Report: More Michigan Kids Living In Poverty Since 2008

LANSING (WWJ/AP) - The Michigan League for Public Policy reports that child poverty in the state has gone up since 2008.

The 2017 Kids Count in Michigan Data Book, released Tuesday, shows an overall 15 percent increase since the end of the recession in 2008 of children living in poverty.

There were 455,357 kids in poverty in 2008 compared with 481,421 in 2015. The numbers peaked in 2012 at nearly 550,000. In 2015, 47 percent of black and 30 percent of Latino children lived in poverty.

Several counties across the state have poverty rates of more than 28 percent.

Rates in Wayne, Roscommon and Lake counties were among the highest. Livingston, Ottawa and Oakland counties had some of the lowest child poverty rates.

Kids Count Project Director Alicia Guevara Warren says there was some good news, though.

"We're seeing a reduction in the number of students who are not graduating on time," she told WWJ's Beth Fisher. "So we're seeing more kids, you know, graduating from high school. We're seeing fewer teens who are experiencing a birth at a young age, so there are some good things going on."

Kids Count in Michigan is part of a broad national effort to measure the well-being of children at the state and local levels, and use that information to shape efforts to improve the lives of children.

[Get more information about this report at this link.]

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