Vol. I, No. 4: 1. Work: A Livable Wage -- Children in Poverty

Last month, we kicked off our series on a Livable Wage with the fictional encounter between Scrooge and Bob Cratchett ... one of the final scenes from Dickens' Christmas classic.

This month, continuing to lay the ground, we thought we'd take a quick look at some stats on what must be unarguably less than a livable wage -- poverty. ...

Supposedly, the '90's were a boom-time for the economy. The markets soared {even if they did pull back last year -- see this month's Visual Market for details}. But, at least in the four years between 1989 and 1993 {the last year for which we could find comprehensive statistics}, the poverty rate in Addison County actually increased from 9.7% to 12.2% ... an increase of more than 25%. ...

But if one is tempted to assume that poverty results only from lack of initiative, consider the following table:

School-Age Poverty Rates for Selected School Districts
District	Pop.	School-Age [1]	Poverty [2]	%
Addison School District	1091	143	10	6.99%
Bridport School District	1213	173	27	15.61%
Bristol School District	4013	495	42	8.48%
Champlain Valley UHSD 15	19126	784	37	4.72%
Charlotte School District	3404	568	40	7.04%
Cornwall School District	1174	153	19	12.42%
Ferrisburg School District	2471	292	37	12.67%
Hinesburg School District	4088	669	25	3.74%
Huntington School District	1740	195	13	6.67%
Leicester School District	929	189	14	7.41%
Lincoln School District	1039	122	13	10.66%
Middlebury Id School District	8570	726	95	13.09%
Middlebury UHSD 3	14511	954	95	9.96%
Monkton School District	1581	207	17	8.21%
Mount Abraham UHSD 28	9711	736	38	5.16%
New Haven School District	1463	186	25	13.44%
Orwell School District	1188	257	14	5.45%
Panton School District	646	82	5	6.10%
Richmond School District	4033	349	8	2.29%
Ripton School District	474	58	4	6.90%
Saint George School District	762	139	4	2.88%
Salisbury School District	1092	123	19	15.45%
Shelburne School District	6349	979	56	5.72%
Shoreham School District	1189	163	15	9.20%
Starksboro School District	1612	215	23	10.70%
Vergennes UHSD 44	2750	292	41	14.04%
Vergennes UHSD 5	7443	640	70	10.94%
Weybridge School District	799	94	5	5.32%
Whiting School District	434	66	13	19.70%
Williston School District	5285	734	6	0.82%
Totals:	110180	10783	830	7.70%
[1]: Children 5 to 17 years of Age; [2]: Number of Poor Children 5 to 17 years of Age who are Related to the Head of Household Source: 1997 Vermont school district data files; US Census Bureau

Granted, the data are only estimates, and we'll be curious to see the 2000 Census data when it becomes available. But the data for this type of stat won't be available for at least 2 years yet. In the meanwhile, while estimates in individual school districts vary widely, it would seem that an average of 7.7% of our children are living in poverty. That's roughly 1 in 13 kids ... which is far too many.

The idea of a Livable Wage is an important one. But as part of our continuing preamble, perhaps we can at least agree on this much: Children living in poverty in the most affluent nation in history is not something to be proud of. And so long as we have a national policy that enforces at least some unemployment {see the Thanksgiving issue article, Unemployment ... The 4% Solution}, then the problem of poverty, especially of children in poverty, has got to be a public problem.

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