Latest news with #BlackandHispanic
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Feds look to drop oversight of bank accused of discrimination in Newark
A judge ordered federal oversight after Lakeland Bank was accused of lending discrimination in 2022 in Newark. Feds now want to end oversight. (Photo by New Jersey Monitor) The Trump administration aims to end federal oversight a judge ordered in 2022 of a bank that avoided giving mortgages to people of color and opening bank branches in Black and Hispanic communities in the Newark area. Lakeland Bank has substantially complied with changes required under the September 2022 consent decree to end such discrimination, which is known as 'redlining,' and agreed to carry out whatever court-ordered reforms that remain unfinished, federal prosecutors said last week in a motion asking to end oversight more than two years early. But a nonprofit that advocates for low- and middle-income residents filed an affidavit this week calling for the consent decree to remain in place, because ending it would threaten progress made in the last two years and leave advocates with no remedy if the bank's compliance with unfinished remedies falters. It also 'sends a very bad message,' said Leila Amirhamzeh of New Jersey Citizen Action Education Fund, a Newark-based nonprofit that does housing counseling and fair housing investigations. 'Our concern with the Department of Justice's motion to terminate the consent order really speaks more to the overall message that the administration is sending to financial institutions — that it is not going to enforce fair lending laws, that it is not going to ensure that any bad actors that do engage in discriminatory redlining practices are held accountable,' Amirhamzeh said. Newark officials did not respond to a request for comment. Under the decree, Lakeland agreed to open two branches in Newark communities of color and spend $12 million on a 'loan subsidy' fund to offset closing costs, mortgage insurance premiums and down payments for Black and Hispanic residents in Essex, Somerset and Union counties who apply for mortgages and home improvement and refinancing loans. The bank also agreed to spend $1.1 million on outreach, advertising, financial counseling and community development partnerships and assign at least four loan officers to serve neighborhoods they had excluded. Lakeland merged with Prudential Financial Services last year. Prudential opened a new branch this week on the edge of the Ironbound, a Newark neighborhood home to many immigrants and people of color. It's unclear whether and when it will open a second branch, as ordered under the consent decree, as well as how much of the $13 million for the loan subsidy fund and outreach remains unspent. Keith Buscio, a Prudential Bank spokesman, referred those questions to the Justice Department, and a spokesman there did not respond to a request for comment. 'Provident acknowledges the benefit of the mortgage loan subsidy to underserved communities and, in the event the DOJ's motion is granted, will commit to spending the remaining amount under the subsidy,' Buscio said. Despite such assurances, critics remain concerned. The move to end oversight comes just two months after federal banking regulators announced they would rescind a 2023 update meant to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act, a 1977 law passed to prevent redlining, Amirhamzeh said. Ending oversight also fits a pattern of Trump-administration rollbacks of Biden-era policies that protect marginalized people, she added. The Trump administration is terminating $400 million in funds for states across the country to modernize their unemployment systems, money that was authorized in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act passed under the Biden administration. Trump officials also recently dropped a federal civil rights investigation into police brutality and racial profiling in Trenton. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Feds seek to ditch settlement over alleged redlining with North Jersey bank
The Trump administration is asking a judge to drop a 2022 settlement the Justice Department had reached with North Jersey-based Lakeland Bank — which was later absorbed by Provident Bank — over allegations of redlining against Black and Hispanic customers. While Provident Bank said it will continue to provide low-cost mortgages to underserved communities, the motion by the U.S. Justice Department to abandon the settlement has drawn the ire of community advocates and legal experts, who say it would make it easier for banks to engage in redlining. 