7/25/16
22 percent of children in Nevada still live in poverty, compared with 15 percent before the recession.
LAS VEGAS — Nationally, more than one-fifth of children live in poverty – even though the economy has rebounded and unemployment is low – so child advocates are speaking out during convention season – pushing the campaigns to address the issue.
Dr. Stephen Miller, director of the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research, said Nevada’s child poverty rate is only two percentage points lower than it was in the depths of the recession.
“We were at 15 percent in 2008, and it went up and peaked in 2012 at 24 percent,” Miller said. “Now we’ve settled back to 22 percent, which is exactly the same number as the national average.”
Put another way, 22 percent of Nevadans have a hard time affording nutritional foods, quality child care and safe housing. Miller, whose organization just released their 2016 Kids Count report, said that during the recession, the jobless rate was …