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…”

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…”

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…”

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…”

• 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…”

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…”

• 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 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…”

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…”

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…”

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…”

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…”

• 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…”

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…”

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…”

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…”

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 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…”

• 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…”

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…”

Some schools will serve free meals to all, thanks to new federal program, By Monica Eng and Tara Malone, June 20, 2011, Chicago Tribune: “Any school in Illinois where at least 40 percent of students are needy will be able to serve free meals to all children, regardless of family income, starting this fall as part of a pilot program offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Across Illinois, 125 districts have at least one school that is eligible, and the program could affect up to 1,235 schools in all, according to preliminary numbers from the Illinois State Board of Education. Districts can decide whether to participate on a school-by-school basis. In Chicago, home to the state’s largest district, the vast majority of schools would qualify for the universal free meals. But officials said Monday that they haven’t determined if they will participate, saying they don’t yet know how the program would affect the bottom line in a district with a $712 million deficit…”

Poor targeted in Pa. budget, By Alfred Lubrano, June 21, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “When Gov. Corbett proposed to balance the budget by cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from universities and public schools, squawks of protest erupted throughout Pennsylvania. Neither deaf nor politically unsavvy, House Republicans listened to the noise, then came up with a new plan to restore nearly $600 million in aid to education. So if schools are, to some extent spared, who will bear the brunt of budget cuts? The House’s Republican majority, elected on pledges of new ideas - smaller government, ethics reform - settled on a not-so-fresh notion: Cut funding for the poor…”

Pensions: Low-paid ‘face pension poverty’, ONS says, June 22, 2011, BBC News: “Low earners face ‘potential poverty’ in old age because they are not building up pensions or savings to supplement the state pension, a report has warned. Only 16% of men and 27% of women employed full-time on less than £300 a week are in a pension scheme, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Its latest Pension Trends report said that many people are ’stretched’ by the cost of living and are unable to save…”

• Extra jobless aid is cut in Mass., By Kaivan Mangouri, June 21, 2011, Boston Globe: “Thousands of Massachusetts residents will lose jobless benefits beginning next month as the state’s steadily declining unemployment rate disqualifies it for the extra federal assistance provided earlier in the recession. Unemployed workers will lose seven weeks of benefits under the rules of a federal program that extends eligibility based on state unemployment rates. Residents in states with rates above 8 percent are eligible to collect 20 weeks of additional benefits under this program; once the three-month average is below 8 percent, residents are eligible for 13 weeks…”
• Economists debate impact of Arizona’s unemployment-aid cut, By Ronald J. Hansen, June 21, 2011, Arizona Republic: “Arizona could be turning itself into an economic laboratory of sorts by declining to extend unemployment benefits for those out of work for months. Last week, the Legislature did not enact a technical change needed to accept federal cash that would extend unemployment checks from 79 to 99 weeks for at least 15,000 Arizonans. Some lawmakers argued that the extension of benefits, worth up to $240 weekly in Arizona, is a disincentive to find another job. Others disagree, noting that the scarcity of jobs means many people will struggle to find work regardless of whether they receive an unemployment check, and some argue that jobless aid has other positive economic effects. Arizona’s lack of extended aid helps put the theories to the test…”
• Extension of aid to jobless goes unused, By Jason Stein, June 20, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “More than 10,000 out-of-work Wisconsin residents are no longer receiving an estimated $89 million in federally funded jobless benefits because state officials have not acted to renew them. The change to state law would not touch the state’s struggling unemployment insurance trust fund and would provide 13 more weeks of benefits to workers who have been without employment for roughly a year and a half. The change in state law, which has tepid support from Gov. Scott Walker, could come before a state advisory panel Thursday. However, the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council has done nothing, despite knowing about the issue for months. The Legislature could have gone ahead on its own. It did pass in the state budget a cost-saving proposal to stop paying workers the first week of unemployment insurance benefits - a difference to both the state and the workers of tens of millions of dollars a year. But with some Republicans and business leaders wary that benefits are actually a disincentive to work, there’s been no action. As a result, the extended benefits ran out on April 16…”