'It goes without saying it's a good thing when financial institutions are complying with those consent orders, but when you take away the teeth — the actual enforcement — who's to say that they will continue to comply,' said Leila Amirhamzeh, director of community reinvestment for New Jersey Citizen Action, a consumer advocacy four-page motion by the Justice Department, filed May 28 in U.S. District Court, seeks to terminate the consent order the Biden administration negotiated with what was then Lakeland Bank. In the initial complaint, the Justice Department said Lakeland violated the federal Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act by deliberately avoiding banking with Black and Hispanic customers, particularly in and around Newark. The discrimination in question allegedly took place between 2015 and 2021, according to the Biden administration. To settle the complaint, Lakeland agreed to pay $12 million to subsidize mortgages, home improvement loans and home refinancing loans for Black and Hispanic residents and open two branches in underserved neighborhoods. Lakeland also had to provide $150,000 a year for advertising, outreach and consumer finance education in the Newark area. Newark Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ras Baraka wanted one of those new branches to be in his city, and the Greater Toms River Chamber of Commerce also wanted a branch in its area. According to the Provident Bank website, there are currently four locations in Newark and three in Toms River. After acquiring Lakeland, Provident took ownership of the settlement and the mandate to open two branches in underserved areas of New Jersey. The Justice Department in its motion to terminate the order said Lakeland reached substantial commitment to comply with the consent agreement and it is committed to continuing its disbursement of the loan subsidy. Provident spokesperson Keith Buscio told and the USA TODAY Network New Jersey that the bank remains committed to the loan subsidy initiative. He said Provident is not a party to the litigation and referred other questions to the Justice Department. The Justice Department could not immediately be reached for comment. Baraka's office in Newark said it is planning to hold a press conference about the motion by the Justice Department on June 5. Court filings show two attorneys who helped file the initial complaint against Lakeland, Michael Campion and Susan Millenky, withdrew as counsel from the case. Campion was appointed in 2022 to lead the U.S. Attorney's Office's Civil Rights Division that was created to enforce federal civil rights laws in New Jersey. The Fair Housing Act was passed as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 to prohibit landlords and mortgage lenders from discriminating based on race, religion, national origin or sex. Nearly 60 years later, racial wealth disparity remains vast. In New Jersey, the median household wealth of white families is $322,500, compared with $17,700 for Black families and $26,100 for Hispanic families, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice said. In New Jersey, 77.3% of white residents owned a home in 2020. By comparison, 42.8% of Black residents and 32.7% of Hispanic residents were homeowners, according to the Urban Institute, a research group. Critics said the Justice Department's motion to drop the Lakeland settlement is a step by the Trump administration's bid to reverse diversity, equity and inclusion programs. David Troutt, a professor at Rutgers Law School in Newark, said the motion by the Justice Department to terminate the consent decree is part of a larger campaign by the department to rescind investigations and agreements involving anti-Black racism, while beginning investigations into what it deems 'illegal DEI.' 'The Trump administration's withdrawal from a federal consent decree without justification is an extraordinary act of endorsing racist practices and housing market manipulation,' Troutt said. 'For the very government that successfully enforced those borrowers' civil rights to now repudiate them sends a message unlike any we've seen since the federal government first endorsed redlining in the 1930s,' Troutt said. Lakeland isn't the only New Jersey bank that faced scrutiny under the Biden administration. Toms River-based OceanFirst Financial Corp. agreed to pay $14 million to subsidize mortgages, helping settle a lawsuit that alleged the bank violated federal discrimination laws. Since then, it has improved the rating given by federal bank regulators who oversee investments in underserved communities to 'outstanding.' The Justice Department hasn't filed a motion seeking to terminate the consent order with OceanFirst. But two attorneys who represented the U.S. in the initial complaint, Millenky and Nathan Shulock, have filed motions to withdraw from the case, according to the court docket. A combined 22 Provident and Lakeland branches closed in 2024 following the $1.3 billion merger creating a 'super community bank.' Each branch that closed was within roughly three miles of a nearby branch. Activists and opponents warned that the merger would mean fewer banking services would be available for underserved communities, such as people of color, the elderly and disabled. New Jersey Citizen Action applauded Provident for its continued commitment to the terms of the consent order. But the group said the Justice Department should continue to enforce it. 'When you actually terminate these consent orders, there's no deterrence, and it's basically telling financial institutions that the Department of Justice is going to be taking a hands-off approach to fair lending issues, to redlining,' New Jersey Citizen Action's Amirhamzeh said. Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for and The Record. Email: munozd@ Twitter:@danielmunoz100 and Facebook Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter for the Asbury Park Press. He has been writing about the New Jersey economy and health care industry since 1999. He can be reached at mdiamond@ This article originally appeared on Feds seek to drop Lakeland Bank settlement over alleged redlining
