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Hello and welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood. Two guests today no surprise there. The education journalist Jennifer Berkshire will talk about the state of the school

reform movement as Trump and Devas leave but the right

pushes its sinister agenda at the state level.

And activist and organizer Kate Sykes will tell us about some surprising election victories

in Portland, Maine.

Before the interview, there's a few words in the economic situation.

The summer recovery from the spring collapse looks to be cooling along with the weather.

Retail sales rose just 0.3% in October by far the smallest gain since the recovery began in May.

The employment numbers for October were a similar story, fat, though steadily diminishing

headline numbers that can disguise the fact that we're still in a deep whole.

We've recovered just over half, 55% of the jobs lost between February and April.

12 million regained out of 22 million lost. Among the sectors that have regained the most

are retail and bars and restaurants, both important sources of employment but

mostly low-wage and vulnerable to renewed losses as virus cases soar. There seems to be no good

reason why people should be dining indoors, but the authorities mostly don't agree, at least for now.

Government employment hasn't shown any signs of recovery as

strapped states and localities cut spending a process that shows no sign of

reversal. Non-federal government employment fell nearly a million between

February and April and is doubt another 350,000 since.

Free market type, scoring government jobs is a waste, but public sector workers provide essential

services and the jobs are normally stable and

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