Culture
Percent of the Day: 51
Half of Detroit's children live in poverty, more than double the state average
Fifty-one percent of Detroit's children live in poverty, according to a new report from Kids Count, a Michigan based organization. That's more than double the state average of 22 percent and a 13 percent jump between 2005 and 2009. Another startling statistic - more than 80 percent of children in Detroit Public Schools now qualify for free student lunches.
"The general situation [in Detroit] pretty much mirrors what's happening in Michigan in terms of trends, [but] the level of economic distress in the city is much more acute than the state as a whole," study director Jane Zehnder-Merrell told The Huffington Post.