The Denver Post, 3/20
One in five Colorado residents earns less than the amount needed to cover basic needs, according to new study from the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute. The Self-Sufficiency Standard, which calculates a bare-bones budget for basics like food, housing, childcare, transportation and other necessities, is calculated for all Colorado counties.
JVA: Want to know where your county stands? You can download the spreadsheet for all Colorado counties at http://www.dola.state.co.us/dlg/demog/selfsuff.html.
Commonwealth Fund, 3/20
Community health centers could save taxpayers as much as $40 billion per year in healthcare costs if the federal government is willing to invest $10.5 billion over the next eight years, according to a report released recently by the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). The report, titled “Access for All America,” urges Congress to increase the funding for health centers between 12 and 15 percent each year. The centers would use the money to invest in new facilities and technologies, such as health IT, and the improvements would allow health centers to increase the number of patients to 30 million by 2015.
JVA: This seems necessary; but will Congress bite?
New York Times, 3/14
Despite the economic downturn and fears of recession, major charities say their fundraising has not fallen off. In fact, some 64 percent of the organizations that have responded so far to the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ annual survey on fundraising have reported bringing in more money in 2007 than the year before.
JVA: This is good news—do you feel the same way? Don’t forget JVA’s workshop on this very topic coming on April 9! Check it out here.
Philanthropy News Digest, 3/13
African American and Latino children in the United States are more than 12 times as likely as white children to live in “double jeopardy,” meaning they live in both low-income families and poor neighborhoods, a new study published in the journal Health Affairs finds. The study, Toward a Policy-Relevant Analysis of Geographic and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Child Health, found that nearly 17 percent of African American children and 20.5 percent of Latino children in the United States live in double jeopardy, compared with 1.4 percent of white children. Moreover, while a typical, poor white child lives in a neighborhood where the poverty rate is 13.6 percent, the typical poor African American or Latino child lives in a neighborhood where the poverty level is nearly 30 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
JVA: Use this stat for neighborhood revitalization proposals for low-income neighborhoods.
Education Week, 3/11
For the first time, a select group of states is expected to take part in a 12th-grade version of the National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading and mathematics, a move that could lay the foundation for even greater state participation at that grade level on the heavily scrutinized test. The board that sets policy for NAEP, known as “the nation’s report card,” has approved tentative plans to have 11 states voluntarily participate in the exam. Federal officials will not release the names of the states and urban districts that have voiced an interest in joining in the expanded NAEP.
JVA: This will eventually allow for side-by-side assessment of the state’s 12th graders. Here’s hoping Colorado will be involved!
