Kids Count Report – Minnesota

Posted on May 31, 2012 by townsend

• Study: More Minnesota children in poverty; worst in northwest, By Ryan Johnson, May 31, 2012, Pioneer Press: “After a long streak of boasting one of the nation’s lowest rates of children living in poverty, Minnesota has been ‘slipping’ in recent years compared with the rest of the nation, said research director Kara Arzamendia with the Children’s Defense Fund. About 9 percent of the state’s children lived in poverty in 2000, but the number shot up to 15 percent by 2010, the latest data available. That year, about 192,000 of the state’s under-18 population lived in households with incomes less than $22,314 for a family of four. ‘Things have been going in the wrong direction,’ Arzamendia said. That was one of the findings in the latest Kids Count report released Wednesday, May 30. For more than two decades, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has released the state-by-state data book that tracks several factors in children’s health and well-being and aims to raise awareness of the issues now facing children across the nation…”
• More Minn. children living in poverty, By Conrad Wilson, May 31, 2012, Minnesota Public Radio: “Audrey Thayer works with children and families in northern Minnesota who live on the edge of poverty. Many have income that falls below federal poverty guidelines. As a result, there is a constant demand for services. ‘We’ll get one family up and running, and another family arrives,’ said Thayer, coordinator of the Minnesota Greater Racial Justice Project. ‘Same situation.’ ‘It’s almost like a revolving door,’ Thayer said of the Bemidji-based advocacy group’s work. ‘Behind that door, there’s tons out there. We don’t know. We never know how many are going to come through that door, but they do. And in eight years, I have never seen that subside.’ A new report by the Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota shows more children are living in poverty. In 2000, roughly 110,000 children statewide lived at or below the poverty line. In 2010, that number was up to nearly 200,000…”