ERIC ED603927: Child Poverty in Wisconsin: A Challenge to Our Future. WisKids Count Policy Brief, Fall 2013

2013·4.2 MB·English

by  ERIC

WisKids Count Policy Brief
Fall 2013
Child Poverty in Wisconsin
A Challenge to Our Future
The United States is the richest nation in the history KIDS COUNT project. Wisconsin is a state that values
of the world and is currently the world’s only cooperation and historically has been willing to invest
superpower. Yet in some very important ways, such in providing opportunities for success. But there are
as the percentage of children who live in poverty, our troubling signs. Childhood poverty is increasing in
children’s educational success, or even how long we Wisconsin faster than the national rate. Milwaukee
live, we are not even in the top 25, ranking behind has the fourth-highest level of concentrated poverty
countries like Latvia, Bosnia, and Jordan. It is time for of any large city in America, and we have huge racial
the United States to take the lead again in supporting disparities in child poverty rates.
its children. Many pay lip service to the notion that
It’s no secret that children born into families living in
“our children are our future;” now we must act like we
poverty have to overcome a host of challenges in order
mean it.
to fulfill their potential. And, we know that children
Here in Wisconsin, we have historically made who live in poverty are at greater risk of school failure,
investments in children and families that have made serious health problems, shortened life expectancy,
this a great place to grow, learn, and raise a family. becoming a teen parent, frequent unemployment,
When it comes to child well-being, we have historically and lower earnings than their peers who do not
been a top tier state. Wisconsin was ranked the 12th grow up in poverty. Of course there are examples of
best state in 2013 by the Annie E Casey Foundation’s individuals who, through perseverance and dedication,
a publication of THE WISCONSIN COUNCIL ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Fall 2013
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those who are already on board and have the positive health outcomes. Therefore, we believe
opportunity and support they need to succeed. that we need to think about the social determinants
Both morally and economically, we cannot of health, such as childhood poverty, education,
afford to leave a growing number of children and neighborhoods, as much as we think about
behind in school, behind in earning capacity, and health care and health behaviors.
disconnected from our communities in ways that
• We believe that the growing disparity in wealth
hurt us all.
accumulation will result in a growing number
• We believe that most of the issues WCCF works of families and children living on the margins of
on (health care, child welfare, juvenile justice, economic security. More and more families are
economic stability, and others) have their roots a job loss or hours reduction away from falling
in the problem of poverty and lost opportunity. behind on meeting their basic needs, let alone
While we cannot guarantee success for all, we achieving their hopes for their children’s future.
believe we should at least work toward more
• We believe that it is absolutely clear that the
equal opportunity.
early years of a child’s life are the most critical
• We believe that multiple factors work together to for development. Whether we talk about zero-
determine health, economic, and safety outcomes to-three or birth-to-five or zero-to-eight, we
for children. For example, the County Health know both from the best research and our own
Rankings model suggests that both the quality experiences that supporting families, providing
and length of life are impacted by multiple factors opportunities for healthy growth, ensuring a
such as health behaviors (30%), clinical care child’s safety, and ensuring they are ready to
(20%), social and economic factors (40%), and learn creates a strong foundation for their future.
physical environment (10%).4 Focusing efforts
These values and beliefs steer the policies and fiscal
on the more traditional factors (health behaviors
investment we advocate for and what we do to engage
and clinical care) only accounts for one-half of all segments of the community in talking about poverty
and its solutions.
a publication of THE WISCONSIN COUNCIL ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Fall 2013 with generous support from the ANNIE E. CASEY FOUNDATION 3
A word about measuring poverty
Researchers and policymakers understand that the
most commonly used measure of poverty is often not
a very good indication of how families and children
are living. Variations across regions in housing and
food costs, the value of supporting benefits, and tax
policies can complicate comparisons. The original
measure of poverty, established at an estimated
three times the cost of food and adjusted for family
size, was set in the 1950s, and has been adjusted
only for inflation since then. For reference, the
2013 federal poverty threshold is $23,550 for a
family of four. Even using the current standard,
it is not uncommon to utilize various thresholds,
e.g. 133%, 150%, or 200% as checkpoints for access
to various family/child supports. More recently,
experts have developed a Supplemental Measure
of Poverty (SPM) that more completely evaluates
the availability of resources to families in relation Eliminating child poverty is a moral and
to what they require to meet basic needs. For economic imperative
example, the SPM poverty rate for Wisconsin is
slightly lower than the official poverty rate, and The implications for our communities of a growing
that is true of the Midwest in general.5 The UW- number of children living in poverty are significant.
