Roadblock

My name is Jason Beets and I am a student in Computer Assisted Reporting. The class is taught by Kimetris Baltrip at Kansas State University. The class is dominated by one giant project that will determine your grade. That project is an extensive article on a single topic with quotes from experts and others. I have chosen to do my article on the causes and consequences of poverty.

So far I have analyzed data and publications on the topic. I have looked extensively at a Census report. 2011 is the most recent year for which the report has been published. I used the data in the report to compare the poverty rates of various racial groups in the US as well as to compare the racial makeup of those in poverty to the population as a whole. Some of those data points are calculated from the others provided in the report and elsewhere on the Census website. I also used the report to obtain data on the interaction between health insurance and poverty.

I have also looked at two studies from Pew’s Economic Mobility Project. The first studies economic mobility in the US. It found that all income groups saw growth in Absolute Mobility, the amount of inflation-adjusted income growth over time. However there is considerably less Relative Mobility, the ability of an individual to rise from the economic group they were born into (defined by income quintiles). 70 percent of individuals born into the lowest quintile (the lowest 20 percent of income earners) stayed in the lowest two quintiles. There is likely less relative economic mobility in the US than most Americans believe, but I actually expected that it would be lower.

The other study from Pew’s Economic Mobility Project compared relative economic mobility in the US to several western European countries and found that the US had the lowest relative economic mobility of all the countries studied.

I have the questions written that I want to ask experts on the topic. I will use their responses in my article. However, finding these experts has proven harder than I expected. I have found 1 Kansas State University researcher who focuses on poverty. I also plan to try to contact Pew’s Economic Mobility Project, but I’m not expecting a response.

I have not yet written the questions I want to ask the economically disadvantaged individuals who will make up the center of my article. And I have no idea what I am going to do my FOIA on.

That means that I will be setting up a meeting with Professor Baltrip for tomorrow. Hopefully that will get me past my roadblock.