City Limits:

“Remember Poverty? Anyone? Anyone?” Reporter Neil DeMause addresses the reasons why meaningful discussions about poverty are left out of political debates. His contribution to the July issue of City Limits includes profiles of real New Yorkers living in poverty and the daily struggles that they face.

New York Times:

“Children’s Services Leader Leaving After Seven Years.” John B. Mattingly, the commissioner of the Administration for Children’s Services, announced on Tuesday that he is stepping down. During his tenure, Mattingly hired hundreds of caseworkers to ease the burden of individual workers’ caseloads.  He also implemented the accountability program ChildStat which regularly reviews statistics and cases. Mattingly’s time at ACS also saw a few high-profile cases involving child deaths due to apparent failings on the part of the agency.

“As Best Schools Compete for Best Performers, Students May Be Left Behind.” Due to the competitive nature of public school admissions, many students who are not among the top performing are denied access to better schools and set on a path for failure. This article profiles one mother’s struggle to get her daughter into a more competitive middle school after her two older children were funneled through a low-performing middle and high school, consequently dropping out.  The application process is both competitive and confusing for parents, relying on students’ fourth grade test scores  to ultimately determine the quality of education that they will receive through the twelfth grade.

“The Help Wanted Sign Comes with a Frustrating Asterisk.” The Times discusses how many job postings call for applicants who are currently employed or recently laid off. This poses a major barrier to employment for the millions of Americans who have been unemployed for months. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently held a hearing assessing whether these ads count as employment discrimination because they disproportionately target older people and minorities.