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Fighting Palin Smears: Cut Funding For Teen Mothers

Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 10:13 am Posted by Steven in Presidential Election 2 Comments

The Washington Post pushed a story that, as Alaska’s Governor, Sarah Palin “slashed” funding for a program aimed at Alaska’s teen-aged mothers.  We’re supposed to look at this, think about Palin’s daughter who is about to become a teen mother and is mentioned prominently in the article despite media chants that they recognize it’s a “private matter,” and see Palin as a hateful hypocrite.

One small problem with the thesis, as pointed out by blogger LoneWacko (via Michelle Malkin): The 2008 state funding Palin approved for the program alone was more than three times the amount the program received from all government sources in 2006.

Palin approved $3,900,000 in Alaska spending for the Covenant House program in 2008.  In 2006, the program got $1,194,788 from all government sources.

Palin limited the growth in spending for the program, just as she limited the growth in spending for most state programs.  To libs, when you limit growth in spending, it’s a slash.  However, when you take away tax cuts that are already in place, it is of course not a tax increase.

Let’s play a little game I like to call “Fun With Public Statistics.”

  • According to the most recent information available from the US Census Bureau, there are 181,584 people under 18 in Alaska.
  • 49,584 Alaskans are under 5 years old (7.4% of the population), leaving 132,000 5 years old to 18 years old.
  • About half of Alaska’s population is female (48.3%), so assume that the female population 5-18 years old is 63,756.
  • The national teen (15-18 years old) pregnancy rate is 41.3 per 1,000 or 4.13%.  We have no way to remove 5-14 year olds from the female population aged 5-18, so we’ll be generous and apply that rate to the full number of 5-18 year old female Alaskans.  The statistical number of Alaskan moms, inflated because the statisics includes 5-14 year olds, would be 2,633.
  • $3,900,000 distributed to 2,633 people is $1,481.  That’s $1,481 devoted to each “teen” mom aged 5 to 18 years old.  In other words, if each and every 5 to 18 year old female in Alaska was a mom, she’d have gotten a $1,481 share of the state’s Covenant House spending this year.



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2 Responses to “Fighting Palin Smears: Cut Funding For Teen Mothers”

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  1. BN says:
    September 15, 2008 at 3:12 pm

    The CNN programme the other night which discussed both Biden and Palin made a statement which might help explain the so called funding cut that never was. They mentioned that Palin got married in a court house and her first baby was born slightly less then 8 months after the marriage. Is this a case of like mother like daughter?

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