New census data: Some of state’s poorest counties in northwestern Minn., By Tom Robertson, June 21, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “New census data shows some of the state’s poorest counties are in northwestern Minnesota, where living wage jobs are limited and geography isolates rural residents. Beltrami County is one region with concentrated poverty where officials are examining the future challenges. About one in five people in Beltrami live in poverty - nearly a quarter of all children. The poverty rate in Beltrami County is nearly 21 percent and need is increasing, but resources are shrinking. Since the recession, the number of people getting some type of public assistance has climbed to approximately 6,000, up from around 5,000…”

Budget slashed for jobs for older, low-income workers, By Walker Moskop, June 20, 2001, San Antonio Express-News: “Even with the food stamps she received, Sandy Hipp was barely making enough money when she lived on a minimum-wage salary working 24 hours a week at a senior apartment complex in Seguin. Then, in April, Congress slashed the funding for the program paying her wages, and her hours were cut back to 18. Hipp, 58, said she’ll have to find another job soon and will apply to work at a plant nursery in Seguin. For older, low-income jobseekers, the task of landing work is now a greater uphill climb. The Senior Community Service Employment Program, the national program that gives grants to organizations to train workers, connect them with employers and pay their wages, has seen its budget slashed from $825 million for 2010-11 to $450 million for 2011-12 - a 45 percent cut…”

Many needy California schoolchildren not taking part in subsidized summer meal programs, By Alexandra Zavis, June 16, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Fewer than 1 in 5 of the children who relied on free or reduced-price lunches during the 2009-2010 school year in California received subsidized meals last July, according to a new report. That represents a 15% drop in participation in summer meals programs from the year before at a time when enrollment in other federal nutrition programs is increasing because of the lingering effects of the recession. The report by California Food Policy Advocates blamed cuts to the state’s education budget, which caused many school districts to eliminate summer learning and enrichment programs. That reduced the places where needy students received breakfasts, lunches and snacks during the summer months…”

N.H. fights over minimum wage, By Michael McCord, June 20, 2011, SeacoastOnline: “Gov. John Lynch’s recent veto of a House bill to repeal the state’s minimum wage law created a unique ideological role reversal. Republican House Speaker William O’Brien defended the bill by saying the state should follow federal minimum wage guidelines and the four-term Democratic governor took a state’s rights stand, saying the state should keep its options open…”

Child welfare systems working to get more dads into the equation of safe homes, By Karen Auge, June 20, 2011, Denver Post: “Richard Jama had been searching for his daughter for weeks when he discovered she was living with strangers, foster parents chosen for her by child welfare workers. When the social workers took the little girl, who had been abused by her mother’s boyfriend, they asked the child’s mother where the father was. ‘She said I had gone back to Africa,’ the Liberian immigrant said. In fact, Jama hadn’t gone anywhere - and he was still paying child support. Jama, who spent the past two years fighting to get his daughter back for good, doesn’t understand why social workers took the word of his child’s mother or why they didn’t check child-support records to find him. That is changing, social workers say…”

Rich schools, poor schools: N.C.’s gap may be growing, By Jane Stancill, June 20, 2011, Charlotte Observer: “North Carolina’s 1.5 million public school children depend on the state to pay the majority of their educational costs, but that long-held tradition may be changing. What started as the state’s promise during the Great Depression has eroded during the Great Recession. Lawmakers, facing gaping state budget shortfalls in the past two years, began to force cuts onto local school districts. That so-called discretionary reduction was $225 million two years ago and $305 million last year, both actions taken by a Democratic-led legislature. Now the state’s budget reduction has grown to $429 million for public schools and charter schools - with the Republican-led legislature cutting another $124 million. The cuts were contained in the budget that passed last week after a lengthy political fight over education spending with Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue. The GOP-controlled legislature overrode the governor’s veto, and the $19.7 billion budget plan became law…”

