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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.

The American Rescue Plan includes almost $40 billion for community colleges, four-year schools and universities. It’s less than the sector says it needs, but there are options with how the funds can be used.
Wastewater offers high-tech jobs at the leading edge of sustainability and public health. But aging workers are leaving, creating a shortage of skilled workers. Public utilities need to step up their recruitment game.
The American Rescue Plan will bring more than $130 billion to K-12 schools to help them reopen safely, make up for lost learning and address inequities made worse by the pandemic.
Gun violence has increased during the pandemic. Recent mass shootings have intensified calls for reform, but state legislators have very different ideas about the way forward.
The superintendent of the second-largest school district in Iowa has been on the frontlines, leading 16,000 students and staff through unprecedented times that included a pandemic, a historic storm and a personal health crisis.
More women than ever are serving in state legislatures. But an interview with the longest-serving woman legislator reveals just how slow change has been in bringing an end to gender inequities in statehouses.
Millions of worn-out K-12 educators and workers are wondering if their compensation is enough to justify the risk they are taking to teach kids during the pandemic. Vaccines will help, but it may not be enough.
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, voting rights are on the minds of legislators who have introduced hundreds of bills that either restrict or expand how voters can cast their ballots.
As strains on public resources grow, a new center at the National Conference of State Legislatures shares lessons from evidence-based policymaking to help states make the most of programs and budgets.
A new scorecard ranks state progress toward making EVs the norm. With transportation accounting for 28 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more needs to be done to meet Paris Accord emission targets.