[FLdyingfast]

Looks like FL will be front and center on tonight's 60 minutes. They are going to show how homeless families in central Florida are an epidemic. Anyone living in FL has already known this and anyone that searches data correctly also knows. Check out the FL dept of education's websites and you will find that most school districts in FL have way over the national average of kids on free and reduced lunch programs. Schooldigger.com also has this data easily available. What these media people should also focus on is the story of how the state government has spent years focusing only on their largest constituent category: Seniors....and have left all others to rot. As a wise old ex-Floridian once stated: Florida is a beautiful resort area nestled in the palm trees of a Third World Country!

60 Minutes spotlights homeless Central Florida kids - OrlandoSentinel.com

[StreetSmarts]

Oh wow, I'll watch that... it's on at 7pm (I just looked).

[chopchop0]

From the article:

I asked some people at '60 Minutes' to explore where the child poverty rate was approaching that [25 percent]. It is particularly acute in Seminole and Osceola and some of the other counties around Orlando. It is one of the most challenged places in the country. So many thousands of people come there from all over the world, and it should be said Disney World provides an enormous number of jobs. But you have this utopian Disney World, and on the outskirts you have about a 21 percent poverty rate for children.

[Spring Hillian]

Why do people who are already in poverty continue to add more kids to their families, a cycle which has gone unbroken for decades? The acceptance of the term "single mom" is the main reason for the problem of children in poverty.

Stop popping out the kids and arrange your own life before bringing more into the cycle.

[yamahastar]

Why do people who don't have jobs want to move to Florida where they can't find jobs? Some people seem to believe it will be cheaper for them to live in Florida - what they believe will be paradise" - even if they don't have an income. When they arrive, they discover fewer social services and benefits here than the state they just left.

[Mike1306]

Aren't there about 21 states with higher poverty rates for those aged 18 and under?
I am wondering why they are focusing on a state that is middle of the pack rather than one that is towards the highest rate.

[Spring Hillian]

I would say if you're in a place where the job market sucks and there are other reasons for not wanting to be there any where would be better than where you are. In a lot of ways FL is cheaper than a lot of places.
No state income tax is a major draw for a lot of people. Long cold winters may be another issue with some people. However, FL is, and since the late 18th century, has been a draw to people for various reasons including weather, natural resources, open spaces. It certainly didn't get to the population it has based on its employment offerings.

Some people seem to think that the streets are paved with gold and jobs are available to anyone who walks in the door and other people realize that its not much different than moving from Hartford CT to Denver CO.
Other posters say that there aren't any jobs to be had and the ones that are available pay $8-9 an hour.

People get hired into jobs everyday. Depends on the individual and the work they do. Coming in cold to any where these days would be
a imprudent decision to say the least, unless of course they have a large cash reserve to live on for a while. Maybe a long while.

Dependency on social services and benefits that may be available is really a problem. People who transfer from one teat to another and become the burden of the tax payer of someone other state drain the resources. However, I would say that those people are not the majority of the people who relocate to FL.

I really don't see why the residents who post here, the few it seems are residents, continue to slobber over the negatives of life in FL when these negatives exist to a greater number in other places.

Yamahastar feels that everyone who comes to FL can't find a job. That is a very unreal perception. There are jobs. What profession are you or someone you know having a problem finding work in?

Originally Posted by yamahastar

Why do people who don't have jobs want to move to Florida where they can't find jobs? Some people seem to believe it will be cheaper for them to live in Florida - what they believe will be paradise" - even if they don't have an income. When they arrive, they discover fewer social services and benefits here than the state they just left.

[StreetSmarts]

Why arent they in Flint MI or New Orleans, or Miami? Why are they gonna focus on Central FL?

[Retiredcoach]

The foundation from which Florida was built has been on unstable ground for many years. It is a state of extreme dependency, and primarily relies upon the economic stability of those living outside of its boundaries, as well as, on a federal government long willing to allot disproportionate amounts of tax dollars to sustain it. Now that the effects of the national recession are devastating most regions of our country and our national debt is at a record level, Florida is/will be asked to take care of its own residents. The biggest issue is how. Should the overtaxed and rapidly disappearing Florida middle class continue to shoulder the largest percentage of the state's liabilities, or will the fairest of all taxes (a state income tax) finally be enacted?

Is it a surprise to anyone that the need for Florida social services is not going to cease, or diminish, without the funding to sustain it? If the funding is not there, and meaningful employment becomes a distant dream for most of its residents, few options exist for its families. Desperation is shining an ugly light upon too many Florida families, and this desperation may force once unfathomable choices.... homelessness or crime or a combination thereof??

[coastal chic]

Florida is not even in the top 10 on every site I visited. Here is a good visual:

Child poverty rises dramatically in most states