Some states still leave low-income students behind; Others make surprising gains, By Sharona Coutts and Jennifer LaFleur, June 30, 2011, ProPublica.org: “Florida is a state of stark contrasts. Travel a few miles from the opulent mansions of Miami Beach and you reach desperately poor neighborhoods. There’s the grinding poverty of sugar cane country and the growing middle class of Jacksonville. All told, half the public-school students in Florida qualify for subsidized lunches. Many are the first in their families to speak English or contemplate attending college. In many states, those economic differences are reflected in the classroom, with students in wealthy schools taking many more advanced courses. But not in Florida. A ProPublica analysis of previously unreleased federal data shows that Florida leads the nation in the percentage of high-school students enrolled in high-level classes-Advanced Placement and advanced math. That holds true across rich and poor districts. Studies repeatedly have shown that students who take advanced classes have greater chances of attending and succeeding in college. Our analysis identifies several states that, like Florida, have leveled the field and now offer rich and poor students roughly equal access to high-level courses…”
Monthly Archives: June 2011
Reductions to Cash Assistance – New Jersey
State orders $15 reduction per person in monthly welfare checks, By Erik Larsen, June 30, 2011, Asbury Park Press: “Changes in the state budget for the new fiscal year that begins Friday will result in funding reductions to welfare programs that are administered by New Jersey’s 21 county governments. The reductions had been discussed as a possibility but are now official, according to Mary Fran McFadden, director of the Ocean County Board of Social Services. Letters have been sent to recipients to notify them of the changes. The state Division of Family Development has ordered the counties to make a $15 per person reduction in monthly welfare checks issued to single adults and childless couples…”
TANF and Drug Testing – Florida
DCF: Positive drug test will lead to child abuse hotline referral, By Catherine Whittenburg, June 28, 2011, Tampa Bay Tribune: “Starting next month, Florida’s social service agency will refer every welfare applicant who fails a drug test to a child abuse hotline. State officials deny the drug test results may be used to remove children from their parents, but civil rights activists fear it will. Beginning Friday, anyone applying to the state for temporary cash assistance must pass a drug test to receive benefits…”
Workplace Health Insurance Coverage – Minnesota
Fewer families get health coverage from workplace, By Jackie Crosby, June 28, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “The number of Minnesotans who get health insurance through employers has dropped 10 percentage points in the past decade, outpacing the decline nationwide, according to a study released Tuesday by the University of Minnesota. A decade ago, about 8 in 10 workers and their families received health benefits from a company-offered plan. By 2009, the most recent year available, 71 percent of Minnesotans were covered through the workplace. The shift parallels a trend in which growing numbers of Minnesotans earn lower wages and the ranks of those living in poverty swells…”
States and Voter ID Laws
- Perdue vetoes photo ID voter bill, By Jim Morrill, June 24, 2011, Charlotte Observer: “In a move that could influence next year’s presidential election in North Carolina, Democratic Gov. Bev. Perdue vetoed a bill Thursday that would have required voters to show a photo ID. Republicans hailed the bill as a common-sense way to ensure against fraud. Critics said it would suppress voter turnout, particularly among students, African-Americans and elderly people, calling it a modern-day poll tax. ‘We must always be vigilant in protecting the integrity of our elections,’ Perdue said in a statement. ‘But requiring every voter to present a government-issued photo ID is not the way to do it.’ Perdue said the bill would ‘unfairly disenfranchise’ voters. Republicans roundly criticized the move. It’s unclear whether they can override the veto…”
- Nixon vetoes voter-ID and early-voting legislation, By Jason Noble, June 17, 2011, Kansas City Star: “Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Friday vetoed legislation that would have required voters to show photo identification at the polls and allowed some ballots to be cast before Election Day. In his formal veto message, Nixon said the bill would disenfranchise voters who don’t have access to a photo ID or the documents necessary to obtain one, such as a birth certificate. Specifically, he said access to the ballot box could be limited for seniors and the disabled…”
Education Cuts and Class Sizes