Miami Herald
14-05-2025
- Science
- Miami Herald
Three-fourths of NSF funding cuts hit education
The outlook for federal spending on education research continues to be grim. That became clear last week with more cutbacks to education grants and mass firings at the National Science Foundation (NSF), the independent federal agency that supports both research and education in science, engineering and math. A fourth round of cutbacks took place on May 9. NSF observers were still trying to piece together the size and scope of this wave of destruction. A division focused on equity in education was eliminated and all its employees were fired. And the process for reviewing and approving future research grants was thrown into chaos with the elimination of division directors who were stripped of their powers. Meanwhile, there was more clarity surrounding a third round of cuts that took place a week earlier on May 2. That round terminated more than 330 grants, raising the total number of terminated grants to at least 1,379, according to Grant Watch, a new project launched to track the Trump administration's termination of grants at scientific research agencies. All but two of the terminated grants in early May were in the education division, and mostly targeted efforts to promote equity by increasing the participation of women and Black and Hispanic students in STEM fields. The number of activegrants by the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM within the education directorate was slashed almost in half, from 902 research grants to 461. Related: Our free weekly newsletter alerts you to what research says about schools and classrooms. Combined with two earlier rounds of NSF cuts at in April, education now accounts for more than half of the nearly 1,400 terminated grants and almost three-quarters of their $1 billion value. Those dollars will no longer flow to universities and research organizations. Cuts to STEM education dominate NSF grant terminations The post Three-fourths of NSF funding cuts hit education appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Medicaid recipients struggle to find mental health care. Looming cuts could make it harder.
Charmeka Newton, a psychotherapist in Lansing, Mich., is passionate about serving Black and Hispanic communities on Medicaid. But low Medicaid reimbursement rates can make that difficult. Charmeka Newton, a psychotherapist who has her own practice in Lansing, Michigan, is passionate about serving Black and Hispanic patients. They're often looking for therapists who will understand how their race, ethnicity and culture may affect them, she said, and she helps provide that care. Medicaid is a major source of health care for people of color. But Newton can only afford to see a small number of Medicaid patients, because the program pays her so much less than commercial insurance. Republicans in Congress are aiming to make extensive cuts to Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program that covers a total of 72 million low-income people and people with disabilities, or 1 in 5 U.S. residents. If that happens, Newton and many other mental health providers worry that already-low Medicaid reimbursement rates will stagnate or even decline. That would make it difficult for her to keep seeing Medicaid patients. The most likely Medicaid cuts would hit rural areas the hardest 'Medicaid is probably one of the most challenging insurances to work with,' Newton told Stateline. 'My biggest fear if cuts happen is that individuals won't have access to providers that are able to help them.' Already, there is a shortage of mental health care providers. About 122 million people, or about 35% of the U.S. population, are living in an area with a mental health care professional shortage, according to data from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. If Medicaid reimbursement rates go down and more providers refuse to see those patients, the shortage would get worse. Nationwide, Medicaid covers nearly 1 in 3 working-age adults who live with mental illness, or about 15 million adults, according to health policy research organization KFF. The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, is looking for at least $880 billion in budget savings over the next decade, largely to pay for extensive tax cuts. A March 5 letter from the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress, confirmed that a cut of that size would have to come from either Medicaid or Medicare, the insurance program for older adults. President Donald Trump has said that Medicare is off the table, so that leaves Medicaid. My biggest fear if cuts happen is that individuals won't have access to providers that are able to help them. – Charmeka Newton, a psychotherapist in Lansing, Mich. Lawmakers are considering numerous options, including shrinking the federal government's share of the cost of covering people who became newly eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. If that happens, states that opted to expand to cover those residents — adults with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level — would have to either increase their own spending or find savings elsewhere. That could mean removing some people from Medicaid rolls, eliminating coverage for certain services or reducing reimbursement rates — any one of which could reduce Medicaid recipients' access to mental health care, said Stephen Gillaspy, director of health policy and health care financing at the American Psychological Association. 