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

Tag: Education

Unemployment Rates

  • Unemployment rates fall for least educated, By Paul Davidson, October 5, 2014, USA Today: “A better labor market is benefiting more Americans, including those with less education. September’s unemployment rate fell from 6.1% to 5.9%, slipping under 6% for the first time since 2008. Those with only, or less than, a high school diploma saw even sharper declines…”
  • Rising jobless rates are a southern mystery, By Cameron McWhirter and Ben Leubsdorf, October 5, 2014, Wall Street Journal: “A sharp uptick in jobless numbers across a slew of Southern states has baffled economists and rattled at least one big political race. It has also raised an unusual question: Is the trend real? When the Labor Department last month said Georgia’s unemployment rate had jumped to 8.1% in August, making it the worst state for joblessness in the country, Democratic gubernatorial challenger Jason Carter seized on the news…”

Inequality and the Education System

A simple equation: more education = more income, By Eduardo Porter, September 10, 2014, New York Times: “Imagine if the United States government taxed the nation’s one-percenters so that their post-tax share of the nation’s income remained at 10 percent, roughly where it was in 1979. If the excess money were distributed equally among the rest of the population, in 2012 every family below that very top tier would have gotten a $7,105 check. This is hardly trivial money. But it pales compared to the gap between the wages of a family of two college graduates and a family of high school graduates. Between 1979 and 2012, that gap grew by some $30,000, after inflation…”

High School Graduation Rate – Michigan

  • Michigan’s 4-year high school graduation rate rises to nearly 77%, By Jennifer Chambers, February 27, 2014, Detroit News: “Graduation rates in Michigan are increasing, with the statewide four-year graduation rate for the high school class of 2013 reaching 76.96 percent, up 0.7 percentage points from 2012, according to the Michigan Center for Educational Performance and Information. At the same time, the 2013 state dropout rate is down 0.17 percentage points, to 10.54 percent…”
  • High school graduation rates up in Lansing, statewide, By Kathleen Lavey, February 27, 2014, Lansing State Journal: “While the statewide high school graduation rate was up slightly in 2013, Lansing officials were celebrating significant increases at Eastern and Everett high schools and a small uptick at Sexton…”