poverty

Under the current system of justice in the United States, people charged with crimes who cannot afford to hire an attorney are provided one by the government. While this has long been true at the federal level, this has not always been the case at the state and local level.

Which measures will help close the academic achievement gap between low- and high-income students remains a matter of intense policy debate. One idea has been to extend the school year in order to give students more learning days, while another strategy has involved school districts offering summer programs targeting under-performing students.

From the Scholars Strategy Network, written by Cristobal Young, Stanford University

To what extent can governmental policies help cultivate a relatively prosperous, secure and free citizenry? A 2011 study published in Psychological Science, “Progressive Taxation and the Subjective Well-Being of Nations,” evaluates the impact of progressive taxation — a higher tax rate for the rich and a lower one for the poor — on levels of satisfaction and well-being.

Research has found a strong relationship between poverty and health, and lower levels of income are associated with higher levels of sickness and premature death. In seeking to understand this relationship, researchers often focus on what is called “allostatic load” — the wear and tear on the body as it manages physical and social stresses.