Part of the reason that so many people in Kalamazoo are living in poverty is, according to this data, the minimum monthly budget for a family of four is around $3,300, while both the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Food Assistance Program in Kalamazoo put the number at only to $1,800 or $1,000, respectively. Kalamazoo's unemployment rate is also fairly high, at almost 11%.
We'll be talking about a lot of this data in class this week and how it has affected foreclosures in the area, but I wanted everyone to have the link to it to take a look because it has some pretty recent statistics (published in 2010).
The correlations between educational attainment and poverty seem especially disturbing because Kalamazoo is often touted nationally for the Kalamazoo Promise program. If things are still this bad even with that asset, much more needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteThe Kalamazoo Promise is a long term strategy. The first promise kids literally graduated from universities within the last few years. There still needs to be support for the families and children in the school systems.
ReplyDeleteKevin's right. It's a long term strategy. I know that I live in Kalamazoo, but I went to Portage schools. So Kalamazoo Promise from what I think is supposed to help create a new direction in life for the low-income families. Once students start taking advantage of the Kalamazoo Promise, they are able to help out their families and themselves too. Portage does not need Kalamazoo Promise. They already have enough wealthy people and good organizations in that area. So yes, I find it interesting.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kevin the Kalamazoo Promise is a long-term strategy that is just starting to see kids graduate. It will be interesting to see if this program has a substantial impact on the community. One thing to be considered is how many will choose to stay in the Kalamazoo area once they have graduated? If the kids do not come back to the community will the program still be considered successful?
ReplyDeleteThe high unemployment rate is also directly tied to educational attainment
ReplyDeleteI was particularly interested in the data on unemployment in Kalamazoo. It seems that things had leveled off until the 2008 crash. I just we had more data on what specific companies in Kalamazoo were doing all the job cutting. Very interesting article here.
ReplyDeleteThe Kalamazoo Promise is great, but those kids that would be eligible still have to graduate, which goes into drop out rates among minorities and the poor. Greater community emphasis on the importance of education as a means of reducing poverty might go further than just the carrot of paying for college....if you make it that far.
ReplyDeleteWe talked yesterday about who was affected most by the housing crisis...well, this data I think shows this beautifully (and sadly). Single mothers, blacks, and children seem to be disproportionally under the poverty line, which I'm sure is also true for the nation. What I found interesting were the statistics on the fourth page. 75.9% of low income residents "overall...feel good about the direction their life is taking". Things are looking up then?
ReplyDelete