Tasking Poverty
By Karen S. Lynch
In a second floor courtroom at the Knox County
Courthouse, a display containing four bar graphs of evidence stood in front of
the ornate judicial bench. After a one-hour formal presentation, a spirited
debate consumed an additional 90 minutes. There was no judge, jury, or attorneys
present.
The public press conference held last Saturday in the
courthouse was in response to the placement of Knox County on the stateÕs poverty
warning list for the third straight year, one of 22 counties in Illinois named
to the list.
Salvador Garza, community and economic developer for
the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, publicly
announced a task force named Team Knox County. Over the last six months, seven
members of the task force team have been quietly identifying causes of growing
poverty rates, rated at 14.7 percent in Knox County. Garza said the task force
wanted to get their bearings first but decided to go public after publication
of the stateÕs latest poverty warning list.
Members of Team Knox County consist of a diverse group
of individuals. Salvador Garza is the founder and Chair. Garza heads the
Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Returns. Also on the team, Diane
Eager from Bridgeway Mental Health, Rhonda Brady from Knox County Area Project,
Carrie McKillip and Cheryl Geitner, both from the University of Illinois
Extension Knox County with Kathleen Brown from the Macomb Extension Center. Sue
Schurke represents the Galesburg Congressional Office of U.S. Congressman Phil
Hare, rounding out the members of Team Knox County.
Members of the task force identified and addressed
four key statistics showing ratios between the state averages and those in Knox
County including, high school graduation, teen birth, unemployment, and poverty
rates. The group is seeking volunteers from the community to assist with ideas
in their efforts to diminish poverty rates and work on the key areas they have
identified.
Garza cites social problems and growing poverty in
Knox County are partially due to the loss of good manufacturing jobs with
benefits but added causes of poverty are more complex than any single sector. ÒThere
are no easy or quick solutions.Ó Garza called for a group effort between local,
state, and federal government levels – in concert with individuals to
work towards finding solutions for the causes of poverty in Knox County.
U.S. Congressman Phil Hare, D-Rock Island, said
poverty in Knox County is a problem that is not going to be solved over night
and requires a great deal of effort and a lot of cooperation with some thinking
outside of the box.
Hare says there is a need to develop a system of best
practices for planning, funding, and developing measures for success. Hare
promised to do everything he can at the federal level. ÒFrom my perspective this
is my home town, as you know. You are not supposed to play favorites as a
member of Congress, but I do – particularly with this city and this county.
This city and this county has been though a lot.Ó
Congressman Hare said the coming together Saturday was
a continuation of the dialog that began last year at Carl Sandburg College on the
correlation between education and poverty. ÒNow that we have identified the
problems we need to take that next step forward.Ó Thanking the group for their
efforts of working on the problem Hare said he needed to identify how best to
help, ÒWhether that means finances or involving more agencies – but
whatever is decided it must be done in a spirit of cooperation.Ó Hare thanked
Garza for taking the initiative to form Team Knox County – a name he said
he liked because it was going to take a team effort.
Hare summarized a meeting last Monday with former
Butler worker, Bill Fair and his wife Donna as an example of a system failure. The
Fair family lost their health care and life insurance. BillÕs son, Eric had also
worked at Butler and had no health insurance. He died last March of a heart
attack, while his mother also had a heart attack the same day. The family is
now $140,000 in debt. ÒHere is a man who worked all his life for good benefits
and he lost them. We are a better country than that.Ó
Hare said he often works across the aisle of Congress,
calling Don Moffitt a good friend. ÒOne thing I have learned in 15 months of
doing this job, if you are ever going to be really successful, it has to be
done in a bipartisan way. Don Moffitt is one of the most solid people in the
Illinois General Assembly.Ó
Speaking after Hare, Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson thanked
everyone for their participation in such an important issue in the county he
represents. ÒThe first step to developing a solution is the acknowledgement that
we have a problem.Ó Moffitt placed his thoughts on the problem in a local context.
ÒIn the effort to coordinate a response plan, it is very important to help
reduce and prevent any duplication. We donÕt need more than one agency doing
the same thing. This effort is an opportunity to use limited resources to the
best possible advantage.Ó
Moffitt expressed pleasure at the announcement of a
task force to address poverty as timely. ÒBeing on the state poverty warning
list one year – it might be an abnormality, two years than it is a
concern, but if it is on three years in a row it certainly needs direct and
immediate attention.Ó
Moffitt emphasized the impact of student graduation
rates in relationship to poverty. ÒStudents need to make the connection between
learning and future earning. According to reports, since 1980 medium hourly
earnings rates have fallen 29 percent for Illinois residents with less than a
high school diploma. The message there is powerful and strong to keep the kids
in school.Ó
Among inmates in the department of corrections, 85
percent are high school dropouts, according to Moffitt. He also quoted
statistics it cost more to incarcerate young offenders than to educate them. He
called for additional funding for education and discussed the disparity in
gender of teachers, saying teens often needed a strong male roll model when
they had none. He attributed teacher pay as one reason it is hard to attract
and retain good teachers.
