Schools share best practices to close achievement gaps, By Erin Richards and Kelly Meyerhofer, September 25, 2014, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “In a move aimed at closing Wisconsin’s persistent achievement gaps — especially between white students and those of color — state Superintendent Tony Evers on Thursday announced a set of “what works” strategies collected from schools around the state. But the new report was only part of the message on achievement gaps that Evers wanted to get across in Madison on Thursday during his annual State of Education address. The more controversial part: Evers says Wisconsin’s predominantly white, middle-class teachers need to dramatically change what they’re doing to better help black and Hispanic children succeed…”
Day: September 26, 2014
Child Support Enforcement
- How our child support system can push the poor deeper into poverty, By Jeff Guo, September 26, 2014, Washington Post: “In the United States, nearly one in four children are due some sort of child support. But only 62 percent of the money owed is actually paid. To get a sense of who these deadbeat parents are, consider this chart comparing different states…”
- Locking up parents for not paying child support can be a modern-day ‘debtor’s prison’, By Tins Griego, September 26, 2014, Washington Post: “Dwayne Ferebee, 36, father of four, has been sent to jail four times over the past 12 years on civil contempt charges for failure to pay his court-ordered child support. The first two times, he spent a couple months behind bars until his mom came up with the $3,000 the judge told him he had to pay. The third go-around, he stayed in jail six of the maximum 12-month sentence before he could scrape together the money. The fourth, he had to wait until his fiancée received her tax refund. All told, he spent about a year locked up…”
Hospitals and Medicaid Expansion
- Hospitals see major drop in charity care, September 24, 2014, The Tennessean: “The number of uninsured patients admitted to hospitals has dropped markedly this year, reducing charity care and bad debt cases, particularly in states that have expanded Medicaid coverage under the new federal health care law, a government report released Wednesday found. The report from the Department of Health and Human Services said hospitals in states that have taken advantage of new Medicaid eligibility levels have seen uninsured admissions fall by about 30 percent. The report estimated that the cost of uncompensated hospital care will be $5.7 billion lower in 2014…”
- Affordable Care Act reduces costs for hospitals, report says, By Robert Pear, September 24, 2014, New York Times: “The Obama administration increased the pressure on states to expand Medicaid on Wednesday, citing new evidence that hospitals reap financial benefits and gain more paying customers when states broaden eligibility. In states that have expanded Medicaid, the White House said, hospitals are seeing substantial reductions in ‘uncompensated care’ as more patients have Medicaid coverage and fewer are uninsured…”