Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. The opioid epidemic was recently declared a national public health emergency – and for good reason.  In Indiana, an adult is now more likely to die from a drug overdose than a motor vehicle accident. But opioids aren’t the only substances fueling our addiction crisis. For example, 151,000 Hoosier children who are now under the age of 18 will ultimately die prematurely from smoking. And alcohol, marijuana and methamphetamine use are of continued concern. Substance use often begins in middle school and worsens through high school. Nationwide, 18 percent of students report having used a prescription drug […]

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. The most recent round of ISTEP+ results, released last month, continue to show students in Marion County public schools performing well below state averages. At Indianapolis Public Schools, for example, fewer than 25% of elementary and middle school students passed both English and math ISTEP+ tests. These numbers should serve as a call to action to support struggling students and schools. Unfortunately, they’ve also raised a common refrain used to push back against efforts to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. In Marion County, 31% of children under 18 live in poverty, and 66% of […]