Concern for vast social services database on the city’s neediest, By Anemona Hartocollis, June 16, 2011, New York Times: “New York City has spent the past 18 months developing a database on four million residents, most of them the city’s neediest, which officials say will enhance social services but which advocates for the poor say could put their privacy at risk. Using data-sharing concepts developed by the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies, the database links together vast amounts of information gathered by city agencies that previously maintained their files separately. Now, workers in an array of city departments will have access to information about nearly half of the city’s residents, including welfare and food stamp payments, child care vouchers, and records of Medicaid enrollment and stays in public housing and shelters, among other kinds of social service records…”

Utah: ‘Not even close’ to closing the poverty gap, By Sara Lenz, June 17, 2011, Deseret News: “April Hadley remembers the day she took her oldest daughter Amelia, now 8, to kindergarten at Club Heights Elementary. Her daughter’s teacher commented that it was nice to have a student who came from a two-parent home in her class. ‘It broke my heart,’ Hadley recalled. Over the last few years, the parent of four has questioned her decision to send her children to a school with that dynamic. Eighty percent of the students there qualify for free or reduced lunch, a measure of poverty, and about one in four students at Club Heights is considered a limited English speaker. Many of Hadley’s neighbors have chosen to send their kids to a charter school or another public school. The reason - high poverty schools with a high minority population often don’t perform as well as low poverty schools, and Utah schools are no exception…”

• Study shows Medicaid kids are denied medical care, By Lindsey Tanner (AP), June 16, 2011, USA Today: “Children on public insurance are being denied treatment by doctors at much higher rates than those with private coverage, according to an undercover study that had researchers pose as parents of sick kids seeking an appointment with a specialist. Snubbed even by specialists whose offices supposedly accept public insurance patients, these kids also had to wait much longer to see a doctor. Low Medicaid reimbursements are the likely reason, the study authors said. The study was done in Cook County, Ill., the nation’s second-most populous county which includes Chicago, but the researchers and others say the results likely reflect practices around the country…”
• Penn study finds doctors delaying or rejecting specialty care for publicly insured children, By Marie McCullough, June 16, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “A University of Pennsylvania study in which callers posed as mothers seeking pediatric specialty care found that two-thirds of publicly insured children were refused a doctor’s appointment, compared with only 11 percent of privately insured children. Even the low-income children who were not rejected had to wait an average of 42 days for appointments for urgent conditions such as diabetes, seizures, asthma, or a bone fracture - 22 days longer on average than children with private insurance…”

Unemployment rates fall in fewer than half of US states in May as hiring slows, Associated Press, June 17, 2011, Washington Post: “Unemployment rates fell in fewer than half of U.S. states, a sign that job growth has slowed in many parts of the country. The unemployment rates dropped in 24 states, the Labor Department said Friday. Rates rose in 13 states and Washington, D.C, and were flat in 13. That’s a significant decline from April, when 39 states reported falling unemployment rates. The changing trend in state unemployment rates reflect a weaker economy that has been hampered by high gas prices and lower factory output. Nationally, employers added a net gain of only 54,000 jobs in May, compared to an average of 220,000 per month in the previous three months. The U.S. unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1 percent…”

Indiana’s food stamp program earns $1.65M bonus for improving, By Maureen Groppe, June 16, 2011, Indianapolis Star: “Indiana’s troubled food stamp program has improved enough to earn a $1.65 million bonus from the federal government. The state was second best in the nation in cutting the percentage of recipients who received too many or too few benefits, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Thursday. ‘Indiana is certainly headed in the right direction,’ said Kevin Concannon, the department’s undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services. Indiana’s 7.13 percent payment error rate for 2009 fell to 2.6 percent in 2010. That put Indiana below the national error rate for the first time since 2004…”

Pa. legislators reach deal on jobless benefits, By Mark Scolforo (AP), June 16, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “A deal to avoid letting 45,000 Pennsylvanians lose unemployment-compensation benefits was announced by state legislative leaders late Wednesday, with limits on the maximum size of benefit checks and a requirement that recipients look for work. The compromise would cap the largest weekly benefit check at $573 for next year. The bill also would count severance pay of more than $17,800 against benefits, a move that would apply to about 6,000 beneficiaries. The average weekly benefit in Pennsylvania is about $310. House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) said the compromise was fair to employers and employees and amounted to the state’s only unemployment-compensation reforms in at least a decade. Republicans projected it would save the unemployment-compensation fund more than $114 million this year…”

