Food stamp rolls reach historic levels, By Pamela M. Prah, February 7, 2011, Stateline.org: “Dorene is a certified teacher in Idaho, but the only job she can find is as a teaching assistant, which pays under $11 an hour. That is considerably less than the $45,000 that the average teacher in Idaho earns annually. She asked that her full name not be used because her family doesn’t know she has been getting food stamp benefits for her two young children and herself for a year. ‘We live paycheck to paycheck,’ she says, even with child support. ‘I never thought I’d be in this situation.’ Nationwide, one in seven Americans currently receives help from the government to put food on the table. All but 14 states saw double-digit spikes in the number of people getting food stamps over the one-year period that ended in November 2010. But Idaho had the largest one-year increase in the country: 28 percent, according to the latest government figures…”
Day: February 7, 2011
Early Childhood Education
Early childhood education benefits both kids, taxpayers, study says, By Liz Szabo, February 3, 2011, USA Today: “Investing in early childhood education can yield impressive economic benefits – both for children and taxpayers, according to a National Institutes of Health study that followed participants until age 26. Each dollar spent on Chicago-based, federally funded Child-Parent Centers generates $4 to $11 in return, both because children finished high school or college, earning more than their peers, and also because participants were less likely to be held back, arrested, depressed, involved with drugs or sick, the study says. That’s up to an 18% annual rate of return, says Arthur Reynolds, a professor at the University of Minnesota and lead author of the study, published today in Child Development…”
Medicaid Funding – Colorado
Hospitals, state officials agree to provider fee to help shore up Medicaid in Colo., By Michael Booth, February 4, 2011, Denver Post: “State health officials and hospital leaders have agreed on a proposed $50 million transfer of provider fees to shore up basic Medicaid in Colorado, while federal officials on Thursday urged states to also consider cuts in optional benefits to balance their threatened Medicaid budgets. Hospitals and advocates for the poor hail the first year of the provider fee – hospitals taxing themselves to get more Medicaid funding through a federal match – as a success in expanding insurance coverage in Colorado. ‘We pitched it as a win-win-win for consumers, hospitals and the state, and I think it’s absolutely proven to be that,’ said Cody Belzley, vice president of the Colorado Children’s Campaign and an architect of the fee in the administration of former Gov. Bill Ritter. It allowed the state to expand insurance last year to 30,000 people who previously made too much to qualify…”