'Those [actions] would have a huge negative impact for behavioral health care,' Gillaspy told Stateline. 'Everyone's on pins and needles about the potential cuts right now.' In at least 15 states, more than 40% of people on Medicaid reported experiencing a mental illness, according to a KFF analysis of 2021-2022 survey data from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Republicans in Congress are still hammering out whether or how they might cut Medicaid. Chris Pope, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning policy group the Manhattan Institute, told Stateline he doubts mental health services or reimbursement rates would be affected, because the largest sources of spending are acute and long-term care. 'From a fiscal point of view, mental health is basically a drop in the bucket. It's not where the big savings are going to need to come from,' Pope said. Medicaid reimbursement rates for mental health services vary dramatically from state to state. Reimbursement for an hourlong individual psychotherapy session ranged from $95 to $135 in 2022, according to a 2023 study published in the journal Health Affairs. States generally have flexibility in setting their physician reimbursement rates. So 'if states have money to increase reimbursement rates,' they can do that, Pope noted. And many states have done that. According to a January 2023 KFF report, nearly two-thirds of the 44 states that responded to a survey said they increased behavioral health reimbursement rates for some Medicaid enrollees in 2022 or planned to in 2023. Amid mental health crisis, new compact allows social workers to practice across state lines Oregon passed a bill during its 2022 session to raise the state's Medicaid behavioral health reimbursement rates by an average of 30% for providers who mostly see Medicaid patients, in an effort to address mental health care workforce challenges. In 2022, the state had the fourth-highest rate for unmet need in mental health treatment across the nation. Now, the state has one of the highest reimbursement rates. 'In Oregon, they actually have always really committed to paying providers well and giving cost-of-living updates so that it makes it much more attractive to providers providing Medicaid services,' Jen Yerty, a licensed counselor in Portland, Oregon, told Stateline. But Yerty said the higher reimbursement rate is the bare minimum to keep providers interested. She said she helps her clients with case management, including assisting them with accessing social services and rental aid. 'It would be great if they would actually reimburse us more for all the case management things that we do. It would be great if they offer a lot more resources,' Yerty said. But behavioral health services, such as a psychological test to assess mental health function, are not one of the federally required Medicaid services, like a primary care doctor visit. Gillaspy, of the American Psychological Association, noted the level of services offered across states also varies. And case management and psychological testing are exactly the types of services that may be on the chopping block as states consider cuts, he said. Researchers at KFF point out four main ways states have been trying to address mental health workforce shortages for state Medicaid programs. They include increasing reimbursement rates, reducing administrative burden on providers, creating licensure compacts to allow providers to work across state lines or reducing licensure requirements, and incentivizing participation by, for example, reimbursing providers quickly. Megan Cole, an associate professor of health policy at Boston University, told Stateline there are other options states could pursue, such as raising taxes to offset the federal cuts and keeping reimbursement rates high. She also said Medicaid can ask primary care providers to start integrating preventive mental health screenings and services before care becomes acute and requires an emergency room visit. 'There are models of care that work well in this space, and not every state is currently implementing them. So I think there is a lot of opportunity for expansion of some of these integrated care models,' Cole said. Insurers often shortchange mental health care coverage, despite a federal law Another option she recommends is for states to invest in community health centers, where a lot of patients on Medicaid see mental health providers. Investment in public health facilities is also what Michigan Republican state Rep. Phil Green had sought when he cosponsored a bill with Democratic lawmakers in 2023 to increase reimbursement rates to community behavioral health clinics. But the bill died last year, likely because other issues took priority, he said. Green told Stateline that mental health issues are a bipartisan issue. Green says lawmakers in his caucus, including some veterans, are well aware that mental health issues are a big concern within the population. 