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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Day: May 28, 2013

Free Lunch Program and School Funding – Indiana

State won’t use free lunch program as poverty indicator, By Maureen Hayden, May 24, 2013, News and Tribune: “Indiana is changing the way it counts low-income students in public schools because Republican legislators suspect fraud in the federal school-lunch program used to measure poverty. Tucked inside the budget bill passed by the General Assembly last month is a provision that ends the use of the program to determine levels of poverty-based funding for school districts after next year. Instead, the state’s textbook assistance program, which provides free schoolbooks to low-income children, will be used to calculate how much additional money the state gives schools to help educate children most at-risk for failure…”

Youth Unemployment – Europe

Euro leaders unite to tackle soaring youth unemployment rates, By Rupert Neate and Graeme Wearden, May 28, 2013, The Guardian: “European leaders yesterday warned that youth unemployment – which stands at up to 59% in some countries – could lead to a continent-wide ‘catastrophe’ and widespread social unrest aimed at member state governments. The French, German and Italian governments yesterday joined together to launch initiatives to ‘rescue an entire generation’ who fear they will never find jobs. More than 7.5m young Europeans aged between 15-24 are not employed or in education or training, according to European Union data. The rate of youth unemployment is more than double that of adults, and more than half of young people in Greece (59%) and Spain (55%) are unemployed…”