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Issue 1465 April 22, 2012
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POVERTY REPORT: Michigan Kids, Poor Shafted by Legislature, Analyst Charges

July 23, 2015       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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A new report shows that almost one in four Michigan kids live in poverty.
 

Since the Great Recession, Michigan recently has seen unemployment numbers drop to their lowest level in a decade.

According to Kevin Doyle, state economic analyst, during June, the Saginaw MSA and Bay City MSA had unemployment rates of 6.0 percent and 5.9 percent respectively, which were the fourth and fifth highest metro area jobless rates in Michigan. The 5.2 percent unemployment rate in the Midland MSA was sixth lowest overall.

Auto sales and profits are booming, construction is up, and houses are selling again.

But the 2015 Kids Count Data Book out today finds the rising tide of recovery has not lifted all boats, especially here in Michigan, points out Michigan Public Radio.

A new report shows that almost one in four Michigan kids live in poverty, a condition the Michigan Legislature seems intent on preserving.

Even Scrooge changed his penurious tune, finally, but a top political sage says don't count on state solons doing so.

The Kids Count Michigan authors say the state needs to increase policies and programs that help parents, like paid sick leave, but political analyst Jack Lessenberry says Michigan hasn't been following that advice.

"The state is doing everything it can to ensure that there's more poor children," Lessenberry said. He also says the legislature has dramatically decreased a tax that helps poor people and there are no proposals on the horizon that would make things easier for families.

Lessenberry says that while other states seem to be getting better, Michigan is worse off than it was during the bottom of the great recession and there is no sign of things improving.

We wrote last week that poverty like the 1840s in England, as described by Charles Dickens, has been visited on Bay County.

The most incredible statistic was 384 homeless or runaway youths on the rolls of the Bay-Arenac school districts, as compiled by the Bay-Arenac Behavioral Health Agency.

Now comes the Annie E. Casey Foundation that annually issues the Kids Count report, getting more startling every year and seemingly defying general prosperity.

Bay County's rate of children in poverty stood at 19.6 percent of the population in 2012, the latest figures available.

Saginaw County saw children in poverty rise to 28.1 percent from 25.8 percent in 2006.

Midland's child poverty rate rose nearly 3 percent, from 13.5 percent in 2006 to 16.4 percent in 2012.

Bay County students eligible for free/reduced price school lunches rose a whopping 12 percent, to 51.1 percent in 2012 from 39.1 percent in 2006.

Saginaw's rate of free/reduced lunch eligible children stood at 55.9 percent in 2012, compared to 46.1 percent in 2006, an increase of nearly 10 percent.

Students not graduating high school on time was recorded in 2013 as 22.2 percent in Bay, 27.4 percent in Saginaw and 14.5 percent in Midland.

These kinds of statistics beg the question: WHY? Part of the reason is the skewing of income to the higher ranges.

The U.S. ranks third among all the advanced economies in the amount of income inequality, according to the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality.

The top 1% of Americans control nearly a quarter of all the country's income, the highest share controlled by the top 1% since 1928.

Does the U.S. have extreme poverty of the sort that's typically associated with less developed countries? Yes, indeed it does, and it's risen sharply since 1996, says the Stanford center.

. How and when will this change? Who knows? We can only hope legislators in Michigan, and voters, begin to recognize the extent of the problems and begin to seek solutions.

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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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