Sunday, October 08, 2006

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education
Rationing Education
Washington Post
5 October 2006
In dire circumstances, we accept the rationing of scare resources as a necessary if regrettable choice. We triage. And we ration resources in an effort to do the most good for the largest number. But there are areas of life that we have rejected the idea of triage. Public education, an institute charged with disbursing equality of opportunity for all children, is certainly one of them.

Tax credits fund private school scholarships
The Arizona Republic
5 October 2006
More state money is available to help Arizona parents pay tution at private and religious schools. A new law allows businesses and corporations to make donations to private and religious schools to be used for scholarships. The businesses and corportations can then reduce the amount of taxes they owe the state by the smae dollar-for-dollar amount.

Educators Announce Joint Action Plan to Address School Dropout Crisis
National Education Association
5 October 2006
NEA releases 12-point plan for parents, educators, business leaders and lawmakers to reduce high school dropout rate using tactics tried through research and professional experience.

Juvenile Justice

Parishes get juvenile justice grants
Shreveport Times
4 October 2006
A five-year, $7.5 million juvenile justice grant will be split amoung judicial districts covering seven Louisiana parishes to help speed reform in those areas. The districts will use the dollars to reduce disparities that cause more minorities to be imprisoned, to increase community services to keep juvenile offenders out of prison facilities and to improve access to programs that help children avoid becoming juvenile offenders.


Foster Care
Aging out would be easier for youths
Detroit Free Press
8 October 2006
Children who grow up in, then outgrow state care face poverty, homelessness, unemployment, and sometimes jail. But if the Legislature adopts new recommendations, they might finally get some help to get off to a better start. Foster youth would leave state care at 21 and would: get continous medicaid coverage, attend Michigan colleges for free, and use services of a Detroit-based Housing Resource Cetner that matches them with affordable housing.

Downtown help center for homeless youth opening
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
10 October 2006
The local chapter of StandUp for Kids, a nonprofit agency is opening a new downtown outreach ceter for homeless kids and estimates that 2,500 youths in Atlanta are without homes. About 1 percent of America is homeless today and roughly 17 percent of the homeless are under 21.

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