Out d’Coup | Friday Politics Roundup for April 22, 2022 with Guest Host Amy Knecht

Biden administration is teasing a new round of student debt cancellation and relief. The Education department said on Tuesday that this could mean debt cancellation for about 40,000 borrowers and three years of additional credit for more than 3.6 million borrowers seeking income-driven repayment. That could add another boost to the economy and the long-term well-being of tens of thousands of Americans. Bankrate study.

The woman behind the “Libs of TikTok” Twitter account has been outed in new reporting by Taylor Lorenz in the Washington Post. Lorenz reports that Chaya Raichik, a real estate salesperson in Brooklyn, is behind the account which has spread “groomer” conspiracy theories on social media and has the ears of right-wing lawmakers such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

Jeffrey Yass, the head of Susquehanna International Group, and the deep-pocketed right-wing political funder is officially the richest man in Pennsylvania, according to a new analysis by ProPublica. He has collected an average of $1.3 billion a year in annual income from 2013 - 2018. Only five other Americans earned more. 

This morning the New York Times released a report that reviewed 21 of Florida’s rejected math books. Florida’s Dept. of Education reported that the rejected books contained “prohibited topics” such as critical race theory and social emotional learning. Only four pages were released by the Dept as examples; one contained a problem set that used statistical data from the Race Implicit Association Test. 

Court challenges were filed by a Lycoming County resident calling for the removal of Doug Mastriano and Scott Perry from ballots for next month’s primary because of their participation in the January 6th Capitol insurrection.  

Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) is looking to sell off two of the luxury dorms at Edinboro University that were completed just 10 years ago and featured quite prominently in my early reporting at Raging Chicken. “Wall Street on the Susquehanna: PASSHE Bond Scheme Bleeds Education Budget for Beautiful Buildings”

Palisades made headlines again! The Herald ran a piece last week about Palisades reconsidering a live streaming option for school board meetings! The option to live stream meetings would cover both regular bi-monthly board meetings as well as committee meetings. 

And Amy was doing some phone backing last night for Alexandra Hunt. We’ll see how that went.

What books are we reading?

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