It’s hard to believe, but there are over 200,000 Canadian children under the age of five who are not vaccinated against measles. To most of us, it’s utterly baffling why a parent wouldn’t protect their child when the science is so clear. Today in The Conversation Canada, economist Gregory Mason of the University of Manitoba looks at the anti-vaxx problem not from a health perspective, but instead explains how people process decisions through risk analysis. The key to better decisions, he says, is making the right information more accessible and easy to understand.

That’s just one of several good reads we have for you on this Tuesday:

• The U.S. college admissions scandal was wrong on so many fronts, perhaps none more so than the revelation that some cheaters falsely claimed a disability to have an easier time on entrance exams. Allyson Harrison of Queen’s University writes about how the scandal could harm people with actual disabilities face who already discrimination at the post-secondary level.
• We have two different takes on recent policy initiatives by the Ford government in Ontario: the government’s cuts to a program on inter-library loans will do significant harm, especially to rural communities, says Samuel Trosow of Western University; Louis Volante Professor of Brock University says Ford’s cut to the education budget could lead to an increase in the number of students who fail to complete high school.

And finally…we tend to think of the Arctic as a barren land in terms of vegetation, but Karen Filbee-Dexter of Université Laval takes us underwater to explore the kelp forests of the Arctic that are expanding due to rising global temperatures.

Regards,