By marshaling the support of the entire State Legislature and a large coalition of progressive advocacy groups, a conservative State Senator in Utah shepherded a bill requiring the State of Utah to track and analyze data on intergenerational poverty. Senate Bill 37, the Intergenerational Poverty Mitigation Act, would require Utah’s Department of Workforce to:
“establish and maintain a system to track intergenerational poverty related data to identify at-risk children and other groups, identify trends, and to assist case workers, social scientists, and government officials in the study and development of plans and programs to help individuals and families break the cycle of poverty.”
Even though the next issue, deciding what to do with the information, is harder, having the information is a good first step towards solving the problem.
From Jodie Levin-Epstein of CLASP, via the Huffington Post.
