Weekly Writers Round-Up: What COVID-19 Means for Veterans’ Healthcare, Criminal Justice Reform, and Education Funding

Each week, we’ll be featuring opinion pieces from the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. Do you dream of having bylines like these? Applications for the summer session are now open!

Veterans Affairs leaves burn pit veterans in the dark on coronavirus risk by Beth Bailey (Fall 2018) in the Washington Examiner
In the earliest days of the coronavirus outbreak, U.S. health organizations alerted people in high-risk populations of their increased susceptibility to COVID-19. The Department of Veterans Affairs, however, has failed to provide adequate warning to veterans in high-risk categories, particularly those who experience health problems relating to their exposure to burn pits and other airborne toxins during their military service.

The VA maintains an Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry, in which more than 200,000 veterans have self-identified as being exposed to burn pits during their service. Those on the burn pit registry have received no update about how health issues resulting from exposure to airborne toxins may increase their risk of a more serious COVID-19 infection. In online guidance about the coronavirus directed to the wider veteran community, no mention has been made of how burn pit exposure could put veterans at increased risk of COVID-19 complications…

Coronavirus concerns point out need for further criminal justice reforms by Brogan Feeley (Spring 2020) in The Tennessean
As the coronavirus threatens to upend global society, incarcerated and post-release offenders face significant risk. 

Tennessee and North Carolina restricted all visitations, including family members, chaplains and instructors from entering incarceration facilities, which further isolates prisoners from their families and opportunity.  On March 22, California reported its first confirmed inmate case of the coronavirus, accelerating the risk of mass infection, while Tennessee reported its first case on April 4…

This economic downturn is an opportunity to reform school finance systems by Christian Barnard (Spring 2019) in The Hill
How much money is needed to provide an “adequate” education for kids? This question has been debated vigorously in state legislatures, courthouses and media outlets throughout the country as stakeholders seek to define a sufficient per-pupil funding amount for school districts. While identifying such a precise figure might be impossible, it does raise a related question that’s seldom asked: Should school districts have free rein to raise vast sums of local dollars beyond any reasonable definition of adequacy? After all, it makes little sense to spend more on public education than what’s needed — especially with the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus crisis threatening education budgets…