Children Should Read
for Pleasure in Summer, Literacy Expert Says
A Purdue University literacy expert has a simple piece of advice for children
looking for ways to stimulate their brains in the summer in preparation for
going back to school. "Have fun, relax, enjoy yourself, read a book
or two, and don't worry about the upcoming tests next school year."
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050718.130035&time=13%2027%20PDT&year=2005&public=1
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Teaching Adults Effective
Parenting Skills best Tool to Treat Children with Serious Conduct Problems
According to a University of Washington researcher, training adults to have more effective parenting
skills is the most potent tool available and should remain the standard of
care in treating preadolescent children with serious behavior problems. And,
a study shows for the first time such training is equally effective in treating
girls.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/uow-tae071405.php
**Community Development
It Takes a Private Neighborhood
to Make a Local Revolution
An Urban Institute Press
book, Private Neighborhoods
and the Transformation of Local Government, details how private community
associations have increasingly eclipsed local government in providing public
services and regulating land use. The author, a professor of public policy
at the University of Maryland and former Forbes magazine columnist and economic analyst
at the U.S. Department of the Interior, argues that private associations can
foster more secure neighborhoods and create market incentives for redeveloping
deteriorated areas in cities and inner suburbs.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9321
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Get more information on
these issues at http://www.ecommunityissues.com.
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**Economic Security
The Earned Income Tax
Credit: Boosting Employment, Aiding the Working Poor
According to the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities an innovative tax credit that was established
in 1975 for low-income working families and has long enjoyed bipartisan support,
the Earned Income Tax Credit has been found to produce substantial increases
in employment and reductions in welfare receipt among single parents, as well
as large decreases in poverty. Research indicates that families use the EITC
to pay for necessities, repair homes and vehicles that are needed to commute
to work, and in some cases, to help boost their employability and earning
power by obtaining additional education or training.
http://www.cbpp.org/7-19-05eic.htm
Making the Tax System
Work for Low-Income Savers: The Saver's Credit
According to The
Urban Institute, the federal tax system provides little incentive for
participation in tax-preferred saving plans to households that most need to
save more for retirement and whose contributions would most likely represent
an actual increase in savings. By contrast, the tax code provides its strongest
incentives to those who already are generally better prepared for retirement
and who are more likely to use tax-preferred vehicles as a shelter than as
an opportunity to increase overall saving. The saver's credit, helps correct
this "upside-down" structure of tax incentives for retirement saving.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9320
Tax Credits to Help Low-Income
Families Pay for Child Care
According to The
Urban Institute low-income working families face enormous challenges.
Key among them is how to pay for decent child care. The federal income tax
code subsidizes child care in several ways. The largest subsidy is the Child
and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC), a nonrefundable tax credit that offsets
up to 35 percent of working parents' child care costs, subject to limits.
Though not earmarked specifically for child care, the refundable Earned Income
Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) provide more help to low-income
working families.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9326
Supplemental Security
Income: Supporting People With Disabilities And The Elderly Poor
According to the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, signed into law by President Nixon in
1972, the Supplemental Security Income program replaced a patchwork of state
programs for the aged, blind, and disabled. A study conducted
by the federal government of the implementation of SSI found that “the quality
of life of the aged and disabled who are poor has improved greatly since they
were transferred to SSI from former state programs.”
http://www.cbpp.org/7-19-05imm.htm
**Education
Need for Better Graduation
Rate Data – The Education Department Will Calculate Graduation Rates for All
States
The Department of Education
emphasized the importance of high school reform, starting with the urgent
need for better graduation rate data to make high schools more accountable
and to help prevent students from dropping out. The Department announced that
it will be calculating an "Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate" for
all states as a first step.
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2005/07/07132005.html
Cost of Meeting House
and Senate Proposed Head Start Teacher Qualification Requirements
An analysis from the Center
for Law and Social Policy provides a preliminary estimate of the necessary
level of funding needed to raise the degree qualifications to meet the requirements
in the Head Start reauthorization legislation currently proposed in the House
and Senate. CLASP's analysis demonstrates that it will cost at least $2.7
billion over six years to cover the cost of educating the necessary number
of teachers in the House bill and raising their compensation to the levels
of kindergarten teachers.
