Truthout
Austerity
![Child and teacher painting in art class](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/06/GettyImages-1903748161.jpg)
Schools Are Divesting From Arts Education as COVID-Era Federal Funds Evaporate
We should not have to fight for arts inclusion every single year, says arts educator Jody Drezner Alperin.
![General view of a press conference from various Argentine unions during a general strike on May 9, 2024, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2152202356-400x300.jpg)
General Strike Brings Argentina to a Halt Over Milei Austerity Program
The unions blasted President Javier Milei's attacks on labor rights, social security, public health and education.
![Part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a gulf coast refinery covers acres of low-lying marshland in Louisiana, on June 1, 1980.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/12/GettyImages-768828-400x300.jpg)
How Oil Money Turned Louisiana Into the Prison Capital of the World
A series of events in the 1970s led to the state's penal system becoming intertwined with the swings of its oil economy.
![People bang pans and pots during a demonstration against the new government of Argentine President Javier Milei in front of the National Congress in Buenos Aires, on December 20, 2023.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/12/2023_1221-argentina-400x300.jpg)
Amid Crackdown on Protests, Argentines Take to the Streets Against Austerity
Thousands risked arrest and cuts to their social benefit payments as they protested Milei's latest austerity measures.
![](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/12/GettyImages-1252038433-400x300.jpg)
Social Worker Shortage Looms If Field Keeps Relying on Unpaid Student Labor
Amid agency budgets cuts and declining social work enrollments, unpaid internships continue to lower the wage floor.
![Woodburn Hall at West Virginia University is pictured at sunset.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/10/2023_1010-west-virginia-400x300.jpg)
Layoffs at West Virginia University Expose Right-Wing Trends Sweeping Higher Ed
Unspoken right-wing ideological motivations operate beneath the language of brute financial calculus.
![Collage with person holding college graduate cap as a businessman buttoning his coat looks on with dollar bill styling](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/10/2023_0105-college-money-c-400x300.jpg)
Colleges Say They’re Cash-Strapped Yet Pay Top Dollar for Anti-Union Consultants
Colleges and universities are turning to anti-union “efficiency” experts to address budgetary shortfalls.
![One of the unused rooms at Nurtury Early Education in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on August 9, 2021.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/09/2023_0929-child-care-400x300.jpg)
Expiration of Pandemic-Era Funding Threatens to Devastate US Child Care Industry
If child care legislation isn’t passed soon, the funding cliff could decimate care sites and erase decades of progress.
![Three students - one wearing a black shirt, and looking at his phone; one wearing a red bandanna around his neck, with his arms behind his head casually; and one wearing a red bandana on his head, speaking to the student wearing the bandana around his neck. All three are seated at a table in front of banners reading "CUT THEIR PAY" with the six-figure salaries of the university's executives listed below, alongside a printed list of the student body's demands.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/08/2023_0828-mcneill-400x300.jpg)
Will WVU’s Draconian Cuts Become a Blueprint for Austerity Across Higher Ed?
West Virginia University is following the neoliberal creed that people should only be educated to the point of utility.
![New Democracy Party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis celebrates with fans after winning the Greek elections, on June 25, 2023.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/06/2023_0630-greece-400x300.jpg)
Greek Left Leaders Betrayed the Working Class. Conservatives Won a Landslide.
The ascendance of the right in Greek politics shows how a left without strong class politics is a losing proposition.