Study: Poverty in Philadelphia suburbs up nearly 1%, By Alfred Lubrano, January 20, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Poverty increased nearly 1 percent in Philadelphia’s suburbs between 2000 and 2008, partly because of two recessions, according to a report being released today. Poverty in the suburbs reached a rate of 7.4 percent, compared with 24.1 percent within Philadelphia, according to the report by the Brookings Institution. Citywide poverty increased 1.2 percent between 2000 and 2008, the report showed. Nationwide, suburban poverty increased by 25 percent during that time frame, nearly five times the rate of urban poverty, according to the report…”
Suburbia home to new poverty challenge, By Bill Zlatos, January 20, 2010, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Poverty has crept into bedroom communities around Pittsburgh and across America. A report released today by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution shows a 25 percent increase in poverty in suburbs — nearly five times the rate in cities. ‘It is disheartening, but not surprising,’ said Diana Bucco, president of The Forbes Funds, a Downtown-based group that assists human service agencies and researches nonprofit organizations. She said residents of older, middle-class communities are coping with flat incomes and rising costs of food, gas, utilities and housing…”
More than one in four Columbia residents are living in poverty, By James Rosen, January 20, 2010, The State: “More than one of every four Columbia residents is now living in poverty, an increase of more than a quarter of impoverished people than a decade ago. Columbia has been hit harder than other cities in the Carolinas, but Charleston, Raleigh and urban centers are also home to a growing number of poor people. The new study by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think thank, looked at Census Bureau data for the country’s 95 largest urban areas, which the U.S. government calls Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The worst recession in two decades has sent family incomes plummeting in cities across the nation, from Hartford, Conn. – where two in five people live in poverty – to Youngstown, Ohio, and Detroit in the Midwest…”
National suburban poverty blight skips county, By Rob Varnon, January 20, 2010, Danbury News Times: “A wall of wealth in the suburbs of Bridgeport and Stamford appears to have staved off the ravages of poverty sweeping through hinterlands in other states. The Brookings Institution says in a new report today that 9.5 percent of the suburban U.S. population lived below the poverty line in 2008, while suburban Fairfield County had a poverty rate of just 5 percent. ‘The suburban poor has held pretty steady’ in Fairfield County, said Brookings Senior Research Analyst Elizabeth Kneebone, the study’s lead author. The county has the second lowest suburban poverty rate in the nation…”
UN report: Crisis will keep children out of school, By Angela Charlton (AP), January 19, 2010, BusinessWeek: “The world financial crisis not only hurt balance sheets but could sabotage poor countries’ efforts to get more children into school, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.N. education agency. UNESCO urged more funding and attention for those shut out of education systems such as ethnic minorities and rural girls, who make up a disproportionate part of the legions of school-age children who have never seen the inside of a classroom…”
India still home to largest illiterate population: UNESCO, January 20, 2010, The Hindu: “India still has the largest number of illiterate adults in the world, but has made ‘rapid advances’ in cutting down the numbers of school drop outs, a new UN report on education has said. The Education For All-Global Monitoring Report, released here on Wednesday finds that out of the total 759 million illiterate adults in the world, India still has the highest number. ‘Over half of the illiterate adults live in just four countries: Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan,’ the report said, adding the progress has been ‘painfully slow’ and threatens to obstruct the Millennium Development Goals…”
Medicaid would be spared cuts, By Deborah Yetter, January 19, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Kentucky’s fast-growing Medicaid program would be spared cuts – and would actually see federal-funding increases because of anticipated growth in its rolls – under the budget Gov. Steve Beshear proposed Tuesday. His budget assumes savings of about $108 million in the next two years in the state’s share of the government health plan that now serves nearly 790,000 poor and disabled Kentuckians. But it doesn’t propose any cuts…”
Budget would add $782 million for Medicaid, By Valarie Honeycutt Spears, January 20, 2010, Lexington Herald-Leader: “Facing exploding growth in the government-run health insurance program for the poor and disabled, Gov. Steve Beshear’s proposed budget calls for spending an additional $782 million on Medicaid over the next two years. Beshear said the Medicaid program is adding an average of about 3,400 recipients each month, compared with 930 each month just two years ago. ‘We now have over 789,000 Kentuckians in the Medicaid program,’ Beshear said. ‘That’s nearly one in five of our citizens depending on us for their health care.’ Despite the increased spending, Beshear has directed the Medicaid program to cut costs by $108 million over the next two years…”