PDF: http://www.clasp.org/publications/head_start_memo.pdf
**Health
Are Some Medicines So
Good they should be Free? In Diabetes, the Answer May Be Yes
Nothing in life is free,
the old saying goes. But maybe some things should be; a new study from the
University of Michigan
shows. Specifically, a group of medicines called ACE inhibitors should be
available at no cost to people over age 65 who have diabetes. The drugs are
so beneficial that even giving them away ultimately would save Medicare and
society large amounts of money by preventing heart attacks, strokes and kidney
failure.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/uomh-asm071305.php
Public Opinion Snapshot
on Health Information Sources
According to The
Kaiser Family Foundation, while Americans of all ages are most likely
to get information about health and health care mainly from traditional media
sources, there are significant generational differences in their reliance
on other sources of health information, according to the latest Kaiser Health
Poll Report survey.
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/pomr071805oth.cfm
Malpractice Litigation
Wrongly Blamed for Inconsistent Healthcare
A University of Illinois health-law scholar finds most of the assertions about the
impact of malpractice lawsuits on healthcare costs to be without factual basis.
Conventional wisdom holds that malpractice lawsuits are the bane of modern
medicine, with high insurance premiums driving doctors from the profession
and the threat of lawsuits discouraging health-care employees from reporting
and correcting medical mistakes.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/uoia-mlw071505.php
Wide Variation Seen in
Hospital Quality
Quality of care in U.S. hospitals varies greatly, says a new
Commonwealth Fund-supported study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Differences were found by region, by type of hospital, and by medical condition—even
within individual hospitals.
http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=285995
Medicare Chartbook Highlights
Latest Data and Trends
The 2005 chartbook from
The Kaiser Family Foundation features more
than 80 charts and tables with detailed information about the Medicare program
and the 42 million seniors and younger people with disabilities who rely on
the program for health insurance coverage.
http://www.kff.org/medicare/7284.cfm
National Organizations
Launch Network to Increase Awareness about Medicare Drug Benefit
The Medicare Rx Education
Network is a network of more than 30 national organizations coordinating activities,
sharing resources, and disseminating information about the new Medicare prescription
drug coverage. Member organizations represent seniors, patients, people with
chronic diseases and/or disabilities, pharmacists, insurers, healthcare providers
and businesses. The network is chaired by former U.S. Senator John Breaux.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=50474
**Hunger and Nutrition
New FRAC Guide Recommends
Ways to Maximize Nutrition Assistance to Low Income People and their Communities
in Event of Disaster
According to the Food Research
and Action Center, one main strength of the Food Stamp Program is its ability
to respond to changes in need in a timely fashion, whether those changes are
precipitated by economic downturns or disaster situations. FRAC’s new “Advocate’s
Guide to the Disaster Food Stamp Program” outlines the ways that federal,
state, and local officials, local non-profits and others concerned about the
aftermath of disasters can maximize nutrition assistance for needy families.
http://www.frac.org/Press_Release/07.21.05.html
Food and Nutrition Programs:
Reducing Hunger, Bolstering Nutrition
According to the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, following the creation and expansion
of the domestic food assistance programs in the second half of the 20th century,
severe hunger, which had been a significant national problem, has become rare.
The food assistance programs were developed in several steps.
http://www.cbpp.org/7-19-05fa.htm
**Substance Abuse
Experts Say Government
Parenting Website Lacks Alcohol Info
A parenting website set
up by the Bush administration is being criticized by a panel of doctors and
psychologists, who contend, among other things, that the site gives inadequate
attention to youth alcohol use. The Washington Post reported July 14 that the www.4parents.gov
website was reviewed at the request of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). The panel
found that the site included a number of incorrect statements about condom
use, sexual orientation, and single-parent households, and also gave short
shrift to the problem of alcohol use.
http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/summaries/reader/0%2C1854%2C577696%2C00.html
