California Child Poverty to Rise in 2010

by Greg Plotkin · 2010-01-14 10:38:00 UTC
Topics:

A new Duke University study released by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health projects that 2.7 million children, or 27% of California's young population, could live in poverty during 2010.

Following poverty trends in the state from 1995 to 2006 and taking into account the toll the recent recession has taken on California families, Duke researchers predict that childhood poverty rates will peak in the next year and then slowly start to recede by 2012 (but remaining higher than they were pre-recession).

The study used the federal poverty line -- $22,000 in earnings per year for a family of four -- to determine how many children will live in impoverished households. Officials, however, have estimated that families in California must earn at least twice that amount to cover basic living expenses. So while a quarter of the state's children may officially live in poverty, many more are sure to suffer.

The news is worse in Los Angeles County, where researchers believe that 35% of children will live in impoverished households in 2010. This prediction is especially troubling as the recession continues to force more middle-class Americans to seek financial assistance for the first time, further straining the already fragile social safety net programs that many children and their families rely on for survival.

They say that sometimes things must get worse before they can get better, and a lot of the time I think that's true. In this case, I just hope they get better very, very soon.

Photo credit: daveparker

Greg Plotkin currently works for Flying Pigs Farm in Shushan, NY. He is dedicated to eliminating inequalities in who has access to healthy food and alleviating hunger.

RELATED PETITION

Tell President Obama to Update the Unrealistic Federal Poverty Line
SIGN PETITION
2,245 People
PREVIOUS STORY:
In Solidarity with Haiti
NEXT STORY:
Is the NCAA Putting Student Athletes at Risk?

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.