Council's report will tackle child poverty in Vermont
Toolbox
By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau - Published: December 6, 2008
MONTPELIER — Last October, Sen. Doug Racine was talking to two young mothers about education and job training programs during a forum on child poverty in Burlington, when one of them stopped him mid-sentence.
"I don't know where I'm going to be sleeping tomorrow," she said to the Chittenden County senator. "I can't think about getting my GED if I don't have a place to live."
Racine, a Democrat who co-chairs the Vermont Child Poverty Council, said that exchange has stayed with him the last 14 months as he and a coalition of lawmakers, state officials and social workers have grappled with how to stem the growing rate of children living in poverty.
The Child Poverty Council is scheduled to release its report — filled with recommendations, including programs that might require new legislation — at a Statehouse meeting on Dec. 15.
Racine said the report will include a host of suggestions, ranging from efforts to boost school grades for children from low-income families to changing the so-called benefits cliff so that struggling families can work and still retain some of their state and federal assistance.
"We see that any effective long-term strategy needs to begin with the safety net," Racine said. "If people are just struggling to survive and provide for their kids, they are not going to be able to take advantage of other programs."
The council, which formed in the summer of 2007 and held more than a dozen forums about poverty across the state that fall and winter, is charged with creating a plan to cut the state's child poverty rate in half over the next 10 years.
Rep. Anne Pugh, D-Burlington, the co-chairwoman of the council, said that goal was "feasible," although "whether it is doable is another story." She said it sets a "wonderful goal and a high bar."
"What makes me optimistic is that we have everyone working together here," she said. "We're all sitting around the same table."
Racine was hesitant to discuss details of a report that is still being prepared, but he said it would cover areas such as:
"The idea is to create a path for you to get ahead," Racine explained.
Steve Dale, the commissioner of the Vermont Department for Children and Families, said his department is in the preliminary stages of assessing how struggling families receive assistance and support from the federal and state governments — and when and why that help is cut off.
The department hired the National Center for Children in Poverty, an organization affiliated with Columbia University, to analyze the cost-of-living in six Vermont counties and how that number relates to services, benefits and assistance from the government.
Dale said the study found that if a person makes under $12,000 a year they often receive assistance that would not change as their salary increased. But for those in the $12,000-$40,000 range, they would often lose benefits and assistance as their salary increased.
For many Vermont families, this means that making a dollar more per hour can cost them the equivalent of $2 in benefits like food stamps or child care, Dale said.
"It really creates a disincentive to work," said Dale, who is also a member of the Child Poverty Council. "So, that's something we are looking closely at."
Release of this month's report comes 11 months late – a deadline that members of the council say was missed due to a lack of available legislative staff, the start of a legislative session and the commencement of a heated political election season.
But since the formation of the council in the summer of 2007, there is evidence that there are now more Vermont children in poverty than before. A state-by-state health ranking released this week by the United Health Foundation found that the rate of child poverty in Vermont increased from 8.9 percent in 2007 to 10.9 percent this year.
"It took a while for the bad economy to come to Vermont, but it has now hit," Racine said. "People are losing their jobs, they are losing their health care and they probably need assistance from the government more than ever."
Of course, this report also comes at a time when demands for social services are high and Vermont officials are considering deep cuts to the budget due to drops in tax revenues. Pugh said members of the council have to make the case that cutting these programs would cost more in the long run.
"Moving people out of poverty is complex," she said. "But if you are just talking numbers, it will cost the state more in the long view if Vermont's future generations have few educational opportunities and get stuck in dead-end jobs.
Contact Daniel Barlow at Daniel.Barlow@rutlandherald.com.
13