For San Diego schools, a fear that larger classes will hinder learning, By Michael Winerip, June 26, 2011, New York Times: “Many in the forefront of what is called the education reform movement – like Bill Gates, the philanthropist, and Arne Duncan, the nation’s education secretary – have attended private schools with small class sizes. Others, like New York’s mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, and its former schools chancellor Joel I. Klein have sent their children to private schools with small class sizes. Imagine if the poorest public school children had the same opportunity. That is what has been happening for several years in this urban district of 130,000 students. Using state money and federal stimulus dollars, San Diego has held class size to 17 in kindergarten through second grade at its 30 poorest schools. ‘Small class size is the most important priority for us,’ said Richard Barrera, the school board president. ‘These children are behind when they enter kindergarten. If they’re on grade level by third grade, most will be fine.’ Mr. Barrera believes that the rise in the district’s state test scores – to 56 percent proficient in English from 45 percent three years ago – is due, in part, to smaller classes. However, in San Diego, 17 could soon become 30. Federal stimulus money has been spent. California’s governor and Legislature, after several years of budget cuts, are deadlocked over whether to cut again. All around the state, districts have developed worst-case budget plans…”
States and Medicaid Changes – Indiana, Arizona
- Indiana law to cut Planned Parenthood funding is blocked, By Robert Pear, June 24, 2011, New York Times: “A federal judge ruled Friday that the State of Indiana could not cut off money for Planned Parenthood clinics providing health care to low-income women on Medicaid. The judge, Tanya Walton Pratt of the Federal District Court in Indianapolis, blocked provisions of a new state law that penalized Planned Parenthood because some of its clinics performed abortions. The law, she said, conflicts with the federal Medicaid statute, which generally allows Medicaid beneficiaries to choose their health care providers. Planned Parenthood provides services other than abortion, including family planning and screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted diseases. In issuing a preliminary injunction late Friday, Judge Pratt said the state law ‘will exact a devastating financial toll on Planned Parenthood of Indiana and hinder its ability to continue serving patients’ general health needs…’”
- Arizona Medicaid: New attempt made to block cuts, By Mary K. Reinhart, June 28, 2011, Arizona Republic: “Attorneys for low-income Arizonans filed a motion in Maricopa County Superior Court on Monday to stop sweeping cuts to the state’s Medicaid program from taking effect Friday. It may be the last chance for more than 135,000 people expected to lose coverage in the coming year under the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, which Gov. Jan Brewer and state lawmakers cut by more than $500 million to balance the budget. Attorneys for three public-interest groups argue that Brewer and lawmakers are violating the state Constitution and the will of voters, who in 2000 agreed to expand AHCCCS and extend health care to everyone earning less than the federal poverty level. The Arizona Supreme Court last Friday declined to accept a similar case, without explanation…”
Job-Training Programs
Job-training programs come under scrutiny in Congress, By Rob Hotakainen, June 27, 2011, Miami Herald: “After working for seven years as a receptionist, Teresa Sawyer knew how to use a typewriter and a photocopier when she got laid off in 2008, but she knew nothing about computers. Sawyer, 60, of Gig Harbor, Wash., sent out hundreds of resumes but didn’t get a single response, leading her to conclude that she was unemployable. But with a little help from a federal job-training program, Sawyer went back to school to learn how to be a medical office professional. After receiving a two-year associate in applied science degree from Tacoma Community College this month, she has no fears of landing a job. ‘None at all, not with the skill that I have. … I never dreamed I would do this,’ she said. Despite their popularity with many members of Congress and their constituents, however, job-training programs have come under increased scrutiny this year on Capitol Hill, and the attention is about to intensify…”
Social Impact Bonds
Investors may fund social programs, By Todd Wallack, June 27, 2011, Boston Globe: “Massachusetts could be among the first states in the country to raise money for social services by offering investors the chance to earn profits on programs they establish. The approach is known as ‘social impact bonds’ or ‘pay for success.’ It is based on the idea that if programs backed by investors succeed in reducing, for example, the number of inmates in prison or the homeless population, governments will realize big savings, which they can tap to pay off investors with healthy returns. If the programs fail, the government would owe little or nothing. The administration of Governor Deval Patrick is already sifting through more than two dozen suggestions from nonprofits on how to create such performance-based programs…”
