Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center

Emerging Issues for Kentucky The Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center identifies emerging issues for Kentucky through its statewide scanning program. Concerned citizens across the Commonwealth submit articles and information—scans—from newspapers, magazines, trade and academic journals, government publications, newsletters and other sources. These scans offer a glimpse of what the future may hold for the citizens, communities, and enterprises of Kentucky. Every quarter, the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center Board of Directors identifies the scans from the previous three months which they feel are the most significant for Kentucky. Beginning in the Spring of 2005, the top two or three have been reported through our newest publication offering, Horizon.

Summer, 2004	Finding Ways to Cut Health Care Costs Financial Security of Older Citizens At Risk Power Plant Pollution Compensation Sought Fiscal Picture Brightening But Dark Clouds Remain

Spring, 2004	Secondhand Smoke Is Our Commitment to Poor Elders Waning? Retirement in the Red? Cash-Strapped Schools Adopt New Strategy Prison Overcrowding, Long Sentences Costing Cash-Short States

Winter, 2004	Higher Education Costs, Scrutiny Rise Health Care Conundrum Deepens Federal and State Budgets Still Reeling

Fall, 2003	State Budget Gaps Grow at Alarming Rate Cuts Imperil Health Coverage for States' Poor Health Care Costs High on Public's List of Worries More Mothers of Infants Forego Employment Justices Allow Drug-Cost Plan to Go Forward Northeast Taxes Driving Elders from Their Homes Black Children in Deep Poverty Rising More States Cut Aid for Child Care

Summer, 2003	States Pass the Buck on College Costs Uninsured Costs Get Business' Attention Study Tallies Toll of Health Care Gap More Are Old, Ill, and Uninsured Small Firms Short on Health Care Smaller May Be Better After All

Spring, 2003	State Leaders Face Fiscal Crisis States Move to Contain Medicaid Costs Tax Cut May Affect State Revenues Health Care Spending Soars Many Women Smoke to Control Weight

Winter, 2003	States Hit with Record Deficits Cigarette Tax Improves Smokers’ Well-Being Health Care Costs Again Soar Water Infrastructure May Require $1 Trillion New Drugs Save Dollars Overall

Fall, 2002	Cigarette Taxes Rx for Budget and Health Woes States Scramble to Plug Budget Holes Study Shows the Uninsured at Increased Risk Education Gains with a Caveat States Spend Big on Elusive Biotech Corridors

Summer, 2002	Medical Spending on Upward Trajectory Cost of College Daunting Debt for Many Obesity, Smoking Exact High Costs

Spring, 2002	Effects of Recession on State Finances Staggering Affordable Housing Linked to Jobs and Education One in Ten U.S. Residents Foreign-Born U.S. Physician Shortage Predicted Maternity Leave Time Shorter Prison Closures Up Due to Budget Deficits

Winter, 2002	Elderly Use More, Pay More for Prescription Drugs Health Care Gaps May Widen for Boomers Anticipating the Unthinkable Putting Tobacco to Healthy Use Rural Residencies Restoring WV Health Care Status of Hispanic Kentuckians Key to Future

Fall, 2001	States Find Remedies for Prescription Drug Costs Coal Markets Heat Up Kindergarten Gives Kids Learning Edge Evolution of Family Structures Still Underway

Summer, 2001	Chronic Disease Costly and Often Preventable States Tighten Fiscal Belts Farm Numbers Down Clean Fuel Technology Advances Philly Leaders Push Pounds Off

Spring, 2001	Manufacturing Losses Buffet North Carolina Parents of Most Uninsured Kids Uninformed About Options Natural Gas Costs Take Unexpected Budget Bite Governors Advocate Medicaid Changes High School Courses Linked to Graduation Child Poverty Falls But Still Short of Historic Lows

Winter, 2001	Literacy Efforts Getting Big Boost Coal Could Be on the Comeback Trail Value of Technology in Classrooms Questioned Development Trending to Regional, Collaborative Focus Kentucky Higher Education in Middle of the Pack More Americans Insured in 2000

