DCentric

Good morning, DCentric readers! Why not start your Wednesday off with some links:

America’s Fertility Class Divide: What new numbers from the Center for Work-Life Policy and the Guttmacher Institute reveal. “There’s little question why poorer women are having more unintended pregnancies. Only about 40 percent of women who needed publicly funded family planning services between 2000 and 2008 got them…During that same period, as employment levels and the number of employers offering health insurance went down, the number of women who needed these services increased by more than 1 million.” (Slate)

Dismal DCPS Statistics Shared at Council Hearing “10 percent of DCPS eight graders have attempted suicide…Some pretty dismal stuff…considering the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the rate of suicides among children ages 10 to 14 (the age range of most D.C. eighth graders) is merely 0.9 per 100,000.” (DCist)

How does the UC Berkeley ‘diversity bake sale’ rub you? “A group of Republican students at UC Berkeley is moving ahead with plans to hold an ‘increase diversity’ bake sale this Thursday in mockery/protest of legislation awaiting the governor’s signature that would consider race and gender in college admissions. The method of protest? Charging higher prices for the baked goodies to white customers, especially white males, and lower ones to minorities and women.” (Multiamerican)

Poverty Rates Linked To Fractured Families Virginia Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling: “Children who are raised by single parents are at greater risk of dropping out of school. They’re at greater risk for teenage pregnancy, juvenile delinquency, living in poverty, and experiencing health, emotional, and behavioral problems.” (WAMU)

The Problem with Diversity Training “I understand the rationale behind diversity training, I really do. It’s important to understand how words and actions can be offensive or hurtful to someone of a different background. It’s important, especially in the work place, for everyone to feel a relative degree of comfort, and to be able to communicate effectively. But I have yet to experience or hear of a good training.” (Huffington Post)