Cities and Energy Efficiency Projects
The art of luring ‘poor’ cities into energy-saving projects, By Ellen M. Gilmer, June 27, 2011, New York Times: “The decay of Michigan’s many rusted-out towns doesn’t strike most as fertile ground for any kind of green movement. But entrepreneur Sean Reed sees the state as a prime spot for energy efficiency measures to take root. Through the Clean Energy Coalition, where he is executive director, Reed is aiming to bring those cash-strapped cities into the sustainability fold by making available more clean energy technology in the local building and transportation sectors. Change, though, is not likely to come easily. One CEC project — Cities of Promise — targets municipal energy use in struggling communities, like Flint and Hamtramck. Using a $4.4 million grant issued last year by the Michigan Public Service Commission, CEC has performed energy audits of city-owned and -operated buildings in eight towns…”
Affordable Housing and Homelessness – Minnesota
More and more Minnesota renters just a heartbeat from homelessness, By Bob Shaw, June 26, 2011, Pioneer Press: “For many Minnesotans, home has never been so hard to pay for. The number of people who can barely afford a place to live has reached an all-time high, creating a new kind of client for homeless shelters – the almost-homeless. ‘I am not a failure,’ said ‘Lovie’ Robinson, 22, as he slumped at a table in the Dorothy Day Center in St. Paul. ‘It’s just that there are not a lot of jobs for people like me.’ Like many of the near-homeless, he goes to the shelter for food and supplies so he can pay his rent. His monthly income is $795, and he pays $600 rent for himself, his 1-year-old daughter and a roommate. ‘I eat a lot of pasta and rice,’ he said. Robinson is one of a growing number of Minnesotans paying more than half their incomes in rent or mortgage payments, regarded as the point at which housing is not affordable. That number spiked to 14 percent in 2009, after decades of hovering near 8 percent…”
Privatization of Social Services – Indiana
Indiana’s bumpy road to privatization, By Matea Gold, Melanie Mason and Tom Hamburger, June 24, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Louise Cohoon was at home when her 80-year-old mother called in a panic from Terre Haute: The $97 monthly Medicaid payment she relied on to supplement her $600-a-month income had been cut without warning by a private company that had taken over the state’s welfare system. Later, the state explained why: She failed to call into an eligibility hot line on a day in 2008 when she was hospitalized for congestive heart failure. ‘I thought the news was going to kill my mother, she was so upset,’ said Cohoon, 63. Her mother had to get by on support from cash-strapped relatives for months until the state restored her benefits under pressure from Legal Services attorneys. Cohoon’s mother, now suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, was one of thousands of Indiana residents who abruptly and erroneously lost their welfare, Medicaid or food stamp benefits after Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels privatized the state’s public assistance program – the result of an efficiency plan that went awry from the very beginning, the state now admits. Though the $1.37-billion project proved disastrous for many of the state’s poor, elderly and disabled, it was a financial bonanza for a handful of firms with ties to Daniels and his political allies, which landed state contracts worth millions…”
States and Medicaid Cuts
- Medicaid health providers brace for new round of fee reductions, By Christine Vestal, June 27, 2011, Stateline.org: “There are only three ways a state can reduce its Medicaid burden, and two of them are highly problematical. Cutting the number of people served by Medicaid is generally prohibited by the new national health law. So is denying coverage to patients for visits to hospitals and doctors, although “optional” benefits such as prescription drugs and mental health treatment can be dropped. But the one Medicaid cost that states have usually been able to cut without worrying too much about the federal government is reimbursement to the providers themselves. And that is what most of them are doing this year…”
- Court refuses to stop Arizona from scaling back Medicaid program for poor, By Howard Fischer, June 24, 2011, East Valley Tribune: “The Arizona Supreme Court late Friday refused to block the state from scaling back its health care program for the poor next week. In a brief order, the justices rejected the petition by several public interest law firms to forbid the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System from changing eligibility standards effective this coming Friday, a move that eventually would leave about 150,000 who otherwise are eligible without care. Vice Chief Justice Andrew Hurwitz, who signed the order, gave no reason for the ruling. But attorney Tim Hogan from the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest said he and others opposed to the cuts will make one more last-ditch effort on Monday to convince a lower court judge to issue an injunction…”
