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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

New Tool Paints a Clearer Picture of Child Poverty

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Thursday, February 26, 2015   

INDIANAPOLIS - A new tool is painting a clearer picture of poverty in Indiana and around the country. An Annie E. Casey Foundation report released Wednesday finds the measure, developed in the 1960s, fails to include all the factors that contribute to a family's economic well being.

Jessica Fraser, program manager with the Indiana Institute for Working Families, says that includes family income, housing supports and cost-of-living differences.

"It's not geographically specific," Fraser says. "So it's the same if you live in Indianapolis, Indiana, or a rural county in Indiana or New York City or Hawaii. It's the same poverty guideline."

The Supplemental Poverty Measure, created by the U.S. Census Bureau, takes those factors into account as well as the impact of anti-poverty programs. Using the SPM, the report found that social service programs kept an estimated quarter-million Indiana children out of poverty between 2011 and 2013.

Laura Speer, associate director for policy reform and advocacy with the Casey Foundation, says better measurement tools are important to gauge the effectiveness of anti-poverty strategies.

"Using the Supplemental Poverty Measure we can really see the successes and the limitations of the safety-net resources that we've put into place," Speer says. "We can also see these resources don't go far enough. We still see that there are 13 million children below the poverty line."

Beyond safety-net programs, Fraser says families need other supports to move out of poverty including access to affordable childcare, tax credits and high-quality education.

"Good wages and benefits from their employer," says Fraser. "And then education that helps them get to those middle-class jobs that we all want them to be able to strive for."

The report also calls for further development of the tool to gather county-level statistics.


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