'Republicans and conservatives alike realize that this is a growing issue and a growing need.' He thinks that if the feds cut their contributions to Medicaid, state Republican lawmakers will still be interested in finding some solutions to the shortage of mental health care workers. In California, the state in 2023 implemented changes to improve reimbursement for providers of Medicaid mental health and substance use disorder services through county behavioral health departments. The goal of the effort was to remove some of the common problems providers faced, including long delays in reimbursements and lengthy auditing processes. David Hindman, a past president of the California Psychological Association, said the most important effect was to increase the rates of reimbursement to help meet the increased costs of providing care for Medicaid recipients. Hindman works for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, but said he is not authorized to speak on behalf of the department. 'We've actually expanded services significantly,' Hindman said. 'It's completely incentivized provider agencies to see low-income patients because it gives them better reimbursement rates. It covers more things.' Still, Hindman said, clinicians not working through county health departments who see a lot of Medicaid patients still struggle with making ends meet. And he says states will still have to explore solutions to the workforce shortage in the face of major federal funding cuts. Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached at schatlani@ SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
The Hill
12-02-2025
- General
- The Hill
Education report reveals which states have seen biggest drops in reading, math scores
(NEXSTAR) – While some schools are starting to claw back some of the ground lost due to pandemic-era learning disruptions, there's still a ways to go, a new report finds. The Nation's Report Card, released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), compares fourth and eighth grade test scores in school districts around the country. The report shows fourth graders have made small gains in math scores over the past two years (though they're still short of 2019 test scores), but eighth graders' math scores haven't budged. The situation is even more grim with reading scores, which dropped further in 2024 for fourth graders and eighth graders. Could soda, beer prices rise amid aluminum tariffs? 'Overall, student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic performance,' said NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr in a press release. 'Where there are signs of recovery, they are mostly in math and largely driven by higher-performing students. Lower-performing students are struggling, especially in reading.' State-by-state results While some states are taking small steps forward, it appears others are falling behind, the report card found. With math scores in public schools, most states saw no significant change between 2022 and 2024. One state, Nebraska, saw scores drop for fourth graders. At the eighth-grade level, four states saw test scores drop: Alaska, Idaho, Florida, and Nevada. Students in more states are struggling with reading, the report found. Fourth graders in Arizona, Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Vermont saw test scores drop from 2022 to 2024. Eighth-grade reading scores dropped in many of the same states, plus a few more: Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Nevada, Utah and Vermont. When will flu season end? The rest of the states saw 'no significant change.' Not a single state was found to have significantly boosted reading scores over those two years, though one city – Atlanta – was found to have made some progress. In some cases, it's hard to tell if students are making progress or if states are just changing their standards. For example, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Florida seem to have relaxed their proficiency cutoff in math and reading in the last two years, Tom Kane, a Harvard economist, told the Associated Press. The Education Recovery Scorecard analysis, by researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth, shows the average student remains half a grade level behind pre-pandemic achievement in both reading and math. Within states, the gap between high-performing students and struggling students is also generally widening. 'The pandemic has not only driven test scores down, but that decline masks a pernicious inequality that has grown during the pandemic,' said Sean Reardon, a Stanford sociologist who worked on the scorecard. 'Not only are districts serving more Black and Hispanic students falling further behind, but even within those districts, Black and Hispanic students are falling further behind their white districtmates.'
