New Study: Michigan Early Childhood Efforts Produce Startling Results

Children who attended a public pre-K school program had greater success throughout their K-12 career, including graduating at a higher rate, according to a first-of-its-kind study that followed more than 500 Michigan children for 14 years.

That study to be discussed today at a meeting of the State Board of Education, provides fuel to growing calls for increased funding for early childhood education in the state.

Michigan’s public pre-K program, called Great Start Readiness Program, provides early childhood education to about 30,000 poor and at-risk children. The study followed 338 children from Detroit, St. Clair County, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Wyoming and Roscommon who attended Great Start as 4-year-olds in 1995-96, and 258 demographically similar children who qualified for Great Start, but didn’t attend any type of pre-school before entering kindergarten.

The results were startling.

http://bridgemi.com/2012/06/study-on-michigan-early-childhood-efforts-provides-startling-results/#.T9dV1pj4J7c

Detroit Representative Asks: If Welfare Recipients are Drug Tested, Should Legislators be Subject to Tests Too?

Michigan lawmakers are considering a suspicion-based drug testing program for some welfare recipients, and it's raising questions about who else should be subject to that type of monitoring.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, opposes the plan that passed the House last week and is now pending in the Senate. But Tlaib says if the state is going to require drug testing for cash assistance recipients, lawmakers also should be screened for illegal substances.

"We're all being paid through public, taxpayer dollars – just like the taxpayer dollars that are paying for public assistance for needy families," Tlaib said. "I think that we should be held to the same standards that we ask from some of our poor families."

Tlaib's amendment to the welfare bill, which would have required state lawmakers to be tested for illegal drugs as a condition of holding office, was dismissed without a vote.

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/06/drug_test_lawmakers_draft.html#incart_river_default

A Michigan Mom With a Disabled Child Talks About the Importance of the Earned Income Credit

- Courtesy of the Michigan Earned Income Coalition and Michigan League for Human Services

West Michigan Farmer's Markets

Courtesy of Feeding America West Michigan and the Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council, the following web site has a listing of the farmer's markets in West Michigan including days, hours of operation, and whether or not they may accept Bridge Cards.

Several listings for Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Allegan, and other Southwest Michigan towns are listed.

http://www.foodshed.net/farmersmarkets.html

Local Sikhs Emphasize One God, Equality for All

In this place of worship, the men sit on the floor along one side, with their uncut hair placed in turbans or their heads otherwise covered.

Sitting on the other side are the women, their heads also covered, their feet bare.

Someone waves a "chaur sahib" -- yellowish yak hair gathered into a handle -- over the "granth," a book containing the writings of 10 gurus.

Spiritual messages are sung to the music of a harmonium and drums, with slides interpreting the words in Gurmukhi, an Indian language, and English.

It might look and sound a bit different from the Sunday services in other houses of worship, but in the "gurudwara" of the Sikh Culture Society of Indiana, the overriding belief is common to many; the first line in the holy book compiled by the 10 gurus is translated, "There is but one God."

 http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/sbt-local-sikhs-emphasize-one-god-equality-for-all-20120602,0,506520.story

United States Child Poverty Second Only to Romania in Developed World per UNICEF Study

Can government spending lift poor children from poverty?

A new report from UNICEF suggests it's possible. The latest edition of UNICEF's report on child poverty in developed countries found that 30 million children in 35 of the world's richest countries live in poverty. Among those countries, the United States ranks second on the scale of what economists call "relative child poverty" -- above Latvia, Bulgaria, Spain, Greece, and 29 others. Only Romania ranks higher, with 25.5 percent of its children living in poverty, compared with 23.1 percent in the U.S.

The term "relative child poverty" refers to a child living in a household where the disposable income is less than half of the national median income.  Many critics argue that relative poverty isn't the same as real hardship, or absolute poverty.

But the report brushes that away...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/30/us-child-poverty-report-unicef_n_1555533.html

Urban Districts Say Proposed Changes to Michigan's Kindergarten Funding Will Force Budget Cuts

Some urban districts using federal money to pay for all-day kindergarten say they’ll have to do some budget shifting or possibly cut some programs unless lawmakers make some changes.

Grand Rapids Public Schools leaders say they’ve recruited an influential ally – Doug DeVos, son of the Amway founder – in an effort to turnaround what they say is an unintended consequence of the new funding plan encouraging all-day kindergarten.

The proposed state school aid budget calls for cutting per-student grants in half for students enrolled in half-day kindergarten classes, an effort to prompt districts into creating all-day programs.

 Grand Rapids already offers all-day kindergarten, supplanted with $3.3 million awarded through Title I, a federal program intended to help students in poverty. Federal regulations strictly limit how the money can be spent...

At least 10 districts are expected to be effected. Lansing schools could have to redirect $2.5 million in funding; Flint would have to move $2.1 million. Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Ypsilanti and Mt. Clemens also face the same situation.

http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2012/05/urban_districts_say_proposed_k.html

Teenage pregnancy: High US rates due to poverty, not promiscuity

Why is a teenage girl in Mississippi four times as likely to give birth than a teenage girl in New Hampshire?  (And 15 times more likely to give birth than a teen in Switzerland?) Or why is the teen birth rate in Massachusetts 19.6 per 1,000, while it’s 47.7 per 1,000 in Washington, D.C.?

And why, despite a 40 percent drop over two decades, are teen moms still far more common in the US than elsewhere across the developed world?

(And nope, it’s not that American teens have more sex. Many studies have found that US teenagers have less sex than compatriots in Europe.)

The answer, according to a study published today in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, may well lie in social inequality.

Academics and policy-makers have known for decades that girls living in lower socio-economic circumstances are more likely than their wealthier peers to become pregnant. And anthropologists and social workers explain that teens who experience “despair” are more likely to turn to motherhood as a way to find meaning in a world where they see few other options.

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2012/0522/Teenage-pregnancy-High-US-rates-due-to-poverty-not-promiscuity

Haven of Battle Creek offers assistance to needy Saturday

People teetering on homelessness often have to decide whether to pay rent or buy necessities like toothpaste, soap and other toiletries.

On Saturday, The Haven of Battle Creek is stepping in to help meet that need, so more Calhoun County families can meet their most basic hygiene needs.


“We have people who are living with friends or relatives, even working families who just can’t make ends meet,” said Daniel Jones, spokesman at The Haven. “You have people who have to make choices between paying their rent or buying toothpaste, and they don’t have the extra money to buy the personal items.”
From 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church, 111E. Michigan Ave., the H.O.P.E. Team, which stands for Hope of People Everywhere, will host a lunch and donation of personal hygiene items to the public.

http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20120517/NEWS01/305170019/Providing-little-HOPE

Salvation Army Report Concludes Americans Don't Have Accurate Picture Of Poverty

Americans don’t quite have an accurate picture of what poverty in the United States looks like, at least according to a new survey.

Released today, “Perceptions of Poverty: The Salvation Army’s Report to America” surveyed more than 1,000 Americans online in February. The survey had a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent.

The perception by Americans of how much annual income makes a family “poor” is roughly 25 percent less than the actual federal poverty level. On average, Americans believe the annual income that makes a family “poor” is approximately $18,472 – almost $4,600 less than the federal poverty level for a family of four, which is $23,050.

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/16/poverty-salvation-army-report_n_1521577.html