http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips Latest news clips about the CLASP en-us Fri, 24 May 2013 09:09:23 -0500 info@clasp.org webmaster@clasp.org 40 Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0315 "Nationally, the picture for adult literacy funding has always been dire, but recently it's been getting more so," added Marcie Foster, a policy analyst with CLASP in Washington, D.C., noting that while adult education's funding has remained flat in the past decade, when adjusted for inflation that means a 25 percent cut in purchasing power for providers. http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0315 Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0314 Even as the economy recovers, too many unemployed workers and individuals with low education and skill levels face a difficult job market. Nearly two out of five unemployed workers have been jobless for six months or more; 6.7 million youth are both out of work and out of school. http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0314 Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0313 Because gun violence disproportionately affects African-American men and boys, particularly those who live in high-poverty communities, efforts to end it must also address issues of race, place, and poverty, a report from CLASP finds. According to Taking Aim at Gun Violence (11 pages, PDF), 53,850 African-American males were killed by firearms between 2000 and 2010, while rates of gun violence among young African-American men were highest where dropout, unemployment, and poverty rates are also high. http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0313 Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0310 Such tests can be harmful due to the volume of paperwork and caseworkers' time they can tie up, but also because they discourage savings, said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, an expert on policies that impact low-income people at CLASP. "It sends the wrong signal," she said. "It encourages people to spend down rather than put money in the bank and save it against future needs." http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0310 Sun, 05 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0311 Center for Law and Social Policy of the District appointed Olivia Golden executive director. http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0311 Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0312 Quality jobs refer to employment that provide decent wages, job security, advancement opportunities, and healthy working environment where workers are treated fairly and have a voice in their daily activities at work and about the overall working conditions, according to the American Center for Law and Social Policy. http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0312 Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0309 Corporate Voices for Working Families mentions CLASP's Emily Firgens's In Focus article "Lowest Income Families Remain Most Burdened by High Childcare Costs" http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0309 Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0308 Campfield's assumption is that parents who don't participate in parent-teacher conferences would change that behavior to avoid losing $55 a month. That doesn't make sense to Elizabeth Lower-Basch, policy coordinator for CLASP, who points out that many welfare recipients miss school events because they hold multiple jobs, causing work conflicts. The bill is "grounded in a stereotype that the reason a kid might be failing in school is because parents don't care," Lower-Basch says. "Overall, low-income parents do care very much about their children and want them to succeed." http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0308 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0307 "Federal funding for adult education is declining extremely rapidly, facing an almost 20 percent decrease in funding since 2002," says Foster. http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0307 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0306 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) - the program created by welfare reform in 1996 - is a flexible block grant, meaning that while the federal government sets some general rules, states have been given an enormous amount of control, both over the ways that they spend the federal funds they receive and over the rules that they set for families receiving TANF cash assistance. This flexibility results in an enormous amount of variation from state to state. http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0306