News from the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families about poverty rates in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Poverty Rates Rise Substantially, Increase Demands Comprehensive Vision
U.S. Census Bureau figures released yesterday reveal that Wisconsin’s poverty rate has increased in the last year by nearly a full percentage point. More than 581,000 Wisconsin residents, including 192,000 kids, now live below the federal poverty level. For more details, see the Wisconsin Council on Children & Families’ press release. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s coverage of the poverty figures can be found here, and the Appleton Post-Crescent’s article can be read here.
These figures make clear that we need a coordinated and strategic plan to address poverty in our state. The Vision 2020 Campaign (a partnership between WCCF, the Wisconsin Community Action Program Association, and the Wisconsin Head Start Association) provides a visionary yet practical approach to ending child poverty, a proactive emphasis on policy solutions that will make a difference, and a great way for the public, elected officials and organizations to get involved in a tangible, focused way. Click here to learn more about the Vision 2020 Campaign and to get involved.
Here’s some of the “highlights” from the press release, if you can call them that:
- Thepoverty rate for all Wisconsin residents rose from 10.2 percent in 2005 to 11.0 percent
- In 2006 and the child poverty rate increased as well, from 13.9 percent in 2005 to 14.9 percent in 2006.
- There are more than 581,000 Wisconsin residents living in poverty
- The residents living in poverty include including 192,000 children
- The federal poverty level for a family of four in 2006 was $20,000.
- Some good news that there are 4,000 fewer children in Wisconsin were living in extreme poverty in 2006 than in 2005
- The total number of Wisconsin kids living in extreme poverty still stands at an alarming 80,000.
- Extreme poverty is defined as income less than 50% of the federal poverty threshold ($10,000/year for a family of four in 2006).
- While there was a 3.5 percent increase in the median household income level, from $47,105 in 2005 to $48,772 in 2006. Median household income for African Americans actually fell from $26,318 to $26,161 while the median income for Whites rose from $49,244 to $50,794.
- 12.4 percent of families with children under age 18 are living in poverty, up from 11.5 in 2005.
- 32.5 percent of Wisconsin’s African American families are living below the poverty level.
- 24.3 percent of Wisconsin’s Hispanic families are living below the poverty level.
Here’s the recommendations about Wisconsin should do.
- Education and training that meets the specific needs of Wisconsin families and new businesses by providing targeted training to potential employees.
- Improve the effectiveness of the state’s economic development incentives for businesses to ensure the public investments made are producing family supporting jobs.
- Continue to find ways to reach the more that 550,000 uninsured people in Wisconsin.
- Support and improve policies that help negate the effects of poverty on children, specifically quality early education opportunities for every child in Wisconsin.
- Maintain Wisconsin’s critical income support programs, including child care tuition assistance, BadgerCare and Medicaid, the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit, Homestead Tax Credit, and food security programs.
