Economic opportunity key to family success, Fenelon says
Liv Osby, writing for the Greenville News, investigates why South Carolina showed up in a report as the 7th or 8th worst states to raise a family. For the economic and social inequality side she contacted Faculty Associate Andrew Fenelon, who noticed that "a lot of the indicators are related to economic opportunity, job markets and income inequality. . . . The states that do really well — North Dakota, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Jersey — are states that have high incomes and low poverty, especially relative to cost of living," he said. "Either relatedly or as a result, these states also enjoy good health indicators, high quality schools, and more stable families."
Thus, “[P]rograms that reduce poverty would be particularly helpful, since they would raise the socioeconomic indicators, but then also likely have impacts on hospitals and schools in the state,” he said.