PostWidely content : Poverty

"We oppose these school closings, because they have a racially-disparate impact, and because there have been no plans made that will take care of students with special education needs.” -Chicago Lawyers' Committee's Co-Director of Litigation Paul Strauss on the CPS school closings

Check out Chicago Lawyers' Committee's open letter to Mayor Emanuel, CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and board of education members urging a stop to the massive proposed school closures.

A bill passed in the House March 22 and sent to the state Senate offers three major components of pension reform. Learn more by reading this article.

How should we define poverty?

"The number of Americans in state and federal prisons has quintupled since 1980."

Chicago Lawyers' Committee Civil Rights Fellow Shubra Ohri presents on the alternatives to incarceration.

It's one thing to be empathetic to the poor, with a degree of distance that too easily turns into condescension. It's another thing entirely to experience it yourself. This could dramatically change the narrative around "personal responsibility"- blaming poor people for their own poverty.

The disparity in suspensions between white and minority students in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and in Illinois is extremely troubling. CPS has the right official policies, but doesn’t follow them. CPS should record and publish suspension and expulsion statistics school by school, with details like the race of the student and the nature of the offense, so that school administrators’ decisions can be analyzed and there can be accountability.

How many more citizens will descend into poverty [under the antiquated U.S. poverty line] as a result of the 2013 budget cuts?

There are many challenges that confront families facing homelessness. Homeless families move frequently. Many are doubledup in overcrowded apartments with relatives or friends. Others sleep in cars and campgrounds or send their children to stay with relatives to avoid shelter life.

Brandon Dunlap was intermittently homeless throughout his youth and at one time slept on the floor under a pool table in his cousin’s home.

There have been more challenges to the Voting Rights Act in the past 2 years than in the previous 45 years combined.

According to this article, many experts believe that "the impact of the recession on the young has created a disillusionment about politics in general." It is a heart-breaking read, but it gives rise to very important questions. Why do people who feel oppressed or discouraged by their current circumstances steer away from political activity? What kind of impact will this trend have on politics in the future? Will politics continue to be increasingly a game for the well-off? How do we change it?

This is a core issue to both women's equality in the workplace and men's rights to be dads and be active in their children's lives.

Truly an American Hero -- consistently fighting for this country to realize that children are categorically different than adults and should be treated accordingly.

Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, Inc. (NHS) raised more than $380,000 in support of its programs at its recent annual awards dinner hosted by NBC5-TV anchor Alison Rosati at the Chicago Marriott downtown. Established in 1975, NHS of Chicago is a nonprofit housing, counseling and lending organization committed to offering affordable resources to help individuals buy, fix and keep their homes.

Certain groups, namely ones that tend to have a lower income than other Americans, actually pay more for car insurance. I think this quote sums up the issue nicely: “We are somehow talking about poverty traps. By all appearance, financial benefits seem to stay with those who already have them. The important task is to know the mechanisms and to overcome them; ultimately to join the club of those who are better off. There is no systemic reason why a member of a minority group should not enjoy the same rates as any 'average citizen’. High auto insurance rates should not just be taken as destiny.”

Chicago consistently has some of the worst gun violence numbers in the country. The Chicago Police Department and the City of Chicago are fighting back with a gun turn-in event on Saturday, June 23 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Turn in your gun and receive a $100 MasterCard gift card. No questions asked. Really. No questions. This is not the first time the City has hosted such an event. As such, people should know about it, even those who do not own a gun. I think this is a very interesting way to fight crime violence. Thoughts?

University of Chicago law students are participating in some really valuable work through the Exoneration Project, a clinic that "engages law students in vital cases, representing prisoners convicted on flawed evidence." The program gives students experience in cases that a large number of full-time attorneys do not take. Moreover, it instills the importance of pro-bono work. Please read to find out how many convicts they have released since 2008! It is quite impressive.

This is a fascinating race question. Moderate race matching in adoption cases, which is premised on the idea that same-race adoption is more suitable than interracial adoption, is not strictly illegal. It is also an interesting social justice issue insofar as the policy disproportionately impacts black youth, who comprise a large proportion of orphans in the United States and who do not have a sufficient number of black adults willing to adopt them.

This is by far the cutest- and most creative- nonprofit partnership I've ever seen.

Even with housing prices plummeting

Wrongful convictions are a serious problem that often affect low-income, minority residents of Cook County and Illinois. Cook County needs to take measures to rid the system of wrongful convictions and provide everyone with equal access to justice.

Disparate treatment in discipline along racial lines not only negatively impacts educational outcomes but also dramatically affects students' perceptions of justice and fairness.

Many people make light of the problem of homelessness. But homelessness is not a laughing matter. In fact, homelessness is a very serious problem, and yet, each year, the problem gets worse and worse.

Everyone who cares about race and poverty should be reading Deepak Bhargava's essay on Social Justice Movements in a Liminal Age in this month's PRRAC newsletter, Poverty & Race.

How will the United States embrace increased rates of diversity? My undergraduate political science professor, Samuel Stafford, once said that "the health of a nation is indicated by the way it treats its children." Will our nation ensure that each of these children has an equal opportunity to thrive? What role will you play in protecting the rights of these children?

Phenomenal work. We need more programs like this- as well as a concentrated, nation-wide push to eliminate questions about whether job candidates have criminal records in roles in which these would not be relevant, to allow them back into the legitimate economy and break the stigma of incarceration.

I'm particularly worried about the disparate impact this will have to further stratify the wealth of US workers and their families. Not everybody can afford the education to obtain a white collar career.

Kristof's comment about property rights brings to mind the research done on how the rule of law and effective property rights regimes make the difference between wealthy societies and underdeveloped ones. But one also notices the lack of a wider critique about reservations' abandonment by the larger society.

The product of a transformative school with transformative teachers. We must explore how these results can be replicated countrywide in all schools.

This shocked me.

In direct counterpoint to the Manhattan Institute study