Did free college save this city?, By Simon Montlake, December 17, 2016, Christian Science Monitor: “Tracy Zarei has wanted to teach children ever since she was in the second grade. She knew she would have to go to college to become a teacher. ‘She was a straight-A student,’ says her mother, Sheri, who was working double shifts in a nursing home to pay rent on their mobile home. ‘She cried when she got her first B.’ Then one day Tracy’s world shifted. When her mother returned home from work, Tracy handed her a note. ‘She said, ‘Mom, you’re going to be disappointed,’ ‘ recalls Sheri, who thought it must be a traffic ticket. Instead it was a positive pregnancy test. Antonio Jr. was born in March 2005. Tracy was a junior in high school. For many teenage mothers, this is when school ends and hardship begins. By age 22, only half of all single mothers in the United States receive a high school diploma, compared with 90 percent of their peers…”
Tag: Michigan
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Michigan
Court: Michigan stiffed deserving people out of food aid, By Tresa Baldas, August 26, 2016, Detroit Free Press: “Over and over again, the computer rejected their names — and automatically cut off their food stamps. Walter Barry, a 46-year-old mentally disabled Detroit man who lives with his mother, lost his public assistance when his name turned up in a fugitive database: His brother had stolen his name and used it as an alias when he was arrested about 25 years ago. Identity theft victim Donitha Copeland, a onetime homeless woman, lost her food benefits when her name showed up in the same database: There was an outstanding warrant for her arrest for writing bad checks in Kalamazoo, though she had never been there…”
Internet Access and Unemployment – Detroit, MI
Unemployed Detroit residents are trapped by a digital divide, By Cecilia Kang, May 22, 2016, New York Times: “In downtown Detroit, start-ups and luxury retailers are opening up and new office buildings are being built as the city works to recover from its deep economic problems. Six miles to the north, in the neighborhood of Hope Village, residents like Eric Hill are trying to participate in that progress but are running into hurdles. His difficulties were apparent on a recent Tuesday when he entered a crowded public library to use the computers to look for a new job. With no Internet service at home or on his mobile phone, Mr. Hill had few options to search work listings or file online job applications after losing his stocking job at a pharmacy five months ago…”