- Report: 1 in 4 Missouri kids lives in poverty, By Kris Hilgedick, January 16, 2014, News Tribune: “More Missourians are slipping into poverty every year, a coalition of activists said Wednesday. The rate of poverty in Missouri has risen steadily over the past few years, up from 13.4 percent in 2008 to 16.2 percent today. Nearly one in every four children lives in poverty in the Show-Me State. ‘An increase of 3 percent is not huge, but it’s 179,000 more people,’ said Jessica Long, spokesperson for the Missouri Association for Community Action Inc., based in Jefferson City. ‘It’s more than the populations of Jefferson City and Columbia combined.’ Members of the Missourians to End Poverty coalition gathered in a Capitol hearing room on Wednesday morning to release their 2014 state-of-the-state report. The report revealed that out of the more than 6 million people living in the state, 947,792 of them live at or below the federal poverty level. More than 400,000 residents live in extreme poverty…”
- Poverty rate in St. Louis County, city up from previous years, By Alex Stuckey, January 16, 2014, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “As poverty rates increase in Missouri and St. Louis County, a statewide coalition is bringing the numbers to light and calling for action. The Missourians to End Poverty coalition released a report Wednesday showing that poverty was up in the St. Louis area and statewide. In St. Louis County, 12.1 percent of the population was impoverished in 2012, up from 11.9 percent the previous year, according to the report. In the city of St. Louis, 29.3 percent of residents were impoverished, an increase from the 2011 figure of 27.2 percent…”
- Oklahoma Watch: Poverty declines in Oklahoma, but disturbing trends persist, By Warren Vieth, January 11, 2014, The Oklahoman: “Go to any public place in Oklahoma with a broad cross-section of people and take a look around. Every sixth Oklahoman you see, on average, will be officially poor. That’s a big improvement over 50 years ago, when the average was closer to one in three. Much of the progress came during the decade following President Lyndon Johnson’s Jan. 8, 1964, promise to wage an ‘unconditional’ war on poverty. Congress followed up by expanding Social Security and food stamps and launching programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start and Job Corps…”
Tag: Oklahoma
State Medicaid Programs – Kentucky, Oklahoma
- Kentucky’s embrace of private Medicaid plans leads to complaints, By Jenni Bergal, July 13, 2013, Washington Post: “Kaden Stone loves playing baseball, riding his bike and watching ‘Duck Dynasty’ on TV at his red-brick ranch-style house in rural, south-central Kentucky. Despite his energy, the tiny boy of 8 with a crew cut and missing front tooth can’t eat much, the result of congenital bowel problems that have required dozens of surgeries and procedures. He needs PediaSure, says his mother, who was shocked when Kaden’s Medicaid managed-care plan stopped paying last fall for the expensive nutritional drink, saying it was not ‘medically necessary…'”
- Alternate health insurance plan for poor could cost more than Medicaid expansion, By Wayne Greene, July 14, 2013, Tulsa World: “One of the toughest tasks before advocates of a plan to use federal and state money to purchase private insurance coverage for poor Oklahomans will be convincing legislative skeptics – and the federal government – that it won’t cost more than expanding Medicaid. Last month, Leavitt Partners presented a report to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority for several changes, including a private insurance subsidy plan…”
Academic Achievement and Income – Oklahoma
Oklahoma Watch: Low-income students likely to be retained at highest rate, By Chase Cook, March 30, 2013, The Oklahoman: “Among thousands of Oklahoma students who could be held back in third grade for failing a state reading test next year, a disproportionate share likely will be low-income children, an Oklahoma Watch analysis of state data found. An analysis of state test data from spring 2012 found that elementary schools with higher rates of low-income students had greater shares of third-graders who scored poorly on the Oklahoma Core Curriculum Test for reading. Starting in spring 2014, under the Reading Sufficiency Act, third-graders who score at the lowest level on the test, unsatisfactory, will have to repeat third grade unless they get an exemption or improve to grade level by the fall. The possibility that many of the students held back will come from low-income families raises fears among some educators that these children in particular will suffer negative effects from retention. Research over decades has found that retention can cause harmful lasting effects, including lagging achievement, higher dropout rates and social and emotional problems. Poor students are less likely to have support resources at home to recover, some experts say…”