Fewer kindergarteners in high-poverty New Orleans neighborhoods ‘developmentally vulnerable,’ study finds, By Danielle Dreilinger, February 8, 2013, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “A new study has unexpected good news for New Orleans’ education system: Several high-poverty neighborhoods are sending a relatively low number of children to kindergarten who are considered ‘developmentally vulnerable,’ according to data released this week by the Orleans Public Education Network. Children entering elementary school with certain social and intellectual deficits are likely to struggle academically. The findings come from the Early Development Instrument, an internationally respected survey that measures kids’ health, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, communication and general knowledge. Children are considered developmentally vulnerable if they score in the bottom 10th percentile in at least two of the five areas. The measure is strongly tied to how well 4th-graders score on standardized tests…”
Tag: New Orleans
States and Medicaid Expansion
- Medicaid expansion rejected by Louisiana may be pursued in New Orleans, By Bruce Alpert, September 25, 2012, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “With Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration opting out of the Medicaid expansion offered in the federal Affordable Care Act, New Orleans officials say they are looking for ways to go it alone. Jindal announced his decision after the Supreme Court in June upheld the constitutionality of the health-care overhaul legislation but ruled that states can’t be compelled to expand Medicaid, a key component of President Barack Obama’s goal of providing near universal health coverage by 2014…”
- Report: Medicaid boost would save Arizona money, By Mary Reinhart, September 26, 2012, Arizona Republic: “Expanding Medicaid under federal health reform would save state tax dollars, create thousands of jobs and provide government-paid health care to hundreds of thousands of low-income Arizonans, according to a new report from a bipartisan think tank. Research from the Grand Canyon Institute, whose board includes former Republican and Democratic state lawmakers, shows that with a $1.5 billion investment over the first four years the state would collect nearly $8 billion in federal funding and insure an additional 435,000 people by 2017…”
- In Arkansas, governor changes course on health care to help uninsured, struggling Democrats, Associated Press, September 25, 2012, Washington Post: “President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul has never been popular in Arkansas, a state where even most Democrats regard the law as politically toxic. But with a quarter of the state’s working-age population uninsured, a governor who once said he would have voted against the law now wants to use it to widen government-funded coverage to thousands of additional families. And he’s relying on the move to help prevent a Republican takeover of the state Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. Gov. Mike Beebe, the first Southern governor to back the law’s expansion of Medicaid, has become an unlikely advocate for a central part of the overhaul that would expand Medicaid, a position made easier by the fact that he’s not seeking re-election…”
Asset Poverty – New Orleans, LA
Asset poverty is a big problem in New Orleans, where many have no cash cushion, By Rebecca Mowbray, August 14, 2012, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “Some 37 percent of New Orleans households would not be able to survive for more than three months without falling into poverty if their main source of income were disrupted, according to a new study released Tuesday by the Greater New Orleans Foundation and the Ford Foundation. While many examinations of poverty look at a family’s income, this study of ‘asset poverty’ looks at how large a financial cushion households have to protect them in times of crisis…”