Hispanic Center of Western Michigan seeks volunteers to help bridge gap between techie kids and parents who can't compute

Like many moms, Gildara Gaona of Grand Rapids wants to help her children with homework. She wants to monitor Facebook activity in their teen years, and someday guide them through the college application process. But first, she is working to conquer email.

Gaona is a recent graduate of the digital connectors class at the Hispanic Center of Western Michigan, a 15-week course teaching basic computer skills like Microsoft Word, Internet browsing, and email use.

“The digital divide in Kent County is huge,” said Jaenelle Ott, the adult education coordinator and lead teacher at the Hispanic Center of Western Michigan. “It creates inequality, and the gap continues to widen.”

http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/05/the_hispanic_center_of_western.html

How your county ranks for unwed births, pregnant teens and infant health

Fewer Michigan teenagers are having babies, and the state is seeing fewer premature births, according to a new report looking at health and birth trends.

But the Kids Count in Michigan Right Start report indicates that the number of babies born to unwed mothers has risen dramatically over the last decade, accounting for 41 percent of babies born between 2008 and 2010.

The report, released today by the Michigan League for Human Services' Kids Count in Michigan project, looks at eight maternal and infant health measures and ranks 81 of the state’s 83 counties.

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/report_fewer_michigan_teenager.html

Map the Meal Gap

What percentage of people or children in your county have food insecurity?

The following is a link to an interactive map which shows.  Click on Michigan and then click on your county to find out:

http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-studies/map-the-meal-gap.aspx

Michigan Book Discusses Limits of Education Reform

The mixed results of decades of education reform in Michigan prove there’s only so much policymakers can do to improve student performance, according to a new book by two school and policy researchers.


Using Michigan as a laboratory, authors Michael Addonizio and Philip Kearney dissect the impacts of reforms to school funding, accountability and choice and conclude “the crucial interaction between students and teachers is often unaffected by state or federal attempts at ‘remote control.’”


... Over its 260 pages that include notes and charts, “Education Reform and the Limits of Policy: Lessons from Michigan” also argues that lawmakers should remember supports to housing, health, income and other social services affect learning as students struggling with those issues at home also struggle in class.


http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20120427/NEWS01/304270027/Author-Education-reforms-overly-optimistic-

Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation Study: Investing in Quality Pre-Kindergaten Preparation Saves Michigan $100,000 per Child

For every Detroit child who enters kindergarten ready to learn, Michigan taxpayers save $100,000, according to a study that calculates the economic value of preparing children for long-term educational success starting at birth.

Detroit's One-Child School Readiness Dividend study, to be released at a news conference today, was commissioned by the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation in partnership with more than 20 organizations.

The conclusions support prior research which showed evidence that children -- particularly low-income children -- who attend early education programs that prepare them are less likely to depend on taxpayer-funded services.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120425/NEWS01/204250395/Kindergarten-preparation-for-each-Detroit-tot-means-36-100-000-savings-for-Michigan-study-finds

Poverty In America "Threatens Our Very Democracy"

PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley said on "Face the Nation" Sunday that poverty in America "threatens our very democracy," and that it threatens our national security.

Smiley and Princeton Professor Cornel West, co-authors of the new book The Rich and the Rest of Us (Smiley Books), talked to host Bob Schieffer about how half of Americans - 150 million people - are poor, which they defined as living one or two paychecks away from poverty.

"There seems to be a bipartisan consensus in this town - and you know how hard that is to do - but a bipartisan consensus that the poor just don't matter, that poverty is just not an important issue," Smiley said. "We cannot abide another campaign for the White House where the issue of poverty isn't raised higher on the American agenda."

West said the face of poverty is changing. "We've got a significant number of white brothers and sisters," he said, including those who were formerly middle class. "The public face now [is] white, more and more white middle class."

Smiley said poverty is not color-coded: "This is not a black problem or a brown problem," he said. "This is a societal crisis right now."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57418553/cornel-west-and-tavis-smiley-poverty-in-america-threatens-democracy/

Poverty In America: Defining the New Poor

Welfare reform in 1990s helped slash cash benefit rolls, and yet the use of food stamps is soaring today. About 15 percent of Americans use food stamps, and it has become what some call the new welfare.

A big reason why is because of a deal struck between President Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress in 1996. At that time, the number of Americans who received cash payments — what's often thought of as welfare — was at an all-time high.

The Clinton overhaul made it much harder to qualify for those payments, and today the welfare rolls are down 70 percent, but that's only if you define welfare in one way.

"We decided cash assistance is welfare and that's bad, but we decided food aid is nutritional assistance and that's good," says New York Times reporter Jason DeParle. "We made [the food stamp] program much easier to get on."

DeParle, who covers poverty for The Times, tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz that 18 million Americans have had to apply for food aid since the economic crisis began.

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/22/151166529/poverty-in-america-defining-the-new-poor

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Meets With Kalamazoo Area Students

Hundreds of area students heard a message of how their individual actions can change the world Friday from a 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner who is in Kalamazoo this weekend for the annual PeaceJam program.

When Rigoberta Menchu Tum was young, her father was accused of being a part of a guerrilla organization in her home country of Guatemala and was arrested and tortured until he was eventually killed. Soon after, the army arrested her brother and tortured and killed him. Eventually, Menchu Tum's mother was imprisoned and repeatedly raped and tortured until she died in prison.


http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/04/nobel_peace_price_winner_speak.html#incart_hbx

More Diversity Needed in K-12 Classrooms and Administration Offices

Leslie Fenwick, Dean of College of Education at Howard University discusses at the National Urban League conference the need to diversify the body of America's teachers, principals, and superintendents:

Where fresh foods are scarce, so is good health: Scientific American

Even within the borders of one of the world’s top agricultural countries, healthy food can be hard to come by. Many Americans reside in food deserts—communities where retailers offering fresh food are scarce but fast-food restaurants and convenience stores selling prepared foods can abound...


Scientists are still exploring the links between food deserts and health by investigating how the nonavailability of fresh food may spur obesity, diabetes and other diet-related conditions. One 2006 study found an association between the presence of supermarkets and lower obesity rates. Convenience stores, on the other hand, were associated with higher rates.


(Note:  Click on the chart above for a larger more readable set of charts.)


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=high-and-dry-in-the-food