Fall, 2000	High Drug Costs Trouble Patients and Providers Literacy Gaps Hinder Industry Growth Welfare Reforms Pay Unexpected Dividends Jobs of the Future Demand Postsecondary Education Is Growing Isolation at Root of Social Ills? Female Boomers Shoulder More, Receive Less Tobacco Buyout is Sign of the Times

Summer, 2000	Farmers' Worst Fears Realized State Growing Older Wealthy Kentuckians Make Gains, Poor Lose Ground Electronic Shoppers Double Digital Divide Still Wide Eastern Coal Reserves Dwindling

Spring, 2000	Today's Children, Tomorrow's Workforce The Looming Cost of Retiring Boomers Ambitious Postsecondary Goals Set Remedies for Kentucky's Income Gulf Welfare Reform Creating Losers and Winners Cost Cutting Blamed for Health Industry Losses

Winter, 2000	Virtual Classes Now Online Litter Bugs Policymakers Quality Early Education Yields Lifelong Benefits Uninsured Population Keeps Rising Casinos and Crime Rates

Fall, 1999	Kentucky's "Digital Divide" Among Widest in Nation Kentucky Smoking Rates Lead the Nation All-Day Kindergarten Offers Learning Edge Downtown Areas Blossoming Gap Between Rich and Poor May Affect Health Young Mothers Staying in School

Summer, 1999 Confronting the Limits of Public Resources	Faltering Medicare Funding The Burden of Big Prison Populations Paying for a Higher Educational Status The Persistently "Gray" Federal Budget Public Health at Risk

Spring, 1999	Rural Communities Help Themselves Health Departments Face Financial Crisis Finding Productive Uses of Landfill Alternative E-Commerce Eases, Complicates Business Quality Child Care Offers Huge Societal Rewards

Winter, 1999	Kentucky's Wage Gap Now Fifth Largest in Nation State Level of Spending on Day Care Questioned Internet Traffic Exploding U.S. Health Care Costs Expected to Double by 2007 Making the Grade Earns Money for College

Fall, 1998	Many Teachers Untrained in Subjects They Teach The New Demographics of Education Longer Lives Compel New Order Uncle Sam Vital to Kentucky's Economy

Summer, 1998	U.S. High School Seniors Don't Make Math & Science Grade School's Open-Door Policy Sparks Community Involvement New Needs for an Old Alternative Too Many Math Graduates Missing Teaching Mark

Spring, 1998	Closing the Income Gap A Strong Education-Earnings Link Welfare to Work an Unfamiliar Path for Some Inclusion a Key Education Goal Hemp May Hold Unexpected Promise

Winter, 1998	Too Few Jobs for Welfare Recipients Venture Grants in Louisville Early Outcomes of a Pilot Welfare Program Apparel Layoffs Could Devastate Local Economies Bad Sewers Hamper Recruitment

Fall, 1997	Preretirement Uninsured Population on Rise The Demands of Devolution Small Farms, Big Possibilities Health Care Costs May Leap A New Twist on "Back to School"

Summer, 1997	Help When Would-Be Dropouts Need It Numbers and Need of Poor Children Grew Children Being Left Behind in the South County-Level Wealth Shows Rewards of Learning Nurturing Healthy Brains Early Returns on School-to-Work

Spring, 1997	Incomes, Inequality on Rise in South The High Cost of Highways Jobs, Higher Earnings Await Educated Kentuckians Soaring Tuition Rates Limiting Access to Opportunity Good and Bad Literacy News

Winter, 1997	Reversing the Legacy of Undereducation New Perspectives on the Age of Age In the Library of the World The Status of Women in Kentucky A Safety Net for Capitalism

Fall, 1996	Inequalities Persist and Deepen Our Ailing Health Care System Improving Children's Lives Holding on to Our Own Rising Tuition Limiting Access Higher Education=Higher Earnings

Our newsletter presents a summary and a discussion of the implications of the leading scans from the previous quarter. If you would like to become one of our volunteer scanners, please contact us.

Emerging Issues for Kentucky