"These 182,000 children would form an unbroken line the entire length of the 138-mile Massachusetts Turnpike," said Jetta Bernier, executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Children.
"A legislator driving on the Mass. Pike from his or her district to the State House would pass by a child who is poor every four feet, or 1,300 children every mile."
Even worse, in a state with one of the nation's highest median family incomes (about $60,000 in 2006), about 87,000 children lived in extreme poverty, or families of four earning less than $10,600 a year.
Bernier said that Massachusetts has the third widest divide between the rich and poor in the nation and that the divide is growing at the fourth fastest rate.
"The chasm is threatening to undermine our state's bright future," she said.
The report suggested that the Census Bureau focus on the federal poverty line, in effect, conceals the true number of people living in poverty.
Let's remember that when we think of how "we had it tougher when we were kids". For a lot of cases it's worse now!
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