States and Cuts to Safety Net Programs
What welfare cutbacks say about the wisdom of block grants, By Pamela M. Prah, June 24, 2011, Stateline.org: “Welfare advocates in Oregon were confounded this spring when they discovered that Governor John Kitzhaber wanted to limit to 18 the number of months welfare families could get cash benefits over their lifetimes – a stricter limit than existed anywhere in the country. Part of their disappointment stemmed from the fact that the idea came from Kitzhaber, a Democrat and one-time emergency room physician who had been viewed over two earlier terms as a supporter of generous help for the needy. ‘We were surprised that the governor had such an extreme proposal,’ says Charles Sheketoff, executive director of the Oregon Center for Public Policy. Kitzhaber, in Sheketoff’s view, ‘went after welfare programs with amputation in mind. We are pleased the legislature did more precise surgery and saved limbs.’ As lawmakers in Salem wrap up their session for the year, Oregon is on track to keep its five-year lifetime limit on cash benefits, the maximum allowed under federal law. But the same cannot be said for other states…”
Medicaid Costs – Colorado
Finding help for high-cost patients key to trimming health care tab, By Michael Booth, June 24, 2011, Denver Post: “Ruby Gallegos knows she is high maintenance. She got used to dropping into emergency rooms for migraines. A nurse holds her hand during blood-pressure checks to help control the doctor-office anxiety that artificially spikes her readings. Gallegos, 42, suspects the origins of all pills. She asks her teenage son to swallow a Tylenol from the bottle before she does. Her panic attacks are getting better on shopping trips, but only in a relative sense: She can now shop alone in a crowded grocery store for 15 minutes while her husband waits in the car, a mark of progress from when he had to be within three aisles. Gallegos’ mental health issues, intertwined with high blood pressure, bowel trouble and obesity, make her a very expensive patient for the state of Colorado. As a high-risk Medicaid user, Gallegos personifies one of the maddeningly irreducible statistics of health care costs: The sickest 1 percent of patients spend nearly 30 percent of a health system’s money…”
Housing Subsidies – Britain
London’s poor facing squeeze amid housing-benefit cuts, By Anthony Faiola, June 20, 2011, Washington Post: “The choice of the London A-list, St. John’s Wood is a neighborhood of ethereal wealth, its leafy avenues lined with the ample mansions of Paul McCartney, Ewan McGregor and Kate Moss. And yet, they share the most unlikely neighbors – the Kastrati family. Poor immigrants struggling to survive in one of the world’s most expensive cities, the family of four nevertheless lives in a sunny, two-bedroom flat in an enclave of urban privilege. Their benefactor: the British government, which covers 85 percent of their $3,600-a-month rent through welfare benefits giving tens of thousands of low-income earners access to even the best neighborhoods. But the clock on such subsidized London lifestyles is suddenly running out. The Conservative-led government is rolling out Britain’s most sweeping welfare reform since the 1940s, taking aim at the ballooning bills in cities such as London, where a few families receive as much as $160,000 a year to ensure economic diversity and quality housing for the poor in some of the priciest districts in the world. Yet as benefits are rolled back, academics are warning of a major side effect: an exodus of the poor from central London in numbers not seen since the demolition of soot-caked Dickensian slums in the 19th century…”
Extension of Jobless Benefits – Wisconsin
Jobless benefits backed by state panel, By Jason Stein and Paul Gores, June 23, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “A state advisory council voted unanimously Thursday to endorse legislation to make available $89 million in federally funded jobless benefits for more than 10,000 unemployed workers in the state. The federal money would extend benefits for qualifying workers by 13 weeks, giving a total of 86 weeks of coverage. It would not add to some $1.3 billion in debt weighing down the state’s unemployment fund. That debt, however, still presents great challenges. The state Department of Workforce Development is mailing letters to businesses notifying them of a special assessment that will be used to pay nearly $50 million of interest on the money that the state has borrowed from the federal government for jobless claims made in the midst of the recession. That underscored the need for a comprehensive plan to pay down the state’s debt, members of the state Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council said…”
