Family Income

After reading your editorial on the achievement gap in Advanced Placement test scores, I was amazed that you focused on family income and wealth as causes of the disparity ("The AP achievement gap," Feb. 14). As one who taught math in both Pikeville and Randallstown high schools, I observed that the biggest differences in students' level of accomplishment were more dependent on their efforts to learn than on their financial status. I think you should put more emphasis on the need for students to focus on their studies rather than on social activities in high school.

After reading your editorial on the achievement gap in Advanced Placement test scores, I was amazed that you focused on family income and wealth as causes of the disparity ("The AP achievement gap," Feb. 14). As one who taught math in both Pikeville and Randallstown high schools, I observed that the biggest differences in students' level of accomplishment were more dependent on their efforts to learn than on their financial status. I think you should put more emphasis on the need for students to focus on their studies rather than on social activities in high school.

WASHINGTON -- A large majority of two-earner families with children had to work harder simply to stay in place during the 1980s, according to a new congressional study that documents the widely felt syndrome of "middle-class squeeze."The study illustrates a sharp disparity between those who prospered in the 1980s and those who did not. And it is particularly striking because it looked at the incomes of of families with two wage earners and children -- a group many assumed had fared better during the 1980s than individuals or one-wage-earner families.

During the presidential campaign, the housing debate sometimes had more to do with how many homes a candidate owned than about solutions to the nation's housing crisis. At other times, specious claims were made that the current foreclosure crisis was caused by Fannie Mae, or by policies started in the 1990s to get banks to expand homeownership lending to low- and moderate-income families. We heard very little, unfortunately, about what has succeeded at enabling hardworking families with average or below-average incomes to afford a home or rent a decent apartment.

THE URBANOLOGIST David Rusk has confirmed what we've been saying all along: It's the money, stupid.Analyzing the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program for the Abell Foundation, Rusk notes the striking relationship between the pass rate on MSPAP and students' family income.The correlation, Rusk says, is .81. This means 81 percent of the variation in test scores among the 213 elementary schools in Baltimore city and county is "explained" by each school's percentage of low-income children.

The U.S. middle class shrank markedly between 1969 and 1989, as the number of Americans who were rich and poor increased.In 1969, 71.2 percent of Americans were "middle class." Twenty years later, 63.2 percent were middle class, a new Census Bureau study found. The study defined middle class as anyone with income ranging from 50 percent to 199 percent of the national median, or midpoint, income level.High-income individuals -- those with incomes two or more times higher than the median -- increased from 10.9 percent of the population to 14.7 percent.

According to the 1980 census, which includes some areas outside the Odenton zip code (latest figures available):Population: 13,27087.5 percent white9.86 percent black1989 median family income, according to county demographer Alexander Speer: $44,1411989 median family income for Anne Arundel County: $44,486Largest employer of Odenton residents: National Security AgencyLargest private employers: Westinghouse, Nevamar Corp.Average single-family home price: $130,000

WASHINGTON -- Something happened during the go-go decade of the '80s: the rich got richer while the rest of the population seemed stuck in a rut.That conclusion was reached in the first comprehensive study of the distribution of wealth during Reagan era by the Federal Reserve Board.The study released today found that the incomes of affluent Americans rose more quickly throughout the decade than those of middle Americans. The disparity between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of the nation was even more evident in a comparison based on net worth, the Fed found.

At a time when the economic insecurity of middle-class Americans is growing, one bedrock is the soaring values of single-family homes. But for the younger and less affluent, fast-mounting home values are making it more and more difficult to achieve the dream of a home. This challenge can be spotlighted when the average sale price of a single-family home is compared with the median family income. In the Baltimore region five years ago, it generally took two to 2 1/2 times the median family income to purchase a formerly owned single-family home.

Despite some progress, the economic mobility of black Americans is still not comparable to that of whites, according to three recent studies by a scholar at the Brookings Institution. Most disappointing is the financial stagnation that has hit black middle-class families, which raises serious questions about the idea that middle-class status guarantees an even better life for children and future generations. The stagnant, even falling, financial prospects for many blacks is a disturbing trend that will require a number of short- and long-term solutions.