• Homelessness in L.A. County falls 3%, survey finds, By Rong-Gong Lin II and Alexandra Zavis, June 15, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Homelessness on any given day in Los Angeles County has decreased about 3% in the last two years despite the lingering effects of the recession, according to a new survey released Tuesday. But the number of homeless veterans, including younger men and women, grew. The study, conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority in January, put the homeless figure at 51,430 in L.A. County, including 23,359 in the city of Los Angeles, which saw a 9% decrease…”
• City’s family shelters are filling up faster, sooner this season, By Jennifer Lin, June 15, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “For four days, Yasmeen Goodmond, 23, went to the city’s homeless-services office, asking for help. And for four days, she was told there were no beds for her family. With nowhere to go, Goodmond and her two children went to the emergency room at Hahnemann University Hospital. They slept in chairs in the waiting room and slipped out in the morning. But their welcome was wearing out. On Monday night, Goodmond asked her cousin to watch her 5-year-old daughter for a few days, while turning to her grandmother for help with her 2-year-old son. For herself, she stayed on the streets, walking all over Center City, never sleeping…”
• US homeless population up slightly, as ranks grow outside cities, By Tony Pugh, June 14, 2011, Kansas City Star: “Despite high unemployment and a stalled economy, the nation’s homeless population grew only slightly in 2010 as stimulus-funded initiatives helped to take or keep nearly 700,000 people off the streets, according to a federal report released Tuesday. While once a predominantly urban problem largely of individuals without families, homelessness, like poverty, has increasingly migrated to suburban and rural areas where more non-Hispanic white families are being affected. In fact, the number of homeless people in households with at least one adult and one child has increased 20 percent since 2007, and families make up a larger share of those in emergency housing than ever before…”
• HUD reports 57 percent increase in rural, suburban Americans using shelters in recent years, Associated Press, June 14, 2011, Washington Post: “As the recession gripped America, thousands more people in rural and suburban areas turned to homeless shelters for help. The number of people using shelters or transitional housing in suburban and rural areas increased 57 percent from 2007 to 2010, with more than 500,000 people from smaller communities seeking help in 2010, according to a report by the Housing and Urban Development Department. During the same time there was a decrease in the use of shelters in urban areas…”

Recession stalls progress on poverty; almost one in 10 Canadians poor: StatsCan, Canadian Press, June 15, 2011, Toronto Star: “The recession stopped progress on poverty in its tracks, according to new data from Statistics Canada that indicates almost one in 10 Canadians is considered poor. In its first detailed, national picture of what happened to income in Canada during the recession, the agency says the poverty rate edged up in 2009 to 9.6 per cent - the second straight year that poverty has grown after more than a decade of steady declines. About 3.2 million people now live in low income, including 634,000 children. Indeed, children were vulnerable during the recession, with their poverty rate rising to 9.5 per cent in 2009 from 9.0 per cent a year earlier. But the picture of the recession is one of stagnation rather than complete catastrophe. The median after-tax income for Canadian families was $63,800 in 2009 - about the same as a year earlier…”