Medicaid Cuts and Job Losses
- Medicaid cuts would threaten state jobs, group says, By Kate Long, June 22, 2011, Charleston Gazette: “West Virginia would lose as many as 10,800 health-care jobs in the next 10 years if the Senate were to pass the deep Medicaid cuts the House of Representatives has already approved, according to a report released Wednesday by the health-care consumer group Families USA. More than 116,000 West Virginians now work in health-care-associated jobs, according to Workforce West Virginia statistics. No other job sector employs more people in the state. In comparison, about 90,000 work in retail and trade and 30,000 in mining jobs…”
- ‘Jobs At Risk’ analysis: Group warns of economic impact of Medicaid cuts, By Robin Williams Adams, June 21, 2011, Lakeland Ledger: “Federal cuts in Medicaid funding for states would affect many more than nursing home residents and other patients who depend on that federal-state program, a report released Tuesday warns. Health care employees will lose jobs as a direct result of Medicaid cutbacks, and the impact will spread quickly into the rest of the economy, according to Families USA, a nonprofit group that pushes for quality, affordable care. In a teleconference, Families USA released the Florida results of ‘Jobs at Risk,’ a state-by-state analysis of the economic impact of 5 percent, 15 percent and 33 percent cuts in federal funding to current state Medicaid programs. Those are the amounts of Medicaid cuts included in the budget passed by the U.S. House, Executive Director Ron Pollack said, with the mildest cut, 5 percent, proposed for 2013 and the steepest, 33 percent, for 2021. The 15 percent would be in 2014…”
Racial Achievement Gap
- Achievement gap for Hispanic students hasn’t narrowed in 20 years, By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, June 23, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “In 20 years, the national achievement gap between Hispanic students and their non-Hispanic white peers hasn’t budged. But hints of progress can be found with a closer look at low-income Hispanics or those who already know the English language. And some states stand out for gaps considerably lower than the national average. This first-of-its kind report on the Hispanic-white gap comes as Congress is considering how to rewrite No Child Left Behind, the federal law that has attempted to narrow gaps based on race, income, and other factors. Questions loom about how much of that accountability system will stay in place, and what specific role the federal government will play in pushing for the progress of Hispanic students…”
- National report: State begins narrowing achievement gap between Hispanic and white students in math, By Grace E. Merritt, June 23, 2011, Hartford Courant: “Connecticut has started to close the achievement gap between Hispanic and white students in math, but remains stagnant in reading, according to a national report released Thursday. Connecticut has started to close the achievement gap between Hispanic and white students in math, but remains stagnant in reading, according to a national report released Thursday. But despite the gains, Connecticut still has a larger achievement gap in both math and reading compared to the national gap, partly because scores for Connecticut’s white students are higher than white students elsewhere in the nation, the report said…”
Urban Poverty – Canada
Big cities attracting poverty, Statscan data show, By Heather Scoffield, June 21, 2011, Globe and Mail: “Canada’s biggest urban areas are stuck in a rut of persistent poverty, while mid-sized cities are gaining ground despite the recent recession, new data from Statistics Canada show. The metropolitan areas of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal have poverty rates far above the national average, details of a report on income in Canada in 2009 show. But Quebec City and Victoria, on the other hand, have seen steady and significant declines in the number of people living with low incomes over the last decade, despite the recent recession. The trends are no surprise to Mike Creek, who works with homeless and impoverished people in Toronto, after spending years in poverty himself. ‘If you stick around in a smaller community and you have that shame (of living in poverty), you become stigmatized. So I think it’s easier for someone to pack up their bags and try some place else,’ Mr. Creek says. Urban centres, he says, ‘provide more opportunities around housing, and job opportunities and services that they may not find in smaller communities.’ Released last week, the Statistics Canada report is the first detailed, national look at what happened to income during the recession…”