Volume 4, Number 7 July 2002

INSIDE THIS ISSUE West Virginia Court Says School Board Blocked Citizen Participation West Virginia Plans for Mega-School on Hold A Chink in the Armor: Update on Vermont's Act 60 Alabama Supreme Court Backs Away from Enforcing School Finance Improvements Iowa Suit Challenges Use of Local Option Sales Tax Study Finds Child Poverty Worst in Rural Areas About RPM RPM Archives

Study Finds Child Poverty
Worst in Rural Areas

A new study released by Save the Children reports that one in six children living in the rural United States is living in poverty and suffers from poor education and lack of health care. Extreme pockets of rural poverty are located in six regions: the Rio Grande area along the US-Mexican border, central Appalachia, the Mississippi River Delta, the Southwest, the Central Valley of California, and the American Indian reservations in the Northern Plains states. In these areas, the rates for child poverty are two to three times the rate of the national average. Overall, there are 2.5 million rural children living in poverty in the U.S.

Included in the study are these findings:

• Child poverty is greater in rural areas than in urban areas. Of the 200 counties with persistent poverty, 195 are rural.
• Rural children are 50 percent more likely than their urban peers to lack health insurance.
• Over half of all rural children in poverty are minorities. 33 percent of rural Hispanic children, 37 percent of rural African American children, and 44 percent of rural American Indian children live below the poverty line.

To download a copy of "America's Forgotten Children: Child Poverty in Rural America," visit www.savethechildren.org. For more information, call 1.800.SAVETHECHILDREN.