• States brace for end of extra payments for Medicaid, By Robert Pear, June 15, 2011, New York Times: “Faced with a deepening recession two years ago, the Obama administration injected billions of dollars into Medicaid, the nation’s low-income health program. The money runs out at the end of this month, and benefits are being cut for millions of people, even though unemployment has increased. From New Jersey to California, state officials are bracing for the end to more than $90 billion in federal largess specifically designated for Medicaid. To hold down costs, states are cutting Medicaid payments to doctors and hospitals, limiting benefits for Medicaid recipients, reducing the scope of covered services, requiring beneficiaries to pay larger co-payments and expanding the use of managed care. As a result, costs can be expected to rise in other parts of the health care system. Cuts in Medicaid payments to doctors, for example, make it less likely that they will accept Medicaid patients and more likely that people will turn to hospital emergency rooms for care. Hospitals and other health care providers often try to make up for the loss of Medicaid revenue by increasing charges to other patients, including those with private insurance, experts say…”
• GOP governors push back against Obama on federal Medicaid rules, By Michael A. Fletcher, June 14, 2011, Washington Post: “Faced with severe budget problems, Republican governors are escalating their fight against federal rules requiring states to maintain current levels of health-care coverage for the poor and disabled. The growing resistance to the federal government over the hugely expensive Medicaid program poses a critical test for President Obama, who has the power to relax the rules for states. If he allows states to tighten eligibility requirements, it would outrage many of his core supporters while undermining the central goal of his signature health-care law: expanding health insurance coverage. But if the president turns his back on governors struggling to gain control of their finances by trimming their most costly program, he risks intense criticism just as his administration is locked in a battle with Republicans over the nation’s soaring debt…”

• Lawmakers refused to make change to extend jobless benefits, By Howard Fischer, June 13, 2011, Yuma Sun: “State lawmakers refused Monday to change laws to extend jobless benefits, meaning the checks that about 15,000 Arizonans get this week are likely their last. Republican legislators stood in virtual unison in opposing the proposal by Gov. Jan Brewer to make the necessary change. GOP leaders said they could not in good conscience vote for keeping the checks coming for those already out of work more than 79 weeks while doing absolutely nothing to actually create jobs. But Brewer would not back away from her demand to immediately keep the jobless funds flowing, providing only a general promise to work with lawmakers on an economic stimulus plan later…”
• Jobless benefits extension fails; special session ends with no action, By Mary Jo Pitzl, Alia Beard Rau and Ginger Rough, June 14, 2011, Arizona Republic: “Arizona lawmakers on Monday refused to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed, meaning 15,000 people will get their last checks this week. The inaction makes Arizona one of the few states eligible for the extra federal aid that didn’t accept it. Other states, such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, are still debating similar measures. The abrupt end of the special session also is a defeat for Gov. Jan Brewer. The Republican governor called lawmakers back to the Capitol last week with an appeal to throw a lifeline to Arizonans hammered by the recession. Legislative Republicans, however, were unmoved. Reasons varied. They included the theory that extended unemployment checks - an average of $216 a week - are a disincentive to seeking work. Some lawmakers said rebuffing the benefits would help reduce the federal deficit…”

Survey: U.S. trails in equal legal treatment of citizens, By Daniel Lippman, June 13, 2011, Kansas City Star: “The U.S. lags behind western Europe in access to civil justice and legal assistance, according to an international survey released Monday that also raised questions over whether U.S. police forces treat all citizens equally. The results of the survey by the World Justice Project, an advocacy group that promotes the rule of law, also signaled that some Middle Eastern countries continue to rank relatively low in certain areas, a key factor in the region’s popular protests.   ‘Without the rule of law, medicines do not reach health facilities due to corruption, women in rural areas remain unaware of their rights, people are killed in criminal violence and economic growth is stifled,’ William Neukom, the founder of the group, said in a statement announcing its second annual Rule of Law Index…”

Education Secretary may agree to waivers on ‘No Child’ law requirements, By Sam Dillon, June 12, 2011, New York Times: “Unless Congress acts by this fall to overhaul No Child Left Behind, the main federal law on public education, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan signaled that he would use his executive authority to free states from the law’s centerpiece requirement that all students be proficient in reading and math by 2014. The Obama administration has been facing a mounting clamor from state school officials to waive substantial parts of the law, which President Bush signed in 2002, especially its requirement that states bring 100 percent of students to proficiency in reading and math by 2014 or else face sanctions. In March, Mr. Duncan predicted that the law would classify 80,000 of the nation’s 100,000 public schools as failing this fall unless it was amended. But his efforts to address the problem have gained little traction on Capitol Hill, where several attempts since 2007 to rewrite the sprawling school accountability law have failed…”

