Rourke OBrien: All Related Content

This book looks at the way we tax the poor in the United States, particularly in the American South, where poor families are often subject to income taxes, and where regressive sales taxes apply even to food for home consumption. Katherine S. Newman and Rourke L. O'Brien argue that these policies contribute in unrecognized ways to poverty-related problems like obesity, early mortality, the high school dropout rates, teen pregnancy, and crime.

On July 13, 2008, New York City’s poverty rate was 18 percent. Twenty-four hours later it had ballooned to 23 percent. How did more than 400,000 New Yorkers become impoverished overnight? The answer is that Mayor Michael Bloomberg adopted a new and more complex—and, he argued, more accurate—measure of poverty than the one the federal government uses. His action reignited a debate in Washington, D.C., and beyond about how America determines who is poor—a debate that many hope will be settled by the U.S. Congress this year.

As the saying goes, “A penny saved is a penny earned,” but does that penny saved translate into greater economic mobility? Movement up the income ladder is fairly limited for children of low-income parents—42 percent of children born to parents on the bottom rung of the income ladder remain on the bottom rung a generation later.i To date, however, there has been less analysis that shows clearly how income mobility differs based on one’s own or one’s parents’ level of savings. This paper clearly demonstrates the relationship between savings and economic mobility.

After their children's college savings accounts lost 38 percent of their value last year, some Illinois parents might be seeing some justice soon. The Illinois Treasurer's office recently reached a tentative deal with Oppenheimer funds to recover $77 million of the $85 million in losses.

The Potential of 529 College Savings Plans

At a time when low-income students are underrepresented in higher education and the cost of attendance is becoming increasingly unaffordable, 529s have the potential to address issues of college readiness, access and completion.  College savings can help make higher education more affordable, and have the potential to change aspirations and behaviors of both students and their parents.  Research from the asset building field has shown that even a relatively small amount of savings can have positive impacts on behavior and

This month, as parents of college-age students sign promissory notes for student loans and watch tuition checks diminish their bank accounts, Congress is encouraging all parents to wake up and start planning. While National College Savings Month -- meant to spread awareness about the need to save for higher education -- has a laudable goal, promoting the importance of saving won't do much to help struggling families afford the cost of higher education.

Summer has arrived in Baltimore, and so has summer school -- bringing with it a chance for students who improve on their High School Assessment exams to pocket something more than academic success. A few months ago, Baltimore schools CEO Andres Alonso unveiled a controversial proposal to improve city schools: Pay students to perform. It's a simple idea that has generated quite a bit of controversy from purists who cringe at the thought of paying students to learn and from realists who believe there simply must be a more effective way to spend $1 million in a failing school system.

Today the LATimes published an article I wrote on the need to exclude cars from consideration when determining a family's eligibility for public assistance (for Ladder followers this should sound familiar).

sneak peak:

The Los Angeles Times published an editorial today in support of Assemblyman Kevin de Leon's plan to provide workers who are not eligibile to participate in an employer sponsored plan access to a safe retirement savings product.

A bill recently introduced in Sacramento, and supported by Governor Schwarzenegger, has the potential to cover almost every California worker. No longer will those unlucky enough to work for an employer who doesn't provide coverage be left vulnerable. No longer will those who seek to buy coverage on their own be priced out of the market. And best of all, it will cost virtually nothing. Interested? Good. But we aren't talking healthcare-we're talking retirement.

The purpose of this annual report is to summarize and take stock of the current state of federal policy through an asset-building lens, especially as it affects the asset base of families with lower incomes and fewer resources, which is the focus of our work. The report is divided into three sections.

In 1990, newspapers around the country profiled the story of Grace Capetillo, a welfare mom from Milwaukee who, after managing to save $3,000 in the bank, was hauled into court by the county Department of Social Services and charged with fraud. Having breached the limit on allowable assets, Ms. Capetillo was found guilty and ordered to pay a fine of $1,000, spend down another $1,000 of the money she had worked hard to save, and promise not to save again if she wanted to stay on assistance.