skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Checkup on 'Cycle of Childhood Poverty' in Ohio

play audio
Play

Friday, January 31, 2014   

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Fifty years after President Lyndon Johnson declared a War on Poverty, advocates for children say childhood poverty remains a persistent problem, impacting an estimated one in four Ohio children.

Sandy Oxley, CEO of Voices for Ohio's Children, says there has been progress on some fronts, but more work needs to be done to ensure every child has the opportunity to succeed in school, work, and life.

"Breaking the poverty cycle is critical,” she stresses. “Our country's long term economic success depends on a healthy and well-trained, and well-educated, workforce – and tomorrow's workforce are today's children."

Oxley adds children would be much worse off without some of the programs created in the wake of the War on Poverty, including Medicaid and Head Start, but she says that many who are eligible are not accessing them.

She says efforts continue to better educate Ohioans about services available.

Oxley points out that there are different challenges in today's economy that can contribute to poverty, including long-term unemployment, reduced work hours, foreclosures, and changing family dynamics.

And she says we're in an increasingly knowledge-based economy where less-educated workers are left behind.

She says it's time to examine what things are working to help the nation's future, and what things are not.

"While there still exists a high degree of poverty among children,” she says, “we certainly need to look at how we're doing business to make sure that we're putting together programs that are going to be effective because the face of poverty has changed."

Oxley maintains to better arm the future workforce, there needs to be a better range of positive educational opportunities made available, from early learning all the way up to post-secondary education.

She says early experiences living in poverty are associated in negative outcomes for children.

"When children grow up in poor households,” she explains, “they're more likely to become unhealthy, drop out of school, have chronic health problems as adults and earn lower wages than those who do not experience those impoverished conditions during childhood."

Research shows that even living in poverty for a short time increases stress and has negative implications for brain development throughout life.





get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021