• Christie proposal to slash Medicaid by $540 million puts NJ at center of national debate, By Josh Lederman (AP), June 11, 2011, Washington Post: “As states across the country look for ways to trim billions off their spending on Medicaid, New Jersey is garnering particular attention for a proposal that opponents characterize as an unprecedented and draconian attempt to balance the state’s precarious budget on the backs of society’s most vulnerable populations. The debates taking place in statehouses, clinics and living rooms crystalize the unfortunate truth about economic recessions: Citizens rely most on public services just when the government has the least money to spend on those services. In New Jersey’s case, changes would mean a parent of two earning more than $103 per week would be ineligible…”
• Human Services officials release details on N.J. Medicaid program cuts, changes, By Susan K. Livio, June 10, 2011, Star-Ledger: “The Christie administration released a long-anticipated outline today of how the state proposes to drastically restructure New Jersey’s Medicaid program and cut more than $300 million to help close a deficit. In the most controversial element of the proposal, the Department of Human Services expects to save as much as $32.5 million by sharply limiting who is eligible for coverage. It was the first time that the state disclosed estimates of what each change would save. For instance, parents in a family of three earning more than $422 a month, or $5,000 a year, would be disqualified for earning too much money, according to a document summarizing the proposal. Currently the income cut-off is $24,600 for a family of three…”
• Advocates: ‘glitches’ keep Mass. kids uninsured, By Johanna Kaiser (AP), June 11, 2011, Boston Globe: “Forgotten paperwork, returned mail, and a lack of information are keeping thousands of Massachusetts children from receiving stable health care coverage in a state known for its far-reaching health care initiative. Although Massachusetts has the highest rate of insured children in the county — more than 99 percent — health care advocates and lawmakers say thousands of eligible children still go on and off the state’s Medicaid program, known as MassHealth, during the year because of administrative issues and other paperwork problems…”

• Uptick in Kentucky high school dropout rate helps fuel debate on raising age, By Mike Wynn, June 12, 2011, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Kentucky’s high school dropout rate edged up last year as lawmakers continue to spar over ways to make sure more students graduate. The Kentucky Department of Education reported recently that the statewide dropout rate increased from 2.89 percent in 2009 to 3.19 percent in 2010, marking the eighth consecutive year that the rate has hovered around 3 percent. While enrollment dipped 0.6 percent from 2009 - to slightly more than 195,000 - the number of students who quit school between the ninth and 12th grade rose from 5,673 to 6,225, an increase of nearly 10 percent. Legislators have debated raising the minimum dropout age for years. Doing so, proponents say, would help bring those numbers down and should be coupled with alternative education programs…”
• State leads U.S. with 90.7% graduation rate, By Cindy Hodgson, June 11, 2011, Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: “Wisconsin has one of the highest graduation rates in the country - the highest, according to one method of calculation - and many of the school districts in Manitowoc County have even higher rates than the state. A report from the National Center for Education Statistics shows Wisconsin leading the nation with a graduation rate of 90.7 percent, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Wisconsin has been first or second in each of the last five years in that report, which uses the Public High School Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate from the Common Core of Data at the U.S. Department of Education, according to a news release from the DPI. Two other methods of calculation, which also provide results for individual districts, put the state’s graduation rate a bit lower…”

