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Poverty in Arkansas down slightly Wednesday, Aug 30, 2006 Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Overall poverty in Arkansas has dropped slightly but still remains above the national average, according to U.S. Census Bureau released Tuesday. The report said the state's poverty rate dropped from 16.4 percent in 2003-2004 to 14.5 percent in 2004-2005. The national rate was 12.7 percent, using the two-year average released by the Census Bureau. "We are glad to see the number of people in poverty declining, but we aren't satisfied to know that there are still Arkansans living in substandard housing, with inadequate incomes and limited opportunities," Gov. Mike Huckabee said through his office. The report also showed that Arkansas had a child poverty rate of 20.2 percent for in 2004-2005, above the national average of 17.7 percent during the same period. Rich Huddleston, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, said decline in poverty in Arkansas is good, but much more needs to be done. "A child poverty rate of nearly 20 percent means that nearly one in five children, or 125,000 kids, still don't have the most basic economic resources in life," he said. Huddleston said full funding of pre-kindergarten for at-risk children, reducing caseloads in the state's system for abused and neglected children and tax reform for low-income working families should be near the top of the Legislature's agenda when lawmakers meet in January. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Beebe has proposed a $40 million expansion of voluntary prekindergarten. The funding would come from the state's estimated $487 million budget surplus. Republican candidate Asa Hutchinson has said he also supports expanding pre-k programs, especially in the poorer areas of the state for at-risk children, but that such a move would have to be balanced with other funding needs. Hutchinson has said he supports giving tax relief to the state's low-income working families, including abolishing the state sales tax on groceries. Beebe has also said he supports eliminating the tax on groceries. |
