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Poverty afflicts local kids

Report shows dire trends for economics, education
Graphic courtesy of Kids Count<br><br>Academic performance is linked to economic standard of living.

A recent report on the health of children in Montezuma County shows room for improvement.

The report is part of the Colorado Children’s “Kid Count” campaign.

Vangi McCoy, coordinator for the Montelores Early Childhood Council, presented the latest local data to the Montezuma County commission last week.

“Early childhood experiences and education opportunity work together to impact a child’s chances of success,” McCoy said.

Unfortunately, local children are at a disadvantage, with Montezuma County consistently moving down the rankings in the well being index since 2012.

As of 2012, there were 5,816 kids under the age of 18 in the county, a drop of 11 percent since 2000.

Based on the federal poverty line of less than $23,550 for a family of four, one in three children in the county have lived in poverty since 2012.

Across the state, more and more children are falling into poverty. As of 2012, the latest numbers available, 18 percent of children, or 224,000, live below the poverty line, up 10 percent since 2000.

“We have more children living in poverty now than we did at any point during the Great Recession of 2009,” McCoy said. “Another way to look at it is that is enough children to fill Mile High Stadium three times.”

Since 2000, Colorado has had the third-fastest-growing number of children in poverty in the country, behind Nevada and New Hampshire.

McCoy points out it is worse than it appears because the federal poverty level is not adjusted based on variations in cost of living.

“In other words, whether a family is living in Pitkin County, where the cost of living is extremely high, or on the Eastern Plains, where it is a bit lower, the federal poverty level — what it means to be poor — does not change,” McCoy said.

In Montezuma County it costs more than twice the federal poverty level to meet basic needs for a two-parent family with an infant and preschooler.

A highlight of the report is that there has been a significant decline in uninsured kids statewide since 2000, going from 12 percent to 8 percent. Changes in insurance laws were cited as a reason for the additional coverage.

“It is one of our greatest success stories and shows how policy action can have a real impact on children’s lives,” McCoy said.

Eighty-eight percent of children in the county are enrolled in Medicaid or CHP+. About 400 uninsured children are eligible, but have not signed up, according to the report.

Achievement gaps in Montezuma County are linked to the economically disadvantaged. Since 2003, poorer kids performed worse in math and reading proficiency than kids that did not come from economically challenged families.

In Colorado, 29 percent of adults without a high school diploma live in poverty. For those with a college degree, only three percent live at or below the federal poverty line. Unemployment in the county is also rising, going from 3.8 percent in 2007 to 8.5 percent in 2012.

“When we think about poverty, it’s important to think about education,” McCoy said. “Without closing the achievement gap, interrupting the cycle of poverty is going to be difficult.”

The report also showed that:

The teen birth rate in Montezuma County is twice as high as the state average. In 2012, 52 teenagers out of 1,000 girls ages 15-19 gave birth.

For 2013, the graduation rate for Montezuma-Cortez High School was 52 percent. The state average is 77 percent.

In the 2013-14 school year, 56 percent of Montezuma County were eligible for free or reduced price lunch, up from 46 percent in 2003-04.

Since 2007, the cost of infant/toddler care in a child care center has risen by 17 percent and is often more than $1,000 per month, or half of a poor family’s monthly income. Meanwhile, median household income has increased overall by two percent.

jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com