Pension Fund Shortages Create Hard Choices

Half of America's Large Numbr of Poor Don't get Food Stamps

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The study found that a significant number of counties, 13.2 percent, had below-average percentages of low-income people participating in the program, even though they had above-average poverty rates.

The authors cited many reasons for the disparities, including the stigma of government benefits, eligibility rules and lack of information about the benefits.

Under the food-stamp program, a family is eligible for aid if its income is 130 percent of the poverty level.

Nearly all of the states followed a national trend of increasing the number and percentage of low-income people participating in the food-stamp program in recent years. The study said that much of the increase was the result of changes in eligibility rules that took effect in 2002. And since 2004, all states are now using electronic benefits transfer systems, which allow food-stamp beneficiaries to appear to be using debit cards.

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Dumb America. No wonder Bush is president. A dunce is fitting for the job

So why did the federal government quietly decide last year to drop out of an international study that would compare U.S. high-school students who take advanced science and math courses with their international counterparts?


The study, called TIMSS (Trends in Mathematics and Science Study) Advanced 2008, measures how high-school seniors are doing in algebra, geometry, calculus and physics with students taking similar subjects around the globe. In the past, the American results have been shockingly poor. In the last survey, taken in 1995, students from only two countries—Cyprus and South Africa—scored lower than U.S. school kids.