Newsflash: The economy causes poverty

Elizabeth — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:31:57 -0800

Thanks to Deborah Siegel at Girl with Pen (and to Feministing via which I discovered GWP) for this report on Frank Furstenburg's recent briefing paper on teen pregnancy and poverty.

The headline as she reports it from the Ascribe Livewire:

Teen Pregnancy and Poverty: 30-Year-Study Confirms That Living in Economically-Depressed Neighborhoods, Not Teen Motherhood, Perpetuates Poverty

Can you feel the tidal wave of support building for all kinds of "End economic depression in neighborhoods where teens live" programs? In fact since Furstenburg reports that young women who become teen mothers are often already poor, maybe the government can use all the abstinance-only money that states keep rejecting to fund some education/housing/jobs programs to rebuild neighborhoods and reduce poverty and increase opportunity. That might be a better way of reducing teen pregnancy rates.

Furstenburg's briefing report is here.