Pulling the curtain back on Michigan poverty rate, related social ills

Mich.'s teen birth rate

The annual Kids Count report was officially released today and with it a bleak paper trail charting higher poverty rates across Michigan, as well as related social ills like rising rates of child abuse and neglect.

It’s not a pretty picture. But none of it should be too surprising given the state of the local economy. Even so some of the particulars are worth examining — something several news outlets have already done.

Overall, the new report — a county-by-county comparison of 15 bench marks of child well-being — indicates that nearly 20 percent of Michigan’s children lived below the federal poverty line in 2007, defined as roughly $17,000 per year for a family with two kids and one parent, or $21,000 per year for a family with two kids and two parents. That marked a one percent increase over 2005.

In parsing the report, the Associated Press noticed that rural poverty outpaces urban poverty by at least one measure:

Three counties in the northern half of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula — Clare, Lake and Roscommon — had child poverty rates above 32 percent, the highest rates in the state. Children in rural counties also were more likely to be covered by Medicaid and be eligible for free or reduced price school lunch programs.

“It’s pretty stark, when you look at it, to see what’s happening in these rural areas,” said Jane Zehnder-Merrell of the Michigan League for Human Services, a partner in the report. “And there’s not a lot of attention paid to it.”

Meanwhile, the state’s most urban county — Wayne — notched a 31 percent poverty rate, fourth-highest among Michigan’s 83 counties.

Since the data used for the Kids Count report is two years old, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that poverty rates have deteriorated since then. Over the same time period, Michigan’s unemployment rate has more than doubled — from about 7 percent in 2007 to 15 percent in 2009.

The Detroit Free Press story on the same report today notes how even a silver lining in the data — namely, a decreasing teen birth rate — could soon get swamped (and then reversed) by budget cuts:

Consider the drop in teen birth rates, which [Jane Zehnder-Merrell, study director and researcher at the Michigan League for Human Services] credited to public awareness programs, better health care and even students staying in a classroom or finding jobs and other after-school activities rather than hitting the streets.

“Going forward, this is not going to be good news when … you’re slashing all of those programs that give these kids a fighting chance.”

Meanwhile, the Detroit News’ story on the report highlighted the connection between rising poverty rates and rising rates of child abuse and neglect.

Poverty is tied to a 16 percent increase in confirmed cases of abuse and neglect since 2000, said Denise Glover, project director at the Child Care Coordinating Council of Detroit/Wayne County.

Glover said impoverished parents often cannot provide heat in their homes, often viewed as a measure of child neglect. Or they may take out their financial stress on their children.

“Tempers flair and the frustration levels increase,” she said. “Children become the victims.”