ÒThe state government needs to get its own fiscal
house in order. It needs to pay its bills on time to be able to help local
governments and schools district do the things that need to be done and make
that 23rd and 24th school aid payment. We need to adopt only
practices that encourage economic growth.Ó
In addressing poverty related to jobs, Moffitt said,
ÒThe state must do more to obtain and grow and attract good jobs – the
kind you can support a family on – the kind with benefits.Ó Moffitt
discussed the need for an economic policy, what he called, long suits to
stimulate growth ÒWhere we have an absolute competitive advantage are the
railroad systems. We are the crossroads of the nation.Ó
ÒAgriculture is the other long suit, where we can
compete or exceed any other part of the world in our ability to produce
agricultural products.Ó Bio fuels are better for the environment and profits
stay domestically and are value added for the producers. Moffitt said there is
a need to connect the two – with trains to haul the grain and to burn bio
fuels.Ó
Moffitt commented he liked HareÕs approach on
identifying earmarks, Hare added, ÒIf policies are causing poverty than
resources should follow.Ó Both lawmakers spoke about high energy costs and the
adverse effect on food prices and other product deliveries affected by high
fuel cost. Hare said there was a need for additional refineries and alternative
energy sources with incentives for geothermal and E85 fuel.
Allen Pickrel, Knox County Board Chair also stressed
the importance of education and working on the problem of teen pregnancy
causing an increase in drop out rates. Pickrel said, ÒWeÕve hit a speed bump right
now in this county and we just need to overcome that speed bump. It didnÕt
happen overnight and it isnÕt going to go away overnight. ItÕs great to have
another organization to help overcome that speed bump.Ó
Garza spoke about the job market and business
prospects that look to locating in the community. One of the first things
business look at, according to Garza is the schools. When The Register-Mail
headline reads, ÒTwo Schools FailÓ there is a negative perception of the community.
Garza also commented how the media plays a role in presenting a good image to
prospective business prospects. ÒThey have a lot of information about your
community. If you try to misrepresent – that leaves a disingenuous
image.Ó
The discussion on Saturday is supposed to be a new
beginning to solving some of the factors causing social-economic problems identified
as leading to poverty in Knox County. Team Knox County hopes to change some of
those problems leading to poverty by working together as a community. According
to Garza, ÒThe structure of Team Knox County must maintain neutrality, if you
wish. In order for us to be believable is to make sure we are not working an
agenda.Ó
There is an Òinconvenient truthÓ for those who know
the reality of staying in the ÒsystemÓ – where they can draw more
assistance in welfare than trying to work minimum wage jobs, pay for day care
for their children and lack affordable health care insurance. The truth is they
are better off not working or legally getting married. While there will always
be those who prefer to take it easy – letting taxpayers pay their way
– there are just as many who are not proud of being in the welfare system
but feel they have no good alternatives.
Realistically, statistics and bar graph chart figures can
easily be skewed by many variables, such as population decline or the influx of
low-income families from other areas. The state of Illinois has a voucher
system that allows low-income citizens to move wherever affordable housing
exist. Some of those individuals have moved to Knox County while others have
left to find work in other cities. The high cost of gas may force more
residents to move closer to where they can find work.
Numbers cannot be the only factor to represent the
faces of poverty. The problem is complex and unique to every individual. People
are not just a statistic, even if they are one of those individuals or families
counted in the numbers on four charts.
The only numbers that truly matter are those in the
individualÕs pocket. Team Knox County worked hard to put together their numbers
with the information they had available. However, there are many more people who
Òfall through the cracksÓ of statistical analysis and are not represent in some
arbitrary number.
Unemployment rates do not count those whose
unemployment has expired. The under-employed or the Òworking poorÓ are statistically
unseen, except in their difficulties to purchase goods and services. The
working poor show up in overwhelming demands on food banks, in reduced sales
tax revenue and sometimes in foreclosures on homes and the homeless.
There are those living in a gap – earning slightly
above poverty that do not qualify for any financial aid programs, yet do not
make a living wage. Singles without children, the elderly, or families working
two or three part-time jobs often fall into that gap – penalized in a way
for making the effort to support themselves and their families. Teen pregnancy
rates do not count young single mothers who are over twenty-years-old, yet face
the same hardships as teens.
Garza is correct – there are no easy or quick
answers. Perhaps there are no answers at all, without a major paradigm shift in
the way the current systems operate. One thing is certain – tough
problems require answers to tough questions. Solutions require hard work and adequate
resources.
The rhetoric last Saturday, touted as Òa new
beginningÓ are words of hope. The current needs of many residents of Knox
County are those of desperation. Knox County arguably is not better off than we
were four years ago.
The statistics shown on Saturday confirm what many
citizens already knew – we need help to find our way back to a path of prosperity.
Let us all hope that Team Knox County and the citizens of this county can find
a way to that path.
5/22/08