Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Poor get Poorer & School Vouchers Hurt Poor Kids

ChristianScienceMonitor: With all the attention being paid to hurricane victims, America's poor have been wondering when anyone might get around to helping them, too. In moving to help the hurricane victims, Congress finds itself in a budget scramble that is likely to trim the very programs that are crucial to the 37 million Americans who subsist at or below the poverty level. The latest statistics are sobering. After much progress in the booming 90s (the dropping of 9 million from welfare rolls after welfare reform & social program funding coming from Clinton's tax hikes on the wealthiest top 2%) - poverty has returned in great force. Starting in '01, the share of Americans in poverty has increased each yr. In '04 alone, their ranks grew by 1 million. In all, some 12.7% live below the poverty line: defined as $15,067 for a family of 3. Well, it seems as least some in this nation realize that the Bush & Co assault on the poor/ mid class hurts our entire nation. Peter Rogness is bishop of the St Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Please read his op/ed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune called: "Making our deficit bigger, poor poorer and rich richer." And to accompany this assessment on the assault on the poor/ mid class is this op/ed by Rob Levine called: "Case for vouchers ignores many facts". Levine examines why his 6 objections to giving poor kids the choice to attend private schools are "principled" objections based on facts, not fiction, and they are facts that pro-vouchers choose to ignore.
Posted by Tina :: 12:17 AM :: 3 Comments:

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