Report: Poverty is top concern for state's children

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BY ERIN ANDERSEN / Lincoln Journal Star

To do right by its children and future generations, Nebraska needs to end the cycle of poverty affecting 178,000 of the state’s children, says Voices for Children in Nebraska.

Wednesday, the statewide child advocacy organization issued its 14th annual Kids Count report,  which looks at the well-being of Nebraska’s children in terms of family income, health insurance, graduation rates, dropout rates, juvenile crime, foster care, teen pregnancy and other statistical data.

“We firmly believe poverty is the underpinning of so many other problem areas,” Moore said.

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Students pick up backpacks filled with food a spart of the Backpack Program at Everett Elementary in this September 2006 file photo. Fifty children from Everett participate in the program, which gives students food to take home for the weekend. (LJS File / Jill Peitzmeier)

Students pick up backpacks filled with food a spart of the Backpack Program at Everett Elementary in this September 2006 file photo. Fifty children from Everett participate in the program, which gives students food to take home for the weekend. (LJS File / Jill Peitzmeier)

Twelve percent of Nebraska children live in poverty, as poverty is defined by federal guidelines.

Another 22 percent of Nebraska children live on the brink of poverty, according to Kids Count.

Children whose families live at or near poverty more often are born to mothers who lacked prenatal care. These children often are born with low birthweights, receive poor quality child care, lack adequate nutrition, live in unsafe neighborhoods, have parents who abuse alcohol or other drugs, are more prone to abuse and are more likely to drop out of school, get in trouble with the law and end up in foster care, according to Kids Count.

“Child poverty rates have been creeping up over the past five years,” said Becky Gould, director of low-income self-sufficiency programs for the Nebraska Appleseed Center.

“Although we have programs in place to help families, we are still not doing enough to really address the problem,” she said. “To move children out of poverty we have to move the whole family out of poverty."

What the state legislature and its citizens need to do is invest money up front to help families out of poverty, rather than take a reactive approach putting money into fixing the problems often exacerbated by poverty including incarceration, untreated mental illness, dropouts, teen pregnancy and unhealthy babies.

Among the steps being proposed by both Voices for Children and Nebraska Appleseed are:

* Increasing minimum wage from $5.15 an hour.

“That would have a very direct effect particularly in Nebraska where so many of our jobs are retail, fast food and seasonal part-time jobs with hourly rates,” Moore said. “When you raise minimum wage you are raising the earning power of those people in particular.”

* Strengthening work support programs that allow families to continue receiving government assistance benefits as they work toward self-sufficiency.

* Expanding eligibility for the child care subsidy program. Right now the state provides the subsidy for families at 120 percent or below the federal poverty guideline (or $24,000 for a family of four).

Prior to budget cuts in 2002, the subsidy was offered to families earning 185 percent of the poverty rate or lower ($37,000). Using child care rates at Lincoln’s YWCA a family spend $6,500 a year on child care for a toddler, and $5,720 a year for a pre-schooler — or one-quarter to one-third of their annual income just for child care.

Senator Amanda McGill has introduced a bill to expand bring the subsidy up to 185 percent.

* Expand the Nebraska earned income tax credit from it current rate of 8 percent. Some states offer has high as 20 percent of the federal earned income tax credit which is designed to help low and moderate-income families retain more of their incomes.

“It (earned income tax credit) has been found to be one of the most effective anti-poverty strategies. It puts money in families’ pockets in March and April when they have high utility bills and need that money,” Moore said. “It has been found to be the source that puts the money most quickly and directly back into the economy, as they pay bills and buy clothes for their kids.”

Simply put if a family gets $100 back in federal earned income tax credits, they now receive $8 back from the state in earned income tax credits.

Moore contends that Nebraska would be better off using this year’s budget surplus to expand public assistance programs.

“Instead of taking tax cuts in amounts that will not change the day-to-day living of people in Nebraska,” she said.

Reach Erin Andersen at 473-7217 or eandersen@journalstar.com.