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Watch this video on VideoSurf or see more Dylan Ratigan Videos or Childhood (Robin Hoo Videos
MSNBC’s Dan Ratigan focuses on early childhood education. He emphasized, “Educating our kids early, from birth, is the key to restoring economic vitality and ensuring that our children inherit the future they deserve and the future our country is more than capable of creating.”
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Watch this video on VideoSurf or see more Dylan Ratigan Videos or Childhood (Robin Hoo Videos
MSNBC’s Dan Ratigan focuses on early childhood education. He emphasized, “Educating our kids early, from birth, is the key to restoring economic vitality and ensuring that our children inherit the future they deserve and the future our country is more than capable of creating.”
The National Women’s Law Center recently launched a Tax Credits Outreach Campaign to ensure that more families know to claim available federal and state income tax credits.
They have fliers for every state showing federal and state tax credits and how much they’re worth. The fliers are available in English, Spanish, and additional languages in some states.
Here are some easy ways you can get the word out to families about tax credits:
NWLC is also inviting organizaiton to join their outreach campaign as an NWLC Community Partner. As a community partner, you will receive:
Growing up poor can suppress a child’s genetic potential to excel cognitively even before the age of 2, according to research from psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin.
The researchers looked at test results from twins who had taken a version of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at about 10 months and again at about 2 years of age. The test, which is widely used to measure early cognitive ability, asks children to perform such tasks as pulling a string to ring a bell, putting three cubes in a cup and matching pictures.
At 10 months, there was no difference in how the children from different socioeconomic backgrounds performed. By 2 years, children from high socioeconomic background scored significantly higher than those from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
The study of 750 sets of twins by Assistant Professor Elliot Tucker-Drob does not suggest that children from wealthier families are genetically superior or smarter. They simply have more opportunities to reach their potential.
“You can’t have environmental contributions to a child’s development without genetics. And you can’t have genetic contributions without environment. Socioeconomic disadvantages suppress children’s genetic potentials,” Tucker-Drob said.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science
North Carolina’s Abecedarian Project is once again making news. Science Daily reports that researchers found that individuals who had received the intensive education intervention starting in infancy had significantly better health and better health behaviors as young adults.
The Abecedarian project was a carefully controlled scientific study of the potential benefits of early childhood education for children from low-income families. Four groups of individuals, born between 1972 and 1977, were randomly assigned as infants to either the early educational intervention group or the control group.
The lastest study was done by researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
On Thursday January 13, leaders of the Children’s Defense Fund and the Black Community Crusade for Children (BCCC) will release two studies showing the deepening crisis facing America’s Black children and young adults. Marian Wright Edelman and Geoffrey Canada will announce the goals of a new crusade to save Black children and all children. The press conference will be streamed live at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time Thursday. Register to watch the event live on the Web.
In the meantime, they are sharing this video, which includes children’s voices that contributed to the new research.
Two organizations release new state data.
The National Women’s Law Center released state-by-state fact sheets, which include information about income eligibility limits and reimbursement rates.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data Center has been updated to include poverty data from the 2009 American Community Survey that was released on September 28 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The Data Center breaks down child poverty rates by congressional district.
From First Focus:
AÂ new report reveals that even temporary spells of poverty will have lifelong health implications for children as significant evidence was found linking poverty to poor child health.
The synthesis, entitled The Effect of the Recession on Child Well-Being examines four areas – health, food security, housing stability and maltreatment – and reviews the relationship of each to the well-being of children during recessions both past and present. Authored by researchers from PolicyLab at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and commissioned by First Focus, the report shows that it will take years for families to recover to pre-recession income levels, with low-income families struggling even longer to rebound.
As a result of increased poverty, approximately 43 percent of families with children report that they are struggling to afford stable housing. The study also found a dramatic increase in the number of households classified as “food insecure” during this recession. Almost a quarter (21 percent) of all households with children fell into this category in 2008, the highest percentage since 1995 when yearly measurement started, and a nearly 25 percent increase from 2007.
“While there has been much discussion about housing issues for families during this recession, I’m not sure many people know how profound the food insecurity issues have been, where as many as 74 percent of children in some of our communities are now relying on food stamps to put dinner on the table,” said David Rubin, M.D., M.S.C.E., director of PolicyLab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “The evidence is also strong that those families who entered the recession in poverty will take much longer to rebound, demonstrating that we have a long road ahead even as the economy improves.”
The latest population report by the U.S. Census Bureau looks at fertility and American women. Among the findings:
Download the complete report.
The poverty rate for Latino children in North Carolina has skyrocketed in the past decade–going from 28.3% in 2000 to 42.8% in 2009!
North Carolina is one of three states highlighted in a new report, A Challenge to Our Nation: Improving the Economic Well-Being of Latino Kids. (Maryland and California are the two others.)
From the report:
The average Latino unemployment rate in the United States was 12.1 percent in 2009 and the Latino child poverty rate was 33.1 percent. States like Maryland had one of the lowest Latino unemployment rates of 7.6 percent as well as the lowest Latino child poverty rate of all the states at 14.6 percent. States like California and North Carolina paint another picture. California had one of the highest Latino unemployment rates at 14.7 percent. But the Latino child poverty rate was 27.5 percent there, which is lower than the national average. On the other hand, the Latino unemployment rate of 13.6 percent in North Carolina was also relatively high, but the Latino child poverty rate was 42.3 percent, which is far higher than in California.
Latino child poverty is much higher in North Carolina compared to California even though North Carolina has a lower Latino unemployment rate.