Supplemental Poverty Measure

Poverty line to be redefined, By Rita Price, May 6, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Millions of livelihoods and billions of dollars – including school-lunch programs, Medicaid and subsidized housing – depend on the income calculation known as the poverty line. Yet the government knows, and has known for decades, that it uses a seriously flawed formula for determining who is poor in America. ‘I think there’s almost universal agreement, on the right and on the left, that the current measure is really bad,’ said Ron Haskins, co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution in Washington. That’s why federal officials are experimenting with a new measure, one that will be unveiled to the public as a ‘supplemental poverty measure’ when the Census Bureau releases its annual poverty report next year…”