New report shows Florida’s economy has hit poor hardest
by John Kennedy | June 12th, 2012Florida’s tough economy has proved even more challenging for those living on the state’s financial fringes, with poverty, infant mortality and an unmet need for mental health care on the rise, a new report shows.
A study called The Well Being of Florida’s Children — Is Our Future at Risk? shows the poverty rate among Florida’s children has climbed 35 percent between 2006 and 2010, resulting in 1.8 million kids living in low-income households. The state’s rate of low birth-weight infants also is worse than the national average, with 10 percent of Florida children having developmental or behavorial problems.
The number of homeless students in Florida has almost doubled since 2006 and the rate of food insecurity among Florida’s children is worse than the national average, the study found.
The report was put together by Voices for Florida and the Minority Issues Action Council, a pair of advocacy organizations, and financed by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
”It is not new that disparities exist,” said Linda Alexionok, co-director of Voices for Florida. “What is new is that disparities are more prevalent today than ever before, and growing. This report dispels the myth that a level playing field exists for all children.”
In the report, project researcher John Hall also found that Florida’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF) has declining caseloads and expenditures at a time when the poverty rate has increased.
“It warrants a closer look,” Hall said. “There are considerable needs among Florida’s children that are unmet or addressed minimally due to inadequate funding.”
June 12th, 2012 at 6:16 pm
But have you seen Bill Koch’s A1A beach-front mansion?!?! Wowweee! Gor-geouuussss!
What’s that? Poor children starving? Their problem not mine.
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I was channeling Ayn Rand there so I could be like all the cool Tea Party types and show my utter disregard and disrespect for human life.
June 13th, 2012 at 11:42 pm
It’s truly a disgrace to live in one of the wealthier states in this country and to have so many children in need. It’s also dangerous that services have been cut for those who are troubled. Why is it so difficult for reasonably intelligent people to understand that it’s far better for all of us to give children a good start with health and education than it is to have them wind up sickly and possibly in trouble? Are we so selfish and shortsighted that we don’t get it? A nation is judged by how it treats the neediest. How will we be judged?
June 16th, 2012 at 12:39 am
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June 16th, 2012 at 11:32 pm
Spell check, please. You did not spell behavioral right.