News Clips

• Aug 27, 2010  |  The Washington Post Danielle Ewen on Child Care and Early Education Policy On the Early Learning Challenge Fund: "It acknowledges that we have a class disparity in our system where families can't afford to buy quality, it says the responsibility here is for the states to help build quality, to invest in quality, to get teachers better education and training and then salaries commensurate with that experience, to make sure the facilities children are in really meet their needs from a broad developmental perspective, which means that they have dress up areas, and lots of art materials, and multiple books for every child and lots of play space both indoors and outdoors so the children can run and grow and play and laugh."
• Aug 17, 2010  |  The Huffington Post 'No Precedent' for Proposed Cut to Food Stamps "I do believe [the Democrats] are sincere in not wanting these cuts to go into effect, but I'm concerned that, when the time comes, they won't be able to find a way to put the money back," said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a senior policy analyst at CLASP. "There's no precedent for this."
• Aug 10, 2010  |  Palm Beach Post Hypcritical Scott is Reverse Robin Hood "In a time of tight state budgets, it is perverse to spend limited funds in pursuit of a small number of substance abusers who are not identified through screening processes, rather than on providing actual services," noted a CLASP report.
• Aug 03, 2010  |  Womens eNews Lifesaver Job Funds at Risk for Low-Income Women "Anecdotal evidence suggests that the states used the program to help many low-income women, who have a difficult time making ends meet even in times of prosperity, let alone the past recession when the national unemployment rate climbed to over 10 percent," said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, senior policy analyst at CLASP.
• Jul 29, 2010  |  Youth Today Child Welfare Experts Urge Congress to Expand Title IV-E Waivers A panel of experts told a congressional committee Thursday that the federal government should expand a flexible funding program that helps states and counties reform their child welfare systems and keep more children out of foster care. "The current financing structure is at odds with achieving the outcomes we want to achieve," said Rutledge Q. Hutson, director of child welfare policy at CLASP. "If we really want to improve the outcomes, we have to take on comprehensive finance reform."
• Jul 29, 2010  |  The New York Times Job Training Alone Doesn't Create Jobs A recent article in the New York Times series, The New Poor, focused on unemployed workers who are, after training, still scrambling for employment. The article examined federally financed training programs and reported that many who complete these programs still struggle to find jobs. The New York Times published reader responses to the article, including a letter to the editor by Evelyn Ganzglass, CLASP director of workforce development, noting that job training alone does not create jobs and workers with the most education and training are less likely to be unemployed in the first place.
• Jul 15, 2010  |  BET.com Addressing Childhood Poverty Would Greatly Improve Adult Outcomes for Black Children In this opinion piece, CLASP senior policy analyst Rhonda Tsoi-A-Fatt discusses high rates of poverty among black children, writing that improving adult outcomes for such children requires addressing their poverty early in life.
• Jul 14, 2010  |  City Limits Obama Must Make Youth a Priority In this op-ed, CLASP Director of Youth Policy Linda Harris says a multibillion-dollar federal initiative is needed to bring disconnected youth back into the mainstream - not just for their sake, but for ours, too.
• Jul 09, 2010  |  CNNMoney.com A Stimulus Program Even a Republican Can Love The fastest-growing segment of the emergency fund is the subsidized jobs program. States have already put $615 million to work, according to CLASP. CLASP expects states to fund a total of 200,000 jobs before the program expires. "This provdes a low-risk way for employers to hire. Employers will do their best to keep people," said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a senior policy analyst at CLASP.
• Jul 06, 2010  |  The Washington Post Uninsured Virginians May Lose Free Dental Care Although many Americans take dental health for granted, it can be critical for people trying to get back on their feet or out of poverty. Advocates say that low-income Virginians' more serious dental needs keep them in pain, at risk for more serious health problems and possibly unemployed. "Employers don't want to hire people with dental-care needs," said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a senior policy analyst at CLASP.
• Jul 01, 2010  |  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Jobless Rate Dips, but So Do Jobs Unemployment figures released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor come as more than 2 million jobless workers are losing unemployment benefits following Congressional inaction on a proposal to extend them. "The economic recovery is fragile. Too many families are struggling," said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a senior policy analyst at CLASP.
• Jun 24, 2010  |  San Francisco Chronicle Time Running out on Subsidized Jobs for Parents The House and Senate versions of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act would provide an additional $2.5 billion in funding and extend the deadline for another year. This provision has not been the target of criticism because it would be paid for and not increase the deficit, said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, senior policy analyst at CLASP.
• Jun 23, 2010  |  The Washington Post Administration Broadens Effort to Fight Homelessness "The administration does call for some added vouchers, which is terrific. But even if it's fully funded by Congress, it still would only reach a small fraction of those who are potentially eligible for housing subsidies," said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a senior policy analyst at CLASP.
• Jun 22, 2010  |  The Indianapolis Star Grandparents Are Parents Again "A growing body of research tells us kinship care is a good thing. Research shows children living with relatives tend to have more positive perceptions and feelings about their placement," said Tiffany Conway Perrin, a senior policy analyst at CLASP.
• Jun 14, 2010  |  The Philadelphia Inquirer Advocates Say Poor Need Available Free Cell Phones "That the poor don't have cell phones is not as incongrous as it sounds. Because they don't require contracts and deposits, the cell phones - especially prepaid ones that allow customers to buy minutes when needed - are often cheaper than land lines, which is important for poor people whose credit is too battered to allow them more traditional phone service," said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a senior policy analyst at CLASP.
• Jun 10, 2010  |  The Huffington Post Criticisms of an Improved Poverty Measure Go from Spin to Soap You don't need to be a "West Wing" fan to recognize the political verite in an episode that included a discussion about the nation's poverty measure. On the show, White House staffers acknowledge that a modernized poverty measure would improve policy decisions but decide to scrap the idea anyway because they consider it too politically risky. The show echoed the real world, where politics has repeatedly trumped good policy and the status quo has remained firmly in place. After all, what president would want to risk an increase in the poverty rate that could result from a new measure?
• Jun 02, 2010  |  Diverse: Issues in Higher Education Experts Explore Black-White Divide in Youth Employment "One critical but missing component necessary to closing the Black-White divide is a political and public will to make the sorts of investments that would eliminate the need to come back to the same questions 'decade after decade' of why young men of color and disconnected youth aren't thriving," said Linda Harris, director of youth policy at CLASP.
• May 29, 2010  |  Dayton Daily News Fewer Parents Eligible for Child Care Subsidies "Ohio has made significant cuts to its Early Childhood programs over the past few years, as a result many families who are eligible for help cannot get it and they make difficult choices between child care, food, housing, heat and other costs," said Danielle Ewen, director of Child Care and Early Education at CLASP.
• May 24, 2010  |  New York Times Cuts to Child Care Subsidy Thwart More Job Seekers In 2000, only one in seven children whose families met federal eligibility requirements received aid, according to an analysis by CLASP, which advocates for expanded programs. In 2003, the Bush administration found that in the smaller group of children eligible under more restrictive state criteria, only 30 percent received subsidized care.
• May 06, 2010  |  USA Today Mother's Day Brings College Degree for Some Single Moms "Federal welfare laws since 1996 have emphasized jobs more than education," said Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, a senior policy analyst at CLASP. A few states, including Maine and Kentucky, have created incentives for college-going welfare recipients. But, she said, many states are cutting services, such as tutoring and transportation, that are often critical to single parents.