A new Stanford report describes how poverty can be permanently reduced in the Golden State. Billed as the Equal Opportunity Plan, this approach focuses on creating equal opportunities for children at the most critical points in their lives.
By Clifton B. Parker
Stanford scholars and other experts on California's low-income population have unveiled a new initiative – the Equal Opportunity Plan – aimed at dramatically reducing poverty in the state.
David Grusky, the director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, said that California needs an aggressive anti-poverty plan to ensure that California has enough high-skill labor for its emerging 21st-century economy.
According to the Census Bureau, Grusky noted, the poverty rate for Californians, 23.4 percent, is the highest in the country under a measure that takes into account noncash transfers (food stamps and tax credits, for example) and the cost of living.
The Equal Opportunity Plan addresses this poverty by identifying the critical periods when low-income children do not have the same opportunities as other children. These periods, Grusky said, are then targeted with home-visiting programs, early childhood and early adult programs that have been shown to be highly effective. The full plan is described in a new report and in the latest issue of Pathways Magazine, a publication of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality.
