Cut-off of jobless aid would shrink economic growth and raise unemployment and poverty rates, By Paul Wiseman (AP), November 30, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “If Congress lets unemployment benefits expire this week for the long-term unemployed, they won’t be the only ones to feel the pain. The overall economy would suffer, too. Unemployment benefits help drive the economy because the jobless tend to spend every dollar they get, pumping cash into businesses. A cut-off of aid for millions of people unemployed for more than six months could squeeze a fragile economy, analysts say…”
Millions face loss of unemployment benefits, By Lyneka Little, November 30, 2010, ABC News: “The nation’s long-term unemployed will be left high and dry if Congress allows emergency unemployment benefits to grind to a halt today. The unemployment bill, along with an extension of the Bush tax cuts, are among the hottest issues in the lame-duck session of Congress that began Monday. The jobless bill has a pricetag of as much as $65 billion and the tax-cut extension could cost $3.7 trillion over the next decade, all on top of a deficit that tops $13.7 trillion. Unemployment insurance has for many decades provided about 26 weeks of benefits, but the current Congress has extended the benefit to 99 weeks in four separate bills. The consequences of ending the extended benefits aren’t entirely clear though most agree it could hurt the recovery…”
Thousands in Kentucky and Indiana face lapse of unemployment benefits, By Chris Otts, November 28, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Amid an anti-spending atmosphere in Washington, funds to extend unemployment compensation for more than 33,000 Kentuckians and nearly 67,000 Hoosiers are likely to run out next month. The soonest Congress is scheduled to resume voting is Tuesday – but it’s uncertain if lawmakers will take up the issue, and benefits for people who have been jobless for more than six months expire the next day. Even if the House and Senate move extraordinarily quickly, administrative hurdles would keep states from getting checks out the door for at least a few weeks, said attorney Rick McHugh, Midwest coordinator for the National Employment Law Project, the main proponent of extending jobless aid…”
Anxious time for laid-off workers as unemployment-benefit program expires, By Jamie Smith Hopkins and Lorraine Mirabella, November 29, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “Mildred Miller was just notified that her unemployment benefits will be cut off two weeks before Christmas. She can’t think about it without breaking down. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do; I really don’t know,’ Miller said Monday, her eyes welling with tears as she scanned job listings at Baltimore County’s work force development center in Essex. ‘I don’t want to get evicted. If we get on the street, I don’t know where we’ll be.’ The Middle River resident, a single mother with a 6-year-old son, is one of thousands in Maryland and about 2 million nationwide whose payments will be phased out in December if the federally funded emergency unemployment compensation program expires Tuesday as planned. She hopes her long job search finally bears some fruit – or that Congress steps in. The prospect of losing benefits left many unemployed residents fearful about the future, as some officials at workforce development centers in the state say they’ve seen rising anxiety among job seekers. The looming cutoff also sparked a protest in Baltimore Monday night…”
Health care squeeze forcing some Mississippi kids out, By Molly Parker, November 30, 2010, Jackson Clarion-Ledger: “Parents across Mississippi say they are frustrated with state Medicaid officials as programs are downsized and benefits canceled. ‘People are really being turned down right and left right now and it’s frightening,’ said Eric Weber, an assistant professor in the Public Policy Leadership Department at the University of Mississippi and the parent of a disabled child. ‘People who were getting covered last year are not getting covered this year.’ Gov. Haley Barbour’s tough financial stand toward Medicaid speaks volumes about the legacy he may leave when his term expires in January 2012…”
Medicaid spending ups state budget, By Mike Dennison, November 26, 2010, Billings Gazette: “Year after year, the big kahuna in state spending is human services – and Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s proposed budget makes no exception here, with substantial increases in Medicaid, the state-federal program that pays medical bills for the poor. The governor also proposes full extension of funding for the Healthy Montana Kids program, with its goal of expanding government-funded health insurance to another 15,000 to 20,000 children in low- and middle-income families. These and many other programs all add up to a proposed $3.7 billion in spending (including federal funds) on public health and human-service programs for the next two years, or more than 40 percent of the entire state-authorized budget…”
U.S. school graduation rate is rising, By Sam Dillon, November 30, 2010, New York Times: “The nation’s high school graduation rate, which declined in the latter part of the 20th century, may have hit bottom and begun to rise, according to a report to be issued Tuesday by a nonprofit group founded by former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. ‘The United States is turning a corner in meeting the high school dropout epidemic,’ General Powell and his wife, Alma J. Powell, wrote in a letter introducing the report. The report cites two statistics. The national graduation rate increased to 75 percent in 2008, from 72 percent in 2001. And the number of high schools that researchers call dropout factories – based on a formula that compares a school’s 12th-grade enrollment with its 9th-grade enrollment three years earlier – declined to about 1,750 in 2008, from about 2,000 such schools in 2002…”
Federal aid to high schools is up; so are graduation rates, By Nick Anderson, November 30, 2010, Washington Post: “The Education Department announced Tuesday that it has provided an unprecedented amount of aid to turn around struggling high schools, while an independent report found the nation’s high school graduation rate is on the rise. The federal announcement and the report from America’s Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization founded by former secretary of state Colin Powell, reflected a coordinated response to what some experts have called high school ‘dropout factories…'”
Report: ‘Dropout factories’ on decline in US, By Dorie Turner (AP), November 30, 2010, Washington Post: “The number of so-called ‘dropout factory’ high schools in the United States has declined since 2002, translating into at least 100,000 more students getting a diploma, a new report shows. But the report from America’s Promise Alliance to be released Tuesday also said that progress needs to increase fivefold for the country to graduate nine out of 10 students by 2020, a goal of the Obama administration. States including Tennessee, Texas, New York and Georgia have already figured out tactics that work. But fixing the problem won’t be easy, said report co-author John Bridgeland…”
