St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 12, 2008: Child poverty rate spikes in Missouri
By Nancy Cambria
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Jun. 12 2008
Missouri children are descending into poverty at three times the rate of kids
nationwide, says the Kids Count annual report on the well-being of U.S.
children.
The report, released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a child advocacy
group, is designed to give a general picture of the well-being of the nation’s
children and ranks all 50 states on factors such as health care, safety,
finances and education.
Overall, Missouri slipped in the ranking from 31 to 32, in part, due to rising
child poverty. Illinois remained at 24. New Hampshire ranked best and
Mississippi worst.
In Missouri, the number of children living in poverty rose by 19 percent from
2000 through 2006, drastically outpacing the 6 percent increase nationwide.
Nearly a fifth of Missouri’s 1.4 million children in 2006 lived in households
with income levels below the 2006 poverty level, or an annual income of $20,444
for a household of four. The increase put the state slightly above the national
average for 2006, whereas in years past Missouri had been below the national
average.
Illinois also outpaced the national rate of children entering poverty. Its rate
rose 13 percent from 2000 through 2006. Seventeen percent of the state’s 3.2
million children lived below the poverty level in 2006. All of the poverty
figures are pulled directly from federal census surveys.
Child advocates say they have no solid explanation for why child poverty spiked
at higher rates in Missouri and Illinois.
“My inclination would be to say is that in Missouri, the economy made that
downward turn more quickly than nationally. The drop was bigger, and the same
factors were likely working in Illinois,” said Laura Beavers of Kids Count, who
helped write the report.
But while child advocates can’t fully explain the trend, they say they know
it’s real, based on the rising need among poor families for services.
Those working in St. Louis-area children’s services agencies said the demand
for food, clothing, counseling and emergency shelter for families began rising
drastically about two years ago.
“We’re constantly getting more and more calls from families in crisis
situations,” said Johanna Wharton of Provident counseling, based in St. Louis.
“Now it’s a daily thing.”
Jim Braun, president and CEO of Youth in Need, said the regional services
agency is seeing longer waiting lists for Head Start programs because more
lower-income children qualify. Many families and foster parents have lost
homes. And many parents cannot afford gas to drive their children to Youth In
Need programs, he said.
“There is definitely a spike in the number of young people saying they are
hungry and they do not have enough food,” he said.
Scott Gee, executive director of Citizens For Missouri’s Children, said he
hopes Missouri’s increase in minimum wage, passed last year, will stem the
further slide of children into poverty.
But Beavers is less optimistic because 2007 and preliminary 2008 data indicate
a continued economic decline for children.
Although kids in poor families are “the most likely to get a positive jolt from
the increase in minimum wage,” she said the wage hike alone is unlikely to
fully reverse the harsh economic trend.
The Kids Count report also warned that the national spike in poverty erodes
landmark gains in the financial health of children between 1994 and 2000 when
the poverty rate fell by 30 percent.
There also was some good news in the report particularly for teens.
Following a national trend, both Missouri and Illinois saw significant
decreases in the number of teens dropping out of high school. Missouri was one
of 12 states where the dropout rate declined by 45 percent or more. In
Illinois, it dropped by 33 percent.
Missouri and Illinois also got high marks for significantly reducing the death
rate among children ages 1-14.
Overall, the study found five areas of improvement for children nationwide: The
child death rate, teen birth rate, high school dropout rate and the number of
teens not in school or working all decreased.
Braun stressed that as the economic health of more and more families weakens,
the demand for family services to prevent other childhood maladies, such as
teen pregnancy, increases.
“We’re all pretty much going to be stretched to the limit to serve all of these
kids,” he said.