This week on What Else Happened, hosts and Rewire managing editors Kat Jercich and Regina Mahone discuss the news that charter schools are more racially segregated than other public schools, Wisconsin is in the running to be the first state to drug-test food stamp applicants, and Illinois has launched a new program to combat the opioid crisis. Also, Regina chats with Jasmine Sherman, a clinic defender with Pro-Choice Charlotte, about why she believes Charlotte has become an epicenter for abortion clinic harassment.

An edited excerpt:

Regina: This week, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is taking home the gold for his support of a bill opponents say is designed to humiliate and degrade food stamp applicants.

Kat: Wait, is there actually like a medal for that?

Regina: Maybe there should be, I don’t know. In any case, the Republican governor is a longtime supporter of drug-testing policies. Just last April, meaning April of 2016, Walker and ten other Republican governors signed a letter pleading with Congress to allow the policy through. They sent the letter because the federal government doesn’t permit drug testing for food stamps. The government does, however, allow it for welfare applicants.

Kat: The governor sent his letter two months after one of the dozen or so states that does drug test welfare recipients found their program fell flat. That state, Tennessee, reported that less than one percent of the people applying for welfare tested positive for drugs over an 18-month period. One percent.

Recommended Reading:

Thousands Circle North Carolina’s Busiest Abortion Clinic as Anti-Choice Group Marches On, by Robin Marty

GOP Governors Ask Congress to Allow Failed Drug Testing Policy for Welfare Recipients, by Ally Boguhn

Tennessee’s Drug Testing of Welfare Applicants Falls Flat, by Teddy Wilson

Transcript (PDF)