Despite some progress, the economic mobility of black Americans is still not comparable to that of whites, according to three recent studies by a scholar at the Brookings Institution. Most disappointing is the financial stagnation that has hit black middle-class families, which raises serious questions about the idea that middle-class status guarantees an even better life for children and future generations. The stagnant, even falling, financial prospects for many blacks is a disturbing trend that will require a number of short- and long-term solutions.

WASHINGTON -- Health officials in Maryland and other states are scrambling to respond to new Bush administration rules that could effectively end subsidized medical insurance for thousands of children. State officials plotted strategy in a conference call yesterday and are reaching out to governors and congressional allies for help. They hope to block new regulations that limit eligibility for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, a Clinton administration-era partnership between state and federal governments that, supporters say, provides a critical safety net for hundreds of thousands of families.

Although it doesn't include the city, a just-released study seems pertinent to Baltimore. The study, by University of Virginia planning professors William Lucy and David Phillips, compared income and housing values in nearly two dozen cities in the first four years of the decade with their surrounding metropolitan areas. Its findings? "Per capita income and median owner-occupied housing value increased on average in 22 central cities in large metropolitan areas relative to their suburbs between 2000 and 2004, improving on their performance in the 1990s," they wrote in a follow-up to their book Tomorrow's Cities, Tomorrow's Suburbs, which postulates that cities are rebounding while some middle-age suburbs are showing increasing signs of decline.

At a time when the economic insecurity of middle-class Americans is growing, one bedrock is the soaring values of single-family homes. But for the younger and less affluent, fast-mounting home values are making it more and more difficult to achieve the dream of a home. This challenge can be spotlighted when the average sale price of a single-family home is compared with the median family income. In the Baltimore region five years ago, it generally took two to 2 1/2 times the median family income to purchase a formerly owned single-family home.

THE BALTIMORE-BASED Annie E. Casey Foundation recently issued its 15th annual Kids Count Data Book, a respected source of information about the condition of America's young people. The results were bad news - and a challenge - for Maryland. The foundation selected 10 key indicators of child well-being. Between 1996 and 2001, Maryland underperformed the nation on eight of them, including infant mortality and high-school dropout rates. Overall, Maryland received a below-average score, ranking 27th among the 50 states.

WHAT HAPPENS when a struggling single mother supporting two children loses her part-time job? Like other workers, she is assisted with Unemployment Insurance (UI), right? Wrong. In Maryland, those who are unemployed and seeking part-time work are ineligible for UI benefits. Fifty years ago, Maryland's highest court interpreted the unemployment law as requiring applicants for benefits to be able and available for full-time work. The harsh effects of this policy fall disproportionately on women, especially low-income women, and prove that the state doesn't support family values such as caretaking.

New data from the 1990 U.S. Census released today portray a nation of vast regional differences, fueled in part by a record number of immigrants, who accounted for 37 percent of the country's growth in the 1980s.More than half the 8.7 million immigrants who entered in the 1980s settled in New York and California, the bureau reported, while many areas were barely touched by the largest movement of people from abroad in the country's history.The new census data, released in Washington, contain other examples of a country where the national portrait can obscure important regional and local differences.

WASHINGTON -- Single-family homes were more affordable in November than at any time in the last 17 1/2 years, a report issued yesterday by the National Association of Realtors says.The trend is expected to continue, because the Federal Reserve Board has acted since then to encourage even lower interest rates.As usual, existing single-family homes were most affordable in the Midwest and South. But the report said that even in the Northeast and West, more families than usual could find affordable homes.

THE SUBLIME and ridiculous in education, Year of Our Lord 2002: President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act on Elvis' birthday, Jan. 8. The 1,200-page NCLB overnight vaulted a slew of acronyms into the lexicon of American schools, most notably AYP, for adequate yearly progress. Guidebooks interpreting the new law run up to 80 pages. The National Geographic Society surveyed the geographic literacy of adults 18 to 34 in nine countries. Only 14 percent of the Americans could find Israel on a map, but 34 percent could identify an island where the television series Survivor was filmed.

THE URBANOLOGIST David Rusk has confirmed what we've been saying all along: It's the money, stupid.Analyzing the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program for the Abell Foundation, Rusk notes the striking relationship between the pass rate on MSPAP and students' family income.The correlation, Rusk says, is .81. This means 81 percent of the variation in test scores among the 213 elementary schools in Baltimore city and county is "explained" by each school's percentage of low-income children.