Madison Institute for Research on Poverty, using We know that most of these children live in working
the federal formula, has developed a Wisconsin families. We also know that they will lag behind their
Poverty Measure (WPN) that takes into account peers in lifetime income, are less healthy, trail their
other sources of potential and actual supports that peers in emotional and intellectual development, and
help struggling families survive. are less likely to graduate from high school. Children
born into poor families are more likely to be low
Understanding how the SPM works to measure
birthweight, have neonatal complications, be exposed
poverty also provides some ideas about policy and
to unacceptable levels of lead, experience growth and
investment strategies that can make a difference in
nutritional deficits (particularly if living in long-term
the lives of children and families with low incomes.
poverty)6, and have higher reported rates of child abuse
A good example of how this works in practice for
and neglect.
Wisconsin is available through the Community
Advocates Public Policy Institute. There are also substantial gaps in school readiness,
so students from disadvantaged backgrounds start
behind, and too often stay behind, their peers. On
assessments at grades 8 and 12, about 50% of poor
4 a publication of THE WISCONSIN COUNCIL ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Fall 2013
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The picture of poverty and poor children have only a passing understanding of our poor children.
in Wisconsin They know they exist, but not in their neighborhood.
They drive to work, bypassing neighborhoods in
Many who read this policy report will have a better
which concentrated poverty further exacerbates the
understanding than most about our children living in
challenges these families face. They may have contact
poverty. These children attend our schools, and teacher
with the working poor, mothers and fathers working
after teacher can provide stories about the children in
two service-industry jobs to try to make ends meet, but
their classroom who struggle every day. Our clergy,
only in passing. They are surprised when they hear that
social service professionals, and community volunteers
nearly one in five Wisconsin kids is living in poverty,
have regular contact with poor children and understand
and even more surprised by information showing that
how amazing and resilient they really are – and how
for black youth that number is one in two. Figure 1
providing the right support at the right time can make
illustrates how Wisconsin fares in comparison to other
a big difference in their life trajectory.
states.
On the other hand, many who live in our communities
Figure 1
LEGEND
12% to 16%
17% to 20%
22% to 25%
26% to 32%
23%
Children in Poverty (Percent) -- 2011
National KIDS COUNT
Kids COUNT Data Center, datacenter.kidscount.org
A project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation
6 a publication of THE WISCONSIN COUNCIL ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Fall 2013
Children living in poverty9
In Wisconsin, over a quarter of a million children are growing up in poverty. About one in five children in our
state grows up poor, compared to nearly one in four nationally. But while our child poverty rate is better than that
of most other states, Wisconsin’s rate is increasing faster than the nation as a whole. This is a trend we need to
reverse lest we slide into mediocrity.
As shown in Figure 2, the percentage of
Figure 2
children in poverty varies considerably across
the state. Although Milwaukee County is often
thought of as the only county with a substantial
percentage of poor children, that is clearly not
the case. A number of more rural counties
also have high percentages of children living in
poverty, though often the wealth gap is not as
extreme as it is in Milwaukee County.
LEGEND
Figure 3 shows the percent of the total
5.1% to 10.4%
11.4% to 16.1%
population in poverty, and can be compared
16.3% to 21.4%
23.0% to 32.5%
with Figure 2. There are some differences
No Data
between the maps, but more often than not the
23%
pattern of child poverty is consistent with that
Children Living Poverty (Percent) -- 2009-11
of overall poverty. The important implication
Wisconsin Council on Children and Families
Kids COUNT Data Center, datacenter.kidscount.org of that similarity is that we really do need to
A project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation
look at whole-family solutions, or what the
Annie E. Casey Foundation characterizes as a
Figure 3
two-generation strategy. The economic future
of children is inextricably tied to the economic
success of their parent(s).
LEGEND
4.8% to 7.8%
8.4% to 7.8%
11.9% to 15.3%
16.3% to 21.4%
No Data
12.9%
Population in Poverty (Percent) -- 2009-11
Wisconsin Council on Children and Families
Kids COUNT Data Center, datacenter.kidscount.org
A project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation
a publication of THE WISCONSIN COUNCIL ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Fall 2013 7
Figure 4 Another measure of poverty is the need
and eligibility for food assistance. As is
true with other states, there has been a
substantial rise in the number of families
participating in the federal Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),
operating in Wisconsin as FoodShare.
