Survey: Low-wage workers gloomy about future, By Tom Raum and Jennifer Agiesta (AP), March 20, 2013, Miami Herald: “America’s lower-income workers have posted the biggest job gains since the deep 2007-09 recession – but few are bragging. As a workforce sector, those earning $35,000 or less annually are generally pessimistic about their finances and career prospects. Many see themselves as worse off now than during the recession, a two-part Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey of workers and employers shows…”
Day: March 20, 2013
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Rhode Island
Food stamps put Rhode Island town on monthly boom-and-bust cycle, By Eli Saslow, March 16, 2013, Washington Post: “The economy of Woonsocket was about to stir to life. Delivery trucks were moving down river roads, and stores were extending their hours. The bus company was warning riders to anticipate ‘heavy traffic.’ A community bank, soon to experience a surge in deposits, was rolling a message across its electronic marquee on the night of Feb. 28: ‘Happy shopping! Enjoy the 1st.’ In the heart of downtown, Miguel Pichardo, 53, watched three trucks jockey for position at the loading dock of his family-run International Meat Market. For most of the month, his business operated as a humble milk-and-eggs corner store, but now 3,000 pounds of product were scheduled for delivery in the next few hours. He wiped the front counter and smoothed the edges of a sign posted near his register. ‘Yes! We take Food Stamps, SNAP, EBT!’ ‘Today, we fill the store up with everything,’ he said. ‘Tomorrow, we sell it all.’ At precisely one second after midnight, on March 1, Woonsocket would experience its monthly financial windfall — nearly $2 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps…”
Achievement Gap – Minnesota
Teachers facing achievement gap try cross-race connections, By Laura Yuen, March 20, 2013, Minnesota Public Radio: “All the bleak statistics about Minnesota’s achievement gap became personal to fifth-grade teacher Jen Engel, when she realized that gap was playing out in her own classroom. ‘It stares you right in the face. It’s real.’ Engel teaches at Echo Park Elementary School in Burnsville, where about half of the students are racial minorities, many of them struggling academically. The 43-year-old, who is white, has heard about the factors that can contribute to the racial achievement gap, including poverty, unstable living conditions and troubled families. But she says those are no excuses for educators. So Engel is one of several teachers who are learning how to be what educators describe as ‘culturally responsive’ to her students as part of a Twin Cities program offered by St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, whose main campuses are in Winona and Minneapolis…”