Poverty Rate

A new, more accurate way of measuring poverty shows that antipoverty programs are working to keep children from falling into absolute deprivation. The U.S. Census Bureau released a supplemental poverty measure Monday that shows children's poverty is at lower levels than previously calculated, thanks to food stamps and other programs aimed at helping families survive. "It looks like the programs are targeted well at families with children, bringing many up out of poverty," said Kathleen Short, the Census Bureau economist who wrote the report.

Last week's agreement to cut the business-privilege tax by about $70 million a year isn't just a win for the business community. It's a sign of the growing effectiveness of freshman Councilman Bill Green, who, along with colleagues such as Maria Quinones Sãnchez, has been pushing that reform and many others. A few days before the tax cut was moved out of Council's Finance Committee, Green discussed the problems facing the city, tax and education reform, impediments to change, and other things to help Philadelphia "become a growing city with a declining poverty rate, instead of the other way around.

A state Senate committee approved legislation Tuesday that moves forward three key Corbett administration education initiatives: vouchers, charter school expansion and increased funding of tax credits that pay for private school tuition. The full Senate could vote on the proposal as early as Wednesday. The law, if passed, would help pay the private school tuition of low-income public school children who attend the lowest performing schools and want out. In the second year, it would pay tuition for low income students in those schools' attendance areas who already attend private schools.

Obama prepares to shift blame I am sick of hearing President Obama castigating Republicans for not supporting his tax proposals. What Obama has done is perfectly position himself to shift blame for next year's even-worse economy. He can argue then that the failed economy is the fault of mean, insensitive, and uncaring Republicans for obstructing his wise and caring policies. I urge the Republican Party to call his bluff. Give him everything he wants, from soak-the-rich taxes to boondoggle stimulus to new environmental regulations.

Growing up poor isn't so bad. Most poor kids don't even notice it, since it's unlikely that their friends and neighbors are doing any better. But being accustomed to poverty doesn't excuse its existence. As a child, it never struck me as anything other than normal that my brothers and I wore patched jeans. I didn't care, but in retrospect I know my mother did. She took the time to sew the patches on the inside of our pants and used a darning technique to make the patchwork less visible.

With the poverty rate in Philadelphia nearing 27 percent, are you concerned for the city's future?

The poverty rate in Philadelphia jumped nearly two percentage points from 2009 to 2010, according to a federal report released Thursday, underscoring the growing plight of residents being swamped by unemployment and hard times. "I'm always crying," said Valencia Sydney, a 34-year-old Northeast Philadelphia single mother of one who lost her part-time certified nursing assistant job last year, then plummeted from the working class into poverty. She and her 21/2-year-old daughter face eviction from their $640-a-month apartment, and the two may have to move into a shelter, she said.

MORE Philadelphians are living in poverty today than a decade ago, and the city's median household income has plummeted, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates being released today. This comes even as there are more city residents who have their high-school diploma or GED, and more who have a bachelor's degree. The rise in poverty and the drop in income are especially stark among the city's African-American residents. The new estimates tell "us that Philadelphia is a pretty harsh place to grow up," said Mariana Chilton, a professor at Drexel University's School of Public Health and a national expert on hunger.

MORE Americans than ever before - 46.2 million - are poor. The U.S. poverty rate - 15.1 percent - is the highest it has been since 1993. Middle-class incomes have fallen to their lowest point since 1997. But as bad as things are, they could be worse. And if our political leaders continue to pursue the wrong-headed policies currently in vogue, they will be. Economic data for 2010 released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau paint a distressing picture of the economic devastation left in the wake of the Great Recession: Nearly a million more Americans lack health insurance than in 2009.

Stymied by a relentlessly dismal economy, more Americans were in poverty in 2010 than at any other time since poverty levels were first published 52 years ago, new government figures show. Overall, 46.2 million Americans lived in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009. The poverty standard for a family of four is an annual income of $22,113. The poverty rate last year was 15.1 percent, compared with 14.3 percent in 2009. It was the highest rate in 17 years, according to U.S. Census figures released Tuesday.