By Rick GarciaRising child poverty pushed Michigan to last among the Great Lakes States in a new KIDS COUNT report on child well-being, released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Michigan ranks 31st in overall child well-being, up one slot from last year’s report, but still behind among our Great Lakes neighbors -Minnesota (4th), Wisconsin (12th), Illinois (23rd) and Indiana (30th). New Hampshire is in the No. 1, or best, slot while New Mexico is last.
The report uses a number of indicators to track child well-being. In economic well-being, Michigan ranked 36th. Michigan was 32nd for education, and 27th for family and community. Only in health did the state rank in the top half, but barely, at 23rd.
Because of the impact of the lingering effects of the recession, which exacerbate the increase level of poverty in the state, we still have the worst ranking (43rd) for children living in high-poverty areas. This equates to over 350,000 Michigan children or nearly 1 in 7, who live in a high-poverty neighborhood, with 30% or more residents in poverty. One in 4 children in Michigan lives in poverty (about $23,000 or less for a family of four) and this worsened by 32% between 2005 and 2011. Only nine states had bigger jumps in child poverty rates.
Another low ranking revealed in the report was in secure parental employment, where Michigan ranked 37th. More than 800,000 Michigan kids – 1 in 3 – live in a family where neither parent has full-time, year-round employment.
According to Robert Swanson, Board Chair for the Michigan League for Public Policy, Policymakers must take this to heart. “Tax policy can help increase employment and help families meet basic needs. The federal and state Earned Income Tax Credits are proven anti-poverty tools that encourage work and help keep workers on the job by supporting work-related costs, such as transportation, said Swanson.
Michigan cut the state EITC from 20% to 6% of the federal credit in 2011. Swanson shared that this credit needs to be restored, and attacks on the federal credit at the national level must be rebuffed. “We can literally lift children out of poverty with these credits,” he said.
Accepting federal dollars to expand eligibility for Medicaid, now stalled in the state Senate, could also be a win for kids by allowing access to care for more women before and between pregnancies, improving women’s health and birth outcomes.
One of the best rankings for the state is No. 15 for having only 10 percent of kids living in families where the head of household lacks a high school diploma, compared with the national average of 15 percent.
Economist Mitch Bean, the former House Fiscal Agency director, recently estimated that $1.6 billion in annual state spending has been cut over the last decade. Of that, half has been taken from education.
“If we want our kids to succeed, we must address the rising poverty that plagues our state and strips away hope that all children have an opportunity to grow and prosper in Michigan,” said Gilda Z. Jacobs, president & CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy. “Even after the Great Recession has receded, our families continue to struggle to find adequate work to support their children.”
Among good news in the report is that Michigan ranked No. 4 in providing health insurance for children through private insurance and the state Medicaid and MIChild programs. Only 4 percent of Michigan children are uninsured.
“This shows that where we have the political will, we can find a way to help our families stay healthy and productive. Michigan has done a great job of covering kids with health insurance as recognized by this report,” Jacobs said.
The release of the 2013 data book also coincides with a revamped KIDS COUNT Data Center http://datacenter.kidscount.org.
Rick Garcia, a nonprofit executive, a civil rights advocate, blogger and a contributing writer for The New Citizens Press can be reached at rrgarcianrg@gmail.com
This was printed in the June 30, 2013 – July 13, 2013 Edition
