Merced’s Kids Are Not All Right
In California’s Capital of Youth Poverty, We’re Fighting For Everything From Summer Jobs to Swimming Pools
Have you heard of “disconnected youth?” It’s a term for young people age 16-19 who are neither employed nor in school. My county, Merced, has won the disconnected youth prize in California, with 13.7 percent of us bumming around aimlessly. That’s 50 percent higher than California as a whole and triple the rate in Bay Area counties like Santa Cruz.
The youth disconnection is part of a bigger issue: Merced has the highest rate of child poverty in the state—40 percent according to the U.S. census—and we also have more …