Politico Pro Morning Edition: Child Poverty Improves, but 1 in 5 Still Poor
CHILD POVERTY IMPROVES, BUT 1 IN 5 STILL POOR: The U.S. Census Bureau released data Tuesday on income and poverty in 2013. Advocates are pleased because there was a larger than anticipated decline in the overall child poverty rate, which fell from about 22 percent in 2012 to 20 percent in 2013. “We’ve come back from the depths of the recession, but it’s still very high,” Hannah Matthews, director of the Child Care and Early Education team at CLASP, told Morning Education. Families’ circumstances have improved, but not evenly across the board. Poverty rates fell for white and Hispanic children, but increased slightly for black children. More than two thirds of children living in poverty have a parent that works and 30 percent have a parent that works year-round.