South Carolinians who are struggling need a living wage if they are ever to climb out of poverty, said a state representative at the summer series of StraightTalkSC, sponsored by the Riley Institute at Furman and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Furman.<\/p>\n
The series \u201cCan\u2019t Win for Losing: The Crisis of the Working Poor\u201d began with a forum Tuesday evening and will continue for the next three Tuesdays. The series is being moderated by Mark Quinn, director of public and member relations for the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina. Tuesday\u2019s session included Dr. Jessica Hennessey, an economics professor at Furman University, and Reps. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg and Kenny Bingham, R-Lexington.<\/p>\n
A recent Kids Count report showed that 288,000 children in South Carolina\u201427 percent of all the state\u2019s children\u2014live in poverty. In Greenville County, that drops to 23.2 percent. South Carolina ranked 45th<\/sup> in the nation in the well-being of children\u201441st<\/sup> in economic well-being, 43rd<\/sup> in education and health and 41st<\/sup> in family and community support. All categories improved.<\/p>\n A number of the working poor working in minimum wage jobs earn less than the federal poverty line guidelines. Also many of them have a high school diploma or less. One study cited by Hennessey said that low earnings, periods of unemployment and involuntary part-time work were factors for 84 percent of the reason people are poor.<\/p>\n When trying to deal with poverty, she said, it makes sense to look primarily at those three factors.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople have got to make a livable wage if they\u2019re ever going to get out of poverty,\u201d said Cobb-Hunter.<\/p>\n She and Bingham said that children who grow up in poverty often remain in poverty throughout their lives.<\/p>\n Bingham said that when he was running for school board, he said that disruptive children should be suspended. But he learned quickly that more was needed. If they are kicked out of school, often \u201cthey will find themselves in prison.\u201d The district created an alternative school with small classes for these disruptive children. Many were disruptive because they had fallen behind grade level. In the alternative school, which was expensive, they felt successful.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to make sure the money we spend is effective and gets results,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Change in the way things are done in South Carolina is necessary if the state is to improve, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want change to be everyone else affected but not me,\u201d Bingham said. \u201cUnless change takes place we cannot move our state forward.\u201d But that change needs to \u201chave measured outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n Cobb-Hunter said she\u2019s pleased with the work South Carolina is doing on expanding kindergarten for 4-year-olds, but emphasis needs to be placed on children in the infant to 3-year-old range.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are missing a golden opportunity\u201d if the state doesn\u2019t focus on its youngest children, she said. The Nurse-Family Partnership, begun in Greenville County, has expanded to 26 counties in the state. It works with pregnant women and young mothers to help them help their children toward success.<\/p>\n Education is vital in breaking the poverty cycle, Bingham said. \u201cIf a child is not reading on grade level by fourth grade, the majority will not graduate.\u201d And statistics show that adults without a high school education have difficulty in finding and retaining employment.<\/p>\n He said that Medicaid, a rapidly rising cost in South Carolina, is the first item considered in the budget. Cobb-Hunter disagreed, saying that property tax reduction comes off the top of the budget before any programs are considered.<\/p>\n She said Medicaid should be expanded while Bingham said he wants to see access to health care improved in other ways. He also said he\u2019s not in favor of increasing the minimum wage in the state although Cobb-Hunter has introduced legislation that would set a state minimum wage.<\/p>\n Hennessey said during her presentation that without the safety net provided by government programs, twice as many Americans would be impoverished as currently are.\u00a0 She cited a study that suggested those fighting poverty should focus on early childhood development, supporting disadvantaged youth, building skills and improving the safety net and work support as a last-ditch measure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South Carolinians who are struggling need a living wage if they are ever to climb out of poverty, said a state representative at the summer series of StraightTalkSC, sponsored by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":13449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,17,40,46,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-centers-and-institutes","category-continuing-education","category-economics","category-riley-institute"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}