A statewide report released today revealed how geography, poverty and race affect opportunities for Nebraska children.
“Geography, poverty and race are particularly important,” said Tiffany Seibert, policy coordinator for Voices for Children, the group that released the report. “These factors determine an opportunity structure. Geography is determined by family income — these things are highly interconnected. In a lot of cases, populations are segregated by race and ethnicity. When the three factors are combined, there are significant disadvantages.”
The report provides information on how Nebraska children fared in 2007 in areas such as child abuse and neglect, early childhood care and education, economic well-being, education, health, juvenile justice, nutrition and out-of-home care, with more than 200 indicators evaluated.
“Geography creates an opportunity grid,” Seibert said. “Opportunities tend to be clustered in certain areas.”
She said where people live often determines the availability of resources and opportunities. High opportunity areas have affordable housing, accessible public transportation, health care, affordable food, quality public schools, early childhood education programs and child care options, after school programs, safety from violence, access to parks and quality jobs available.
Grand Island is at a geographical advantage because of its population base and strong economic development, said a spokesman from the Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons.
“Grand Island has tremendous opportunity because of all the economic development it’s been experiencing recently,” said Jon Bailey, director of rural research and analysis program for the center. “Any time you have a city of some size with those opportunities, it spreads out to outlying areas.”
Bailey said trade center cities like Grand Island, Kearney and Hastings create opportunities for adjacent rural areas extending out from these hubs.
“Geographically, because of their distance away from Lincoln and Omaha, the Tri-Cities have had to become their own economic centers,” Bailey said. “There is some point where those benefits stop, where you don’t have as many benefits from the hub city. You are left to your own devices in remote rural areas. It becomes harder to create benefits, you don’t have the resources, people or the businesses.”
Even if you live in an area where opportunities are available, a family’s socio-economic status can affect how readily they can be accessed.
“Poverty influences the opportunity structure,” Seibert said. “The amount of resources and family income affects the type and number of jobs parents work. This then affects schools, diet and the consistency and quality of childcare.”
She said the report showed financial stability declined in Nebraska in 2007.
“We expect the stability to continue to decline, as the economy has worsened since the time of the report,” she said.
The percentage of children eligible to receive free and reduced school lunches is often used as a proxy to assess poverty in an area. Thirty-six percent of school-age children in Nebraska were eligible for this benefit; the rate for Hall County was the same.
Cody Van Winkle, executive director of Heartland Visitation Center in Grand Island, said he sees poverty affect how his clients use the supervision his center provides for visits with children or in passing children between estranged parents.
“The higher the income, the more access they have to us,” he said. “If they’re in poverty, they might be forced into it.”
Issues of poverty and race are often intertwined, Seibert said.
Race matters to child well-being across laws, systems and institutions,” she said. “There are historically embedded inequities in systems. As we’ve moved on in history, those inequities may still remain. We see that across the issue areas, there are significant barriers for children of a minority race or ethnicity.”
Keeping race a part of the discussion is critical in finding solutions, said an expert on racial and ethnic equity.
“When people are intentional about keeping race on the table, change occurs. There is better chance of designing interventions that will close the gap,” said Paula Dressel, vice president of Just Partners Inc., a Baltimore-based consulting firm brought in by Voices to explain the report. “What gets measured is what gets changed.”
KIDS COUNT FACTS
- 1 out of 7 Nebraska children were living in poverty in 2007.
- Nebraska had the highest rate of African-American children living in poverty in the nation, and the second highest rate of Native American children.
- 80 percent of rural areas lack public transportation, making car ownership critical to keeping a job.
- There were 4,440 children identified as a victim in one or more substantiated reports of child abuse and neglect in 2007. Officials received the highest number of calls alleging child abuse on record.
- The number of families receiving child care subsidies increased by 4 percent in each of the last two years.
- 95 percent of children under 6 in Nebraska have either one or two working parents.