Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Area Suffers High Childhood Poverty, Shrinking Middle Class, Reports Say

Locator map of the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Metropolitan Statistical Area in the northeastern part of the of . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was grim news Tuesday as a flurry of reports showed that Luzerne County’s middle class is shrinking while the wealthiest get richer with nearly one third of children under 18 live in poverty.

Data show while the unemployment rate has dropped substantially both nationally and locally, the poverty rate has not seen a corresponding drop.

If there was a silver lining in the data put out by three different sources, it may be that Luzerne and Lackawanna counties have lower rates of uninsured children than the state.

Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children — which bills itself as a nonprofit and non-partisan child advocacy group — issued its annual “State of Children’s Health Care” report, which showed that the percentage of children lacking health insurance statewide dipped slightly since last year’s report, from 5.3 percent to 5.2 percent.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/50324023/Grim-news-from-three-new-reports

Kids’ Well-Being Slipping In Pennsylvania, Nonprofit Says

Map of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The well-being of children in Pennsylvania is 17th best in the nation, but that’s down from 14th a year ago, according to a study released today.

A lack of gains in health care and early learning caused the slip, according to the study by The Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore nonprofit for helping children.

The best-ranked states: New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts. The worst: Nevada, Mississippi and New Mexico.

It’s a warning sign that Pennsylvania was one of only five states to fall three or more spots, said local professionals who deal with children.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=486933