News & Stories
Policy is personal. So, we want to share more than just data.
Stay up to date with our legislative updates, organizational news, media mentions, and more.
To all who attended, thank you so much for supporting Seeds of Change, EOI’s annual dinner! Over four hundred of us packed the room last night to plant seeds for equity. WOW! You are helping us make progressive change that will be felt for generations to come. Special thanks to our brilliant emcee, Makini Howell, […]
Seattle Mayor Tim Burgess has announced his intention to implement a retirement savings plan for private sector employees whose employers do not provide any kind of retirement savings vehicles. In the Seattle metro region, that’s about a third of all workers. While Mayor Burgess’ proposal is far from righting the pension rollbacks of the past […]
Terri did everything right. She and her husband raised three great children – now mostly grown. She was a loyal employee for 14 years and prepared for the future, buying into the short term disability plan her company offered and investing in a 401(k). She even decided it was time to get healthy and lost […]
Cheerleaders of “prosperity” have treated the economic boom in Seattle like sports fans. When the Seahawks won the Super Bowl in 2014, crowds filled the streets chanting, “We did it!” While the people in the street didn’t literally touch the ball or score a touchdown, they felt like they had accomplished something. Seattle’s growth is […]
Who would have thought that in 2017, we’d still be debating whether access to timely, quality, and affordable health care is a right and its provision a responsibility of the U.S. government? Yet, here we are – the richest nation in the world, where over 28 million people, excluding the elderly, have no health insurance. […]
The reason we don’t fund public education isn’t because we can’t; it’s because there isn’t the political will.
The number of people in Washington State without health insurance continued to drop in 2016, according to new data released this week by the Census Bureau. In fact, every state has seen a decrease in uninsured rates since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) came into effect. Overall, 94 percent of Washingtonians had health insurance in […]
In our recent discussions with health policy experts, we’ve found a common thread – any attempt to make health care more affordable should be accompanied with a strategy to mitigate the red-tape expenses and arbitrary pricing that are passed down to consumers. Administration expenses and arbitrary prescription drug prices are key culprits in the rise […]
Amazon is planning to open a second headquarters (in Amazon speak, HQ2), in another city – not in Seattle. I worry for the city that next falls victim to Amazon, but this is a good thing for Seattle. We as a city are struggling to catch up to Amazon’s expansion and the influx of many […]
Mistrust is growing in our political institutions, and establishment leaders. Resentment and feelings of grievance are rising, eclipsing hope and common purpose.
This Labor Day, let’s remember to celebrate the dignity of all labor and acknowledge our mutual dependence on the work of everyone in our complex economy.
Via the Seattle Times: For all Seattle’s newfound affluence, there are still a whole lot of folks living paycheck to paycheck. That’s no surprise, of course — but here’s some new data that bring this economic reality into sharp focus. Of the roughly 419,000 tax returns filed in 2014 by city residents, 214,000 — 51 […]
As an Asian kid who rides a bike to work, some people may assume I moved into Seattle for a six-figure paying tech job. In reality, I ride my bike because it’s free. That way I can spend my bus money on things like rice and lentils. Though the young, white (or in my case, East […]
Our state leaders have said they understand the importance of higher education for Washington’s citizens, yet disinvest in public education at the same time. When the state decreases funding for schools, tuition rises, making higher education increasingly out of reach for many, unless they take out gargantuan student loans. We could afford to fully fund […]
At EOI, we are now six weeks into our health policy work through the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority grant to develop policies for the preservation and expansion of health coverage at the county and state levels. But we are not doing it alone. We are taking a community-based approach, inviting participation from local […]
Watching the nation’s white nationalist-in-chief Donald Trump yesterday was a wrenching experience. Trump defended white supremacists, saying that people who associate with them aren’t all “bad guys” and blamed the “Alt-Left” for standing up to neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. Although all of his lieutenants looked uncomfortable, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao looked like she was trying […]
As ballots are counted across King County, it looks like Prop 1 has failed. It had a worthy purpose – making art more accessible to low-income residents – but it was paid for with yet another sales tax in a city that feels that it’s been taxed enough. But it feels that way because some […]
The Economic Opportunity Institute has received a $300,000 grant from the Satterberg Foundation, which will be distributed as three annual $100,000 disbursements for general operating funds. The grant comes at a critical time – EOI has made significant progress on multiple policy fronts in spite of a national political context that antagonizes communities of color, […]
Today we observe Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. But it’s not a celebration. It’s a sobering reminder of the miles to go for racial and gender equity. July 31st symbolizes the extra seven months into 2017 a black woman would have to work to make the same amount of money a white man did in […]