Education
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1 in 10 Americans Unemployed
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Housing Instability Hurts Kids
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Budget Crises, Development Woes Confront Mayors
Single Moms Just As Good
Published September 30, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
In a non-news flash for those of us who have succeeded despite growing up in the dreaded den of broke-a** dysfunction that is the female-headed-household, i.e., with a single mom, a new study of 5,000 families reveals that "Family stability -- regardless of whether it's a one- or two-parent household" is what's key for children to thrive. Yet, the research shows that for black children alone there were clear differences on math and reading test scores for those kids in 2-parent families. I, like so many activists, scholars and proud kids of single moms, am trying to figure out why this racial difference persists.
Incomes Up 14% through Opportunity NYC
Published September 22, 2009 @ 10:03AM PT
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is hosting the Organization of American States today to discuss anti-poverty initiatives in the Americas. Featured at the meeting with be the City of New York's Opportunity NYC, a program of conditional cash transfers to low-income families to reward them for specific behaviors: attending school, attending doctor's appointments, working full-time, etc. The Bloomberg Administration, which launched the initiative as one of many anti-poverty programs managed collectively through its Center for Economic Opportunity, has renewed the program for a third year.
The program is both promising and controversial for providing what many deem paternalistic incentives that isolate behavior as the reason households are poor. I agree. But let's face it: Opportunity NYC is increasing annual household incomes by as much as 14% per year. Do we really want to condemn such a result?
Segregation, Self-Help & Gangs
Published September 02, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
What do Thrivent Financial, New Orleans's Mardi Gras Krewe Zulu, and Salvadorans With Pride all have in common? Their roots are in mutual aid societies providing insurance, benefits and assistance for racial/ethnic minority groups at a time when these groups could not access help in mainstream society.
How are these groups different? Today, Thrivent Financial is a Fortune 500 financial services company for Lutherans with $61B in assets. The African-American Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club is one of the premier Mardi Gras attractions in New Orleans. Salvadorans With Pride is a gang of Salvadoran immigrants in suburban Long Island. All three groups were born of economic hardship and ethnic/racial segregation in the United States. Now policymakers, criminologists and social workers trying to halt gang violence are going one step further and trying to harness the youth development and social support that gangs provide.
Empower Women, End Poverty
Published August 21, 2009 @ 11:00AM PT
If you haven't yet read the series on women and poverty at The New York Times, I highly recommend adding it to your weekend reading list. The paternalistic on-line title notwithstanding, the collection of articles details the collective economic improvements in poor communities and households resulting from investing in women's and girl's education, health, bodily safety and autonomy, and work opportunities. The focus of the issue is mainly on the developing world, where the majority of the world's poor - and poor women - live. This is always somewhat frustrating for domestic anti-poverty activists, as if our nation is a haven of gender equity and parity. Nonetheless, there's some important lessons on education, policy and power for those of us fighting for equality and an end to poverty stateside.
Incarceration Hurts Kids Most
Published August 21, 2009 @ 05:12AM PT
NYT columnist Nicholas D. Kristof strikes a resounding note of common sense in his "Priority Test: Health Care or Prisons" column,
It’s time for a fundamental re-evaluation of the criminal justice system...so that we’re no longer squandering money that would be far better spent on education or health.
Kristof makes a strong case for education over incarceration, something that resonates common sense, especially considering the devastating effects of poverty, homelessness, incarceration and the like on both parents and the kids of incarcerated parents.
Katrina: Obama's Unfulfilled Promise
Published August 19, 2009 @ 06:32AM PT
The clamor for President Obama to mark the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is falling on deaf ears at the White House. Obama, who used New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as a campaign backdrop with the same aplomb as that rascal John Edwards, has declined to respond to calls for him to fulfill his campaign promise to make the equitable recovery of the Gulf Coast a priority.
In the meantime, activists and advocates are preparing commemorations, reports and report cards to mark the destruction of a region the size of Britain - a man-made disaster that has displaced tens of thousands of residents to this day. Recently, economic human rights advocates wrapped up an investigation for UN Habitat on the government's forced evictions in New Orleans. Read more after the jump and sign our pledge to support economic human rights!
Boycotting Whole Foods
Published August 18, 2009 @ 04:28AM PT
If you're like me, you've been watching steam gather behind the boycott of Whole Foods (WFM) over CEO John Mackey's anti-healthcare reform op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times has a handy round-up of the various rationales behind the boycott - I'm partial to Matt Yglesias's point that it challenges the outsized "social and political power" of CEOs in this country. I'm also delighted to see Mackey's customers - typically affluent, politically liberal - push back on Mackey's political ideology. WFM, from most accounts, provides generous healthcare and is a comparatively good retail/service job - so this isn't a boycott about workers' rights in the traditional sense. Instead, it's a pointed rebuke of the idea that we lack the right to healthcare.
