At home or in school, California students face harder times, survey finds, By Howard Blume, January 21, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “The state’s children found no escape from harder times last year whether at school, where they endured larger classes, unfamiliar teachers and scarce supplies — or at home, where they faced family stresses from emptier refrigerators, job losses and more frequent dislocation. The grim compilation comes in a report to be released today by UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access and the University of California All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity. ‘It’s the bleakest I’ve ever seen,’ said one Los Angeles County school principal, who, like others in the principals survey, participated anonymously…”
Day: January 21, 2010
Kids Count Report – New Jersey
- N.J. families seeking government assistance surged during height of recession, By Susan K. Livio, January 20, 2010, Star-Ledger: “One in eight New Jersey children lived in poverty during the height of the recession in 2008, creating a surge in demand for government programs that help people feed their families and pay their utility bills, according to an annual report on child well-being. Food stamps helped feed 254,000 children last year, 70,000 more than in 2005, according to the Kids Count report released yesterday by the Association for Children of New Jersey, a family advocacy group. And with the state doubling the amount it spends on energy assistance programs, it helped pay utility bills for an estimated 252,000 people last year, about 100,000 more than in 2005, according to the report…”
- More NJ children slipping below poverty line, By Robert Stern, January 20, 2010, Times of Trenton: “New Jersey experienced an increased rate of child poverty at the onset of the nation’s economic downturn in 2008, according to a new report by the nonprofit Association for Children of New Jersey. More than one in eight children, 13 percent, were in a family living in poverty in 2008, up from 12 percent the previous year, according to the latest yearly version of the group’s annual statewide report, ‘New Jersey Kids Count 2010.’ Regional numbers on the increase in child poverty will not be available until later this year. Poverty is defined, for a family of four, as households living on $21,000 per year or less. New Jersey’s high housing costs put pressure on low-income families (defined as those below double the poverty level, or $42,000 in annual income for a family of four)…”
US Urban and Suburban Poverty Rates
- Poverty growing faster in suburbs, By Frank D. Roylance and Larry Carson, January 21, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “The majority of the poor in the Baltimore region now live in the city’s suburbs for the first time, while the poverty rate in the city has declined, a new study has found. The changing geography of poverty here reflects a national trend, and argues for a more regional strategy on issues ranging from social safety nets to mass transit, the study concludes. ‘The notion of poverty as primarily an urban problem is officially outdated,’ said Elizabeth Kneebone, co-author of a report released Wednesday by the Brookings Institution in Washington. ‘This signals a remarkable shift in the geography of American poverty that will ultimately affect the way we think about and approach poverty alleviation strategies.’ Between 2000 and 2008, the number of people living below the federal poverty line in Baltimore’s suburbs grew by nearly 21,000, while the city saw a decline of more than 24,000 poor. The decline in the city’s poverty rate was the third-largest among the 95 cities examined…”
- New report finds suburban poverty rates soaring in downturn, By Tim Logan, January 20, 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Poverty is moving to the suburbs. And in the recession, it is moving even faster. Those findings are the highlights of a new study out today from the Brookings Institution, which found that the number of people living below the poverty line in American suburbs grew 25 percent in the past eight years, far faster than in central cities that have long housed more than their share of the poor. And it is especially true in St. Louis…”
- Study: More poor living in U.S. suburbs than in cities, By Brandt Williams, January 20, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “According to a new study released Wednesday by the Brookings Institution, there are more poor people living in U.S. suburbs than there are in central cities. Researchers say between 2000 and 2008 the number of poor people living in suburban areas grew nearly five times faster than the amount of poor people in the central cities. Brookings researchers say there are now 1.5 million more poor people living in the suburbs than there are in central cities. However, proportionally speaking, poverty is still more prevalent in urban cores…”