Poverty hitting S.D. children hard
Megan Luther mmluther@argusleader.com
September 26, 2011
South Dakota children are hit hardest by poverty - more than any other age group, according to recently released 2010 Census numbers.
And the state continues to have higher poverty rates for children under 18 compared to neighboring states.
More than 34,000 - or one in six children - in South Dakota have been affected by poverty, which is defined as annual income at or below $22,350 for a family of four.
And that number counts only children living with related adults and excludes others such as children in foster care, which would make the number higher, according to Joy Smolnisky, director of the South Dakota Budget & Policy Project, which conducted the analysis.
There was no statistically significant change from 2009 to last year, she said.
"We continue to have high poverty rates for kids compared to neighboring states," Smolnisky said.
North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Wyoming all have lower child poverty rates. Nebraska's rate is two-tenths of a percentage higher.
South Dakota's rate is linked in part to poverty among Native Americans, with a handful of counties on reservations, including Shannon and Ziebach, consistently in the top of the nation for poverty, said Mike McCurry, state demographer with the Census Data Center at South Dakota State University.
"What really hits us on impoverished children is that our reservations are where the source of a lot of our poor kids are," he said.
More than half of Native American children, or about 15,000, live in poverty, according to the 2010 Census numbers.
But the numbers also are high among nonminority children, Smolnisky pointed out, with about 16,000, or 11 percent, living in poverty last year.
The numbers are worrisome, said Buddy Seiner, executive director of the South Dakota Head Start Association, because children living in poverty are most likely to face more barriers to proper development.
He said cognitive, emotional and physical challenges faced by children in poverty make it difficult for them to learn in the preschool years, when 85 percent of brain development takes place.
One program that works with children and parents to prepare them for kindergarten and parenting skills is Head Start.
Head Start serves 5,500 children in South Dakota. Almost three-fourths are at or below the poverty level, and the waiting list has another 1,500, a figure that doesn't include tribal programs.
"Of course, we always want to serve more children and see those wait lists go down, but we can only do that with more federal funding," Seiner said.
The poverty issue is mainly a rural problem, where wages are lower, McCurry says.
Typically, South Dakota wages are 80 percent of the nation's, and wages in rural areas are 80 percent of the state's, he said.
Plus, the economic downturn has led those in retirement age to keep their jobs, making it difficult for younger workers who have children to compete.
"And we are not getting out of their way. We are hanging on," said McCurry, who is 61.
Smolnisky said residents continually need to be aware of the well-being of the state's children.
"How well our children do is a reflection on how well we are likely to do in the future of the state," she said.
Reach reporter Megan Luther at 331-2318.