California’s unemployment rate has crept up to 11 percent, making the state ineligible for federal funds that provide up to 20 weeks of jobless benefits to the long-term unemployed. Benefits to about 90,000 Californians will end after 79 weeks. Photo credit: Justin Sullivan »
Welfare reform damaged safety net
Recent reports confirm that the welfare program is unprepared for times of economic hardship. Federal block grants have not increased and nor have welfare rolls, but poverty and unemployment have risen dramatically. Many experts believe welfare reform is a primary reason why more families are in deep poverty, and worry that similar reforms of SNAP and Medicaid »
Alabama’s national ranking for child poverty worsens
Poverty throughout the South has been trending upward, and the problem is especially acute in Alabama. As of 2010 Alabama had the country’s fourth-highest childhood poverty rate, a decline from 8th highest five years before. This downward slide is especially troubling given Alabama’s weak education system, since poor children generally start school less prepared than »
Does Texas low-income housing program boost segregation?
Texas’ Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, which gives tax credits to developers to build or refurbish affordable apartments, is intended to overcome patterns of economic and racial segregation. Yet the program directed more than three-quarters of apartments to neighborhoods mostly composed of low-income blacks and Hispanics, prompting some to question whether the program is deliberately »
Low-income students more likely to be placed in special ed
A new report finds that Massachusetts’ poorer students are nearly twice as likely as other students to be placed in special education programs. The reason for this disparity remains unclear: Students may be put into special ed because of disabilities, to manage disciplinary problems, or because they fell behind academically. However, evidence indicates that many identified »
Environmental policy: Linking social justice and the environment
Some fear that the benefits of environmentally friendly initiatives largely go to the upper-middle class, while the costs fall heavily on lower income people, who rarely have a voice in discussions about environmental policy. In Massachusetts, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs is holding a series of “public listening sessions” to give those most affected by its programs »