Figure 4 reflects the number of FoodShare
participants per 1,000 residents. Again
we can see in Figure 5 that the need is
LEGEND spread across the state, and that, as shown
41.0 to 98.0 in Figure 6, the growth in the average
100.0 to 135.0
144.0 to 239.0 monthly FoodShare caseload has been
461.0 t0 461.0
steady and significant.
144.0
SNAP Participation (Rate per 1,000 Residents)-- 2011
Wisconsin Council on Children and Families
Kids COUNT Data Center, datacenter.kidscount.org
A project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation
Figure 5
Rate of FoodShares Participation (per 1,000) Residents
Rate of FoodShare Participation (per 1,000) Residents
Top 10 Counties in 2011
Top 10 Counties in 2011
461
500
400
239
300 200 192 184 178 175 163 161 156
200
100
0
8 a publication of THE WISCONSIN COUNCIL ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Fall 2013
Figure 6
Monthly Average FoodShare Caseload
450,000
400,000
350,000
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Living in concentrated poverty and the harmful effects on non-poor children.11
suburbanization of poverty
Since 2000, the number of Wisconsin poor children
It is one thing to grow up poor. It is another to grow growing up in areas of concentrated poverty has grown
up poor in a neighborhood of concentrated poverty. from about 70,000 to over 107,000, a 53% increase.
These neighborhoods are too often marked by That’s much higher than the nationwide increase of
transportation difficulties, substandard housing, lack 22%.12
of employment, higher levels of crime, food deserts in
Figure 7 illustrates that there are children living in
which access to healthy food is limited, higher levels of
lower-income neighborhoods all across Wisconsin.
lead exposure, more limited educational opportunities,
We also know that Wisconsin is not immune from
and lack of supportive services. Research suggests that
the dynamic of an increasing suburbanization of
the harmful effects of poverty are amplified when the
poverty.13 But nowhere is the issue of children growing
level of poverty in a neighborhood is as low as 20% and
up in challenged neighborhoods more of a concern
continues to grow as that rate increases.10
than in Milwaukee. Among the nation’s fifty largest
In 2012 the Annie E. Casey Foundation released a cities, Milwaukee has the fourth-highest percentage of
report on high-poverty communities, providing data children living in areas with poverty rates of 30% or
that indicates an increase in the number and percent of higher (Figure 8). Nearly half of Milwaukee’s children
children living in low-income neighborhoods. Nearly are growing up in such a neighborhood.
one in three children living in these neighborhoods
The issue of concentrated poverty is important because
lives in a family below the poverty line, but living
of its impact on all children in those neighborhoods.
in these high-poverty neighborhoods also has
a publication of THE WISCONSIN COUNCIL ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Fall 2013 with generous support from the ANNIE E. CASEY FOUNDATION 9
That’s why we need to think beyond individual
Figure 7 family-level solutions and address the health
of entire neighborhoods. The good news is that
there are some common-sense ideas capable
of changing the trajectory of children’s lives
that are sustainable over generations. The
Casey report14 highlights several examples of
promising practices and policies to address
concentrated poverty:
• Promoting community change efforts that
integrate physical revitalization along with
LEGEND
human capital development
0.0% to 2.0%
2.8% to 5.8%
• Increasing investments in quality early
10.0 to 13.7%
26.0% to 37.5%
learning, community supports for
families, and improved infrastructure (e.g.
8.0%
transportation, housing, and community
Children Living In Neighborhoods with Poverty Rates of
centers) can help families struggling to
30% or More (Percent)-- 2006-11
Wisconsin Council on Children and Families meet their basic needs and help break the
Kids COUNT Data Center, datacenter.kidscount.org
cycle of poverty for the next generation.
A project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Leveraging “anchor institutions” such
Figure 8 as hospitals, schools, and churches to
build and support stronger and healthier
communities for children.
Percent of Children Living in Concentrated
• Focusing efforts on increasing meaningful
Poverty (2006-2010)
and stable employment opportunities
for adults and supporting asset building
67%
70.0%
strategies for families.
57%
60.0%
49% 48%
50.0% 43% • Linking neighborhood efforts to larger
40.0% citywide and regional strategies related to
30.0% transportation, housing, employment, and
20.0% education.
10.0%
• Promoting increased access to affordable
0.0%
Detroit, MI Cleveland, Miami, FL Milwaukee, Fresno, CA housing in safe and economically stable
OH WI
neighborhoods.
10 a publication of THE WISCONSIN COUNCIL ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Fall 2013