists with fixed admission periods. In other words, it forces international students to seek government approval to stay beyond four years, regardless of whether their studies can be completed that quickly. It also makes it more difficult for international graduates of American universities to stay and work after graduation through the Optional Practical Training program.

A recent brief by Amy Nice, Michael Clemens and Jeremy Neufeld of the Peterson Institute for International Economics highlights the stakes. The authors examine the pipeline through which international students — particularly those studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics — enter American universities and eventually the American workforce. It is an enormously valuable pipeline for all of us.

The authors found that America’s science and technology workforce depends heavily on talent from abroad. Immigrants fill almost one in three advanced STEM positions and nearly one in two requiring a doctorate. People who first entered the country to study represent about one-fifth of degree-holding STEM workers and more than one-third at the Ph.D. level.

Clemens explains that the STEM students who stay in the U.S. after graduation “patent new inventions at four times the rate of typical college graduates and are responsible for around 10 percent of all new inventions patented in the United States. They found high-growth startup companies at six times the rate of US-born graduates.”

That means we can dispense with the idea that if a foreign engineer gets a job, an American engineer must have lost one. Protectionism applied to human capital relies on the same economic fallacy that underlies other forms of protectionism: the belief that the economy is like one pie, and hence, allowing foreign interests to take a seat hurts those already at the table.

Economies don’t work that way. Talented people don’t merely fill existing jobs. They create them by inventing products, starting companies, conducting research and making the people around them more productive. In the process, they create opportunities for other people that otherwise wouldn’t exist.

Giving a cold shoulder to foreign students is particularly absurd when you consider Washington’s obsession with competing against China. Politicians insist that America is engaged in an existential technological race. They spend billions of dollars subsidizing semiconductors and other favored industries. They develop elaborate industrial policies intended to make America dominant in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and advanced manufacturing.

Then, when a potentially brilliant young scientist from India, China or anywhere else earns an advanced degree at an American university and wants to stay and contribute to the American economy, our government says perhaps they should leave.

You can throw billions of taxpayer dollars at a semiconductor factory in Arizona. You cannot manufacture genius through an appropriations bill.

The Peterson researchers estimate that discouraging just one-third of international STEM graduates could leave the American economy 0.7% to 1.3% smaller, or roughly $200 billion to $400 billion in GDP over a decade — equivalent to losing the entire economy of Utah or South Carolina.

Those estimates necessarily depend on assumptions about future immigration and productivity, but we don’t need to know the precise numbers to understand the effect. When productive people leave — or never arrive — we lose their ideas, businesses, discoveries and all the related economic activity.

There is also something deeper at stake. One of America’s greatest strengths is that people vote for this country with their feet. They leave familiar places, sometimes traveling thousands of miles, because of possibilities unavailable elsewhere. It’s an extraordinary vote of confidence in American institutions: our markets, rule of law and culture of entrepreneurship. We should never take it for granted.

Indeed, the possibility that the world’s brightest young people will decide that America is no longer worth the trouble should terrify us. Not simply because we will lose their economic contributions, but because their decision will tell us something about what America has become.

Written by Veronique de Rugy

Official website; http://twitter.com/veroderugy