Report: Colorado poverty levels rise, By Colleen O’Connor, December 15, 2010, Denver Post: “The number of Colorado neighborhoods with a significant number of residents living in poverty doubled over the past decade, according to Census Bureau data released Tuesday. Neighborhoods with at least 20 percent of people in poverty doubled from about one in 10 at the start of the decade to one in five by the end of the decade. For children, the reality was even more harsh: One in five neighborhoods had at least 20 percent of its children living in poverty in 2000, which increased to an average of one in three neighborhoods between 2005 and 2009. The number of neighborhoods with at least 30 percent of children living in poverty nearly tripled, to 206 in the second half of the decade from 74 at the start…”
Census details poverty, low education in Eastern Kentucky, By Marcus Green, December 14, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Kentucky has 13 counties, mostly in the eastern part of the state, whose median household incomes are below $25,000 — including Owsley County, which also has the nation’s smallest percentage of bachelor’s degrees, new U.S. Census Bureau data shows. The figures from the American Community Survey put the poverty and low education in Kentucky’s rural regions in contrast to the more prosperous counties near Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati…”
Rural America gets even more sparsely populated, By Doug Smith and Richard Fausset, December 15, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “The majority of the nation’s sparsely populated rural counties lost even more residents in the last decade, though some of the counties – particularly those in the Mountain West – saw population gains that may be the result of retirees striking out for areas that are both scenic and affordable, according to a Times analysis of figures released by the Census Bureau on Tuesday. The data offer the first detailed portrait of heartland America in a decade, covering the roughly 1,400 counties of fewer than 20,000 people. The numbers also show a growing Latino presence in these counties…”
Poverty in small towns increasing, By Michelle Dupler, December 15, 2010, Tacoma News Tribune: “Poverty rates in small towns in the Mid-Columbia tended to be higher than state and national averages between 2005 and last year, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Tuesday. Mesa, for example, had 53 percent of the Franklin County town’s estimated 472 residents lived in poverty, and had an annual median income of just $27,083. The national median income estimated for last year was $49,777, with 14.3 percent of people living in poverty…”
Poverty rise in region’s small towns ‘sobering’, By Louise Knott Ahern, December 15, 2010, Lansing State Journal: “Mid-Michigan’s small towns have not been spared the skyrocketing poverty rates that have plagued larger urban areas for the past several years, according to data released Tuesday. The American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that even though towns such as Grand Ledge, Williamston and Eaton Rapids have seen only modest population changes since 2000, the number of families living beneath the federal poverty level has risen drastically. In Williamston, for example, the number of families living below poverty has risen from 6.4 percent in 2000 to an average of 15.5 percent over the past five years, according to the report…”
Learning gaps slow to change, By Jason Wermers, December 14, 2010, Augusta Chronicle: “Student achievement gaps that run along lines of race and gender still persist, and educators’ efforts to narrow those differences have led to slow and uneven progress, according to a report being released today. That is true nationally as well as in Georgia and South Carolina, according to ‘State Test Score Trends through 2008-09, Part 2: Slow and Uneven Progress in Narrowing Gaps’ by the Center on Education Policy, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C. ‘Achievement gap’ refers to the difference in test results among groups of students along racial, economic or other lines such as disabilities or English language skills…”
Racial academic achievement gap remains a problem, By Brian Bull, December 15, 2010, Superior Telegram: “A new report says academic achievement gaps among racial lines persist among U.S. students, despite some progress. And narrowing these gaps will take awhile. The non-profit Center on Education Policy analyzed standardized test scores from all 50 states, with data going back nearly a decade. And while the center’s president, Jack Jennings says overall student performance has improved, he says it’s not nearly fast enough to close the gap…”
