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Carl Smith

Senior Staff Writer

Carl Smith is a senior staff writer for Governing and covers a broad range of issues affecting states and localities. For the past 30 years, Carl has written about education and the environment for peer-reviewed papers, magazines and online publications, with a special focus on conservation and sustainability. He has guest-edited special issues of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health focused on the Precautionary Principle and the human rights dimensions of environmental degradation. Carl attended the University of Texas and the University of Georgia. He can be reached at carl.smith@governing.com or on Twitter at @governingwriter.

Half of public-sector workers are considering leaving their jobs. Unions have stepped up their role in retention and recruitment, but the ongoing lack of normalcy remains a serious challenge.
The rules for conducting elections aren’t the only thing being debated in state legislatures. Some want more control over the entire process. The bills reflect a growing loss of trust in democratic systems.
The U.S. no longer leads the world in all areas of science, the National Science Foundation says, and many states have low concentrations of STEM workers.
It's an election year, so expect to see legislative action on all things relating to education. Meanwhile, government and business will be competing for talent in a labor market tighter than it’s been for a generation.
State lawmakers should be thinking about how to go on one-time spending sprees — such as funding infrastructure projects, including broadband, largely underwritten by the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill.
2022 is an election year. Republican investigations are continuing in states, while Democrats are convinced the GOP seeks to rig the rules to ensure their party’s victory. Redistricting is nearly complete with the clear loser being competition.
The practice has become a focus of housing reform but eliminating it might not make much difference if other regulations aren’t considered.
State legislatures will have a lot on their plates. They’ll deal with issues in wildly differing ways. We set the context for the 2022 session with an overview of everything from abortion to taxes.
The COVID-19 variant is creating a new round of safety challenges for parents and teachers. Masking can prevent transmission, but some are working to limit its use.
Confusion and misinformation have made it difficult to gauge the impact of the omicron variant on the economy and work. Data that tracks unemployment rates since the start of the pandemic provides a rough guide.