Two Report Notes Increase In Michigan Child Poverty

[+EdwardGlen]

Pure Michigan Warm and fuzzy feeling stories(like mold on a peach)

 

 

 

http://www.petoskeynews.com/news/null-report-notes-increase-in-michigan-child-poverty-20110208,0,3719253.story

 

LANSING — Michigan's decade-long economic slump has pushed more children into poverty and put more stress on social safety net programs that could help them and their families stay afloat, according to a Kids Count in Michigan report released Tuesday.

 

The poverty rate for children under 18 in the state climbed from 14 percent in 2000 to 23 percent in 2009, according to the new report from the Michigan League for Human Services and Michigan's Children. The percentage of children who depend on food assistance programs or food stamps rose from 10 percent in 2000 to 28 percent in 2009.

 

The report's authors hope those numbers and others catch the attention of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and lawmakers as the budget is being drawn up for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Snyder, who took office Jan. 1, has said reducing the number of Michigan children living in poverty is a goal on which he plans to grade himself in every State of the State address.

 

But the state is facing a budget shortfall of up to $1.8 billion, and the new governor also wants to reduce business taxes and cut state spending. Children's advocates are watching closely to see if Snyder cuts programs for low-income families to balance the budget or follows policies that can help them, such as keeping the state Earned Income Tax Credit in place.

 

Advocates say the tax credit that goes to working families and other programs that help low-income children — such as welfare, child care subsidies and protective services — must be safeguarded and enhanced. The support systems are overloaded and aren't keeping up with the needs of children, said Jane Zehnder-Merrell, director of the state Kids Count project at the Michigan League for Human Services.

 

"We know that kids are suffering when they live below the poverty level," Zehnder-Merrell said. "We've had a huge increase in child poverty. We have also cut programs dramatically over the past several years."

 

House Republicans have suggested eliminating the state's Earned Income Tax Credit, but Rep. Jud Gilbert, the Republican from Algonac who heads the House Tax Policy Committee, told the MIRS Capitol newsletter Friday that he opposes getting rid of the credit.

 

His comments were welcomed Monday by House and Senate Democrats.

 

"Jud Gilbert is an experienced lawmaker who understands the struggles working families face and I commend him for speaking out against this misguided tax increase on the people who can least afford it," Rep. Vicki Barnett, a Farmington Hills Democrat who sits on the House Tax Policy Committee, said in a release.

 

The Michigan League estimates the state credit keeps about 14,000 children in working families out of poverty, and will ease the poverty experienced by 700,000 people. That can help reduce dropout rates and enable children to grow up to be more successful, it said.

 

Child poverty rates have increased in recent years in most areas of the state as Michigan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate spiked to 14.5 percent in December 2009 before dropping to 11.7 percent by the end of 2010.

 

A family of four had to make at least $21,800 in 2009 to be defined as living above the poverty level. Nearly 46 percent of Michigan's schoolchildren were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches in 2009, up from 36 percent in 2006, according to the report.

 

Michigan also saw an increase in confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect between 2000 and 2009. Studies have suggested neglect cases often are influenced by poverty.

 

For your further reading enjoyment

 

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/02/new_michigan_reports_stress_im.html

 

Gov. Rick Snyder’s “Citizen’s Guide Michigan’s Financial Health” is being followed up this week by another guide which could be called a “Citizens Guide to Michigan Children’s Health.”

 

Released today, the annual “Kids Count in Michigan Data Book 2010” survey of child well-being in Michigan, is even bleaker than Snyder’s.

 

Both recount the economic travails of a state that has seen an alarming drop in income and corresponding increase in poverty. Snyder’s guide focuses on the resulting impact on the budget. The Kids Count survey focuses on the impact on children.

 

Taken together, they reinforce the point that unless Michigan gets smarter, faster its economy simply won’t be able to compete in the decades ahead let alone dig out from the rubble of the last decade.

 

The problem is that until the economy improves, there won’t be the funding available to invest in children, education primarily. But unless members of the next generation now being reared in poverty can beat current trends in school performance, Michigan won’t have the skilled workers required to compete economically.

 

Kids Count data show that in 2009, one in two children in Michigan were in households existing on 200 percent of the federal poverty level compared to one in three in 2000. One in five were in households right at the poverty level, $21,756 for a two-parent, two-child family. A decade go, it was one in eight.

 

Michigan fourth and eighth-graders have barely budged this decade on national education tests. In 2009, only about 30 percent in both grades were deemed proficient according to national standards.

 

A separate study by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan released last week reported that half the households in Michigan living below the poverty level were headed by women with no husband present. Nearly half of all births in Michigan are to single women living in poverty.

 

Family income matter more to a child’s educational success than other factors such as behavior, mental health or physical health. Poverty in early childhood has a bigger impact than poverty during adolescence. And “the association between income and achievement appear to have the biggest impacts at the lowest levels of income,” the CRC study said.

 

Snyder recognizes the challenges and in last month’s State of the State address said “it’s time to start talking about P-20 (prenatal through college and beyond) instead of just K-12. We cannot leave children behind without the tools for success in their adult lives, but we also need to encourage better and faster opportunities for children that can go farther and faster in our system.”

 

The state’s Great Start pre-school program, some $89 million in Fiscal Year 2011, reaches about half of the eligible population of four-year-olds with public school-based programming. Federal Head Start is confined to three-year-olds in extreme low poverty. CRC recommends boosting Great Start to capture more kids through greater outreach and greater accessibility, and then expanding the program to three-year-olds.

 

Universal pre-K education in Michigan would cost about $300 million, or less than 3 percent of what the state spends on K-12 school operations.

 

That’s not a lot of money when times are good, which they still are still not. That doesn’t make it any less necessary. As the CRC report concluded: “High quality pre-K programs targeted at disadvantaged three and four-year-olds, and high quality, all day kindergarten may be the best investment in the state’s human capital.”

[MORE COWBELL]

Michigan SWEATSHOPS are a few legislative bills away!

 

welcome to the NEW WORLD ORDER-get used to it or.................. fade away

 

assimilation is inevitable

[+Annnie]

Michigan still offers its TIP Grant to children who were on Medicaid insurance for two years or more of their life.. They dont advertise it much tho and alot of kids lose out on it because you have to sign up for it BEFORE you graduate high school. ALL parents who have children who were on medicaid for two years or more need to look into the TIP GRANT.. before they graduate..

[Frank R]

The Children are our future?:

 

NOT!

 

Whitney needs to release and update:

"The Greatest Profits of All. The Chinese are our Future."