Transcript EarnBenefits Status Report

Childhood Poverty and
Lifelong Opportunity
October 22, 2013
www.cahs.org
Overview
• Poverty in Connecticut:
where we stand.
• Why the numbers are
misleading.
• Why concentrated poverty
matters.
• Policies and practices to
break the cycle.
Childhood poverty in Connecticut
• If we look at the Kids
Count profile of the
state, Connecticut
looks good.
• Doing really well on
health, pretty well on
education.
• Well above average on
Community and
Economic well being.
Some more detail:
Some more detail:
Current poverty affects opportunity
• Why is this relevant when
talking about opportunity?
– States with high child
poverty have less social
mobility.
– By helping kids today, we
have a state that creates
more opportunities for all.
Current poverty affects opportunity
An indicator to pay
attention to:
Concentrated
Poverty
Why is this relevant?
• Where you grow up has a huge
effect on social mobility
• “The Equality of Opportunity
Project” – Raj Chetty, Nathaniel
Hendren, Patrick Kline,
Emmanuel Saez
• Social mobility varies hugely by
metro area in the U.S.
Why is this relevant?
Social mobility, by metro area:
Why is this relevant?
Researchers found is that the characteristics of the place
you live in affects mobility.
Positive factors
Negative factors
• Social capital
• Two-parent
households
• Quality Schools
• Income inequality
• Income segregation
by neighborhood:
All else being equal, upward
mobility tended to be higher in
metropolitan areas where poor
families were more dispersed
among mixed-income
neighborhoods.
Why is this relevant?
Barely any effect on social mobility
•
•
•
•
High taxes on wealthy
Racial composition
Tax credits
Number of wealthy
people
• Cost of higher education
What does this mean for Connecticut?
• A deeper look at our data:
“Opportunity in Connecticut: The
impact of Race, Poverty and
Education on Family Economic
Success”
• CT might have the schools and
social capital, but income
segregation is very high.
Concentrated Poverty in CT
Not many
poor, but very
concentrated:
Concentrated Poverty in CT
Not many
poor, but very
concentrated:
Concentrated Poverty in CT
Concentrated Poverty in CT
Hartford: an island of
low opportunity
surrounded by a sea of
“progressive”
communities.
Aside: how we concentrate poverty in CT?
• A bit out of scope of this presentation,
but here is a hint…
Race and mobility
• Important factor to
consider:
– A low income non-Hispanic
white in Hartford has very
similar social mobility to a
low income Latino or Black
– Same with affluent
Hispanics/Blacks in the
suburbs.
– The issue is people of color
tend to be poor, and tend
to be concentrated in low
income areas.
Race and mobility
Concentrated poverty
affects education…
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
Connecticut Mastery Test
Academic Performance Test
20%
10%
0%
Race and mobility
Concentrated poverty
affects education…
4-year graduation rate
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Connecticut
New Haven
Bridgeport
Hartford
Waterbury
New Britain
Stamford
Race and mobility
This translate to skills
gaps…
Race and mobility
Not just a city
issue, though!
Race and mobility
That is: racial
inequality
affects
education
outcomes
Race and mobility
These outcomes extend to college…
Race and mobility
• And this translates to income, as well
Race and mobility
• And to assets:
Source: Corporation for Enterprise Development, US Census Data
Cumulative lack of opportunity
• Children who are poor at birth
are three times less likely to
complete high school.
• Girls born poor are three times
more likely to have a child as a
teen.
• Only 1/3 of persistently poor boys
will have consistent employment
as adults. Only ½ of girls.
Toxic stress and the cycle of scarcity
• “Scarcity” by Sendhil Mullainathan, a
Harvard economist, and Eldar Shafir,
a psychologist at Princeton.
• Why the poor are less future-oriented
than those with more money?
• Scarcity — not of money, but of what
the authors call bandwidth: the
portion of our mental capacity that
we can employ to make decisions.
Toxic stress and the cycle of scarcity
• Low income families are forced
to take decisions under stress
constantly.
• They do so in communities
without many choices.
• Concentrated poverty becomes
self-reinforcing.
Reminder
2010
Rank
State
Gini
Coefficient
51
District of Columbia
0.532
50
New York
0.499
49
Connecticut
0.486
47
Louisiana
0.475
47
Massachusetts
0.475
46
Florida
0.474
45
Alabama
0.472
44
California
0.471
43
Texas
0.469
40
Georgia
0.468
Connecticut is
extremely unequal…
Ensuring Opportunity for All
What are the policy and
program solutions?
Place:
• Urban agenda to attract
jobs, reform schools and
taxes, and improve safety
• Build affordable housing
in suburbs and marketrate housing in cities
Ensuring Opportunity for All
Education:
• Quality, accessible early
education
• K-12 reform: funding,
integration, leadership,
teaching; grade-level
reading and HS
graduation
• Accessible, affordable
post-secondary education
Ensuring Opportunity for All
Jobs, Income, and Wealth:
• Make work pay with
minimum wage, EITC;
build job base and skills
training
• Facilitate access to SNAP,
health and other benefits
• Provide financial
education and coaching
Opportunity in Action
• Opportunities Hartford
seeks “collective impact” to
close opportunity gap;
focus on jobs, education,
income
• “Integrated service
delivery” at DSS and
nonprofits: jobs, benefits,
financial education
• Result-Based
Accountability: OUTCOMES
Conclusions
• Connecticut is small in scale, wealthy
• State on right policy track on education, health;
work to do on jobs and place
• All of us need to be engaged to create opportunity
and better outcomes for all