• Study: Preschool boosts low-income students, By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, June 9, 2011, Chicago Tribune: “A new study revealing the lasting impact of a solid preschool education - especially in disadvantaged communities - was released Thursday, just as Illinois’ governor considers a state budget plan that slashes funding to early childhood programs. While many findings over the years have touted the benefits of starting kids early on the path to education, a study conducted inside Chicago Public Schools and published online by the journal Science shows attending preschool can yield payoffs into adulthood. The report shows that children who attended an established preschool program in Chicago completed high school at higher rates, stayed out of jail, were less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol, and improved their living standards as adults. For 25 years, researchers from the University of Minnesota tracked 1,400 Chicago Public Schools students who attended early childhood programs. They compared those who started preschool at age 3 in Child-Parent Centers, located in or near elementary schools serving low-income students, with those who didn’t attend preschool at all or went to the typical Head Start program…”
• Preschool’s many benefits last into adulthood, according to study of low-income children, By Lindsey Tanner (AP), June 9, 2011, Washington Post: “Preschool has surprisingly enduring benefits lasting well into adulthood, according to one of the biggest, longest follow-up studies of its kind. Better jobs, less drug abuse and fewer arrests are among advantages found in the study that tracked more than 1,000 low-income, mostly black Chicago kids for up to 25 years. Michael Washington was one of them. Now a 31-year-old heating and air conditioning contractor, Washington attended a year of preschool at Chicago’s intensive Child-Parent Center Education Program when he was 4. The ongoing publicly funded program focuses on language development, scholastic skills and building self-confidence. It involves one or two years of half-day preschool, and up to four additional years of educational and family services in grade school. Preschool teachers have college degrees and are certified in early childhood education, and parents are encouraged to be involved in the classes…”

Homelessness on the rise as recession and cuts bite, By Patrick Butler, June 10, 2011, The Guardian: “Homelessness is rising dramatically for the first time in years in the UK as the effects of the recession are felt, with recent increases in some areas of more than 50% in the numbers of people declaring themselves in need of housing, government figures find. The government data show that 26,400 people approached a local council for housing help in the first three months of 2011, a rise of 23% compared with the same period last year. Less than half of these applications were successful, triggering warnings of growing numbers of ‘hidden’ homeless - people forced to squat or sleep on friends’ sofas after not qualifying for official help…”

Report: 15 percent of world population is disabled, By David Brown, June 9, 2011, Washington Post: “About 15 percent of the world’s population - some 785 million people - has a significant physical or mental disability, including about 5 percent of children, according to a new report prepared jointly by the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The disabilities run the entire gamut of impairment, from blindness and limb loss to chronic pain and mental retardation. The problems, especially among old people, are more prevalent in low-income countries than in rich ones. The report, released Thursday at the United Nations in New York, found that the problems are worsened by poverty and dozens of other variables, including stigma, architectural barriers, lack of legal protection, the cost of devices and assistance, and the lack of knowledge by others (especially health professionals) about how to interact with disabled people…”

Air-quality regulators to study health effects of San Bernardino Rail Yard, By Phil Willon, June 9, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Southern California air-quality regulators are sponsoring an in-depth study to determine if the San Bernardino Rail Yard, a major inland hub of goods shipped across the U.S., has caused an increase in cancer and asthma in the neighboring low-income communities.  The study comes two years after the California Air Resources Board determined that diesel emissions from locomotives, big-rigs and other equipment at the facility posed a significant health risk to thousands of residents living near the site, and that the facility posed the greatest cancer risk of any rail yard in California…”

The bad - and good - news on microcredit, By Gregory M. Lamb, June 9, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “First Muhammad Yunus founded the nonprofit Grameen Bank, which lent tiny amounts of money to poor people to start businesses. It appeared to be a revolutionary success and he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 2006. In 2009, for example, Grameen had 6.4 million active borrowers with an average loan size of $127. Then came the second guessing. For-profit companies got into the micro-loan business charging high interest rates in order to generate an attractive return for their investors. While nearly all of Grameen’s borrowers repaid their loans in full, other lenders didn’t do so well. Borrowers began to default. Pressured by their creditors, some in India even committed suicide when they couldn’t repay their loans…”

Food prices set to stay high, says UN food agency, June 7, 2011, BBC News: “Global food prices will remain high and volatile throughout this year and into next despite record food production. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) twice yearly Food Outlook analysis says rising demand will absorb most of the higher output. It says its index of food prices in May was at 232, only five points below February’s record high of 237. The FAO says higher food prices could mean poor countries will see food import costs rise by up to 30%. That would mean them spending 18% of their total import bills on food this year, compared with the world average of 7%. The organisation says the next few months will be critical in determining how major crops will fare this year…”