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Poverty In North Carolina

North Carolina’s General Assembly has addressed a number of hot-button issues this session – voter fraud, education reform, and overhauling the tax system. But there’s one big issue not getting much attention, even though it affects more than 1.7 million people in our state. North Carolina’s poverty rate has risen this decade from 26th to 12th in the nation. More than 1.7 million North Carolinians are living in poverty. And more than half a million are children. You may have read the recent Charlotte Observer opinion series titled “North Carolina Shame: Ignoring Poverty.” Well, Fannie Flono is the Charlotte Observer editor who worked on that piece. She says it’s time to forge a comprehensive poverty plan in North Carolina. We’ll talk with her, as well as the Reverend Mac Legerton, Executive Director for the Center for Community Action, and Gene Nichol, Director of the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, to try to figure out a way to combat this growing problem, when Charlotte Talks.

Guests
Gene Nichol
- Director of the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity
Mac Legerton - Executive Director of the Center for Community Action
Fannie Flono - Associate Editor for the Charlotte Observer. Fannie wrote and edited the recent opinion series NC Shame: Ignoring Poverty for the Observer.

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