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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.

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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 Myorkas.

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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.

Report: MI Should Support Young Parents to Secure Future

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Tuesday, September 25, 2018   

LANSING, Mich. — As the saying goes, "the children are our future." But kids born to moms and dads barely out of their teens face an uphill battle, according to a new report called "Opening Doors for Young Parents."

Researchers from the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that 9 percent of all 18- to 24-year-olds in Michigan - or about 85,000 people - have young children, and those families have about 100,000 kids between them. Alicia Guevara-Warren, Kids Count project director with the Michigan League for Public Policy, said one good idea would be to expand access to higher education and training.

"Nearly 3 in 4 children in Michigan with young parents are living in families with low incomes,” Guevara-Warren said. “So it really points to economic security as an issue and it's directly tied into educational attainment."

The report found that only 8 percent of young parents in Michigan have an associate degree or higher, and almost 46 percent of children with young parents have a mom or dad who is considered "disconnected" - meaning unemployed, not in the labor force, and not in school. The authors recommended better funding for adult education, Section 8 housing, and health care subsidies.

The report also showed that, nationally, just 5 percent of young parents receive child care subsidies, even though almost two-thirds need child care. Rosa Maria Castaneda, senior associate with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, noted that 41 percent of young parents said they've had times where they couldn't work because they couldn't find affordable child care.

"Young parents have told us and have reported in surveys that child care is one of the big pieces that they struggle with to be able to make ends meet and participate in the economy successfully,” Castaneda said.

The report authors said one important way to help young families get by would be to lower the age for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit from 25 to 21, and to lower the age limit to 18 for the state version.


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