Kids Count: Less child poverty in the region, but more struggles for working poor

Aug. 14—TRAVERSE CITY — Working poor families continue to struggle in the region but some gains have been made for northern Michigan's kids.

That's according to the 2022 Kids Count data profiles, a yearly summary of state trends compiled by the Michigan League for Public Policy. The Michigan Kids Count findings were released at the end of last month. But the state remains in the bottom half of the nation for child well-being overall, according to a separate, national Kids Count report released this week by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Though the state and the national reports share the same broad mission, they are compiled by separate groups and focus on a different total share of the population.

"These data profiles show where we have been and where we should be going on policies to support kids and parents," said Kelsey Perdue, the director of the Michigan Kids Count effort, in a press release late last month.

The Michigan League for Public Policy tracked 14 distinct categories in their data profiles this year, and of those measures, 10 saw improvements when compared to the same figures from a decade prior.

Like in the rest of the state, poverty rates in northwest Michigan declined between 2010 and 2020, according to the findings of the state reports. Michigan saw a 28 percent decrease in the rate of child poverty in the last decade, a pattern which extended to much of the region. But many communities show continued stress for families who live paycheck to paycheck because of the high cost of living and other factors.

In fact, most counties in the region showed an increase in children living in so-called ALICE-population families. ALICE, a term popularized by the United Way, stands for asset-limited, income-constrained and employed. It described people who are struggling, but may not meet the federal definition of poverty.

According to 2019 figures, Grand Traverse County saw improvements in that category, but most of the counties that surround it have not — Leelanau, Benzie, Kalkaska and Manistee all saw increases in combined ALICE and poverty rates.

"I don't think wages in general have kept up with increases of cost of living," said Alex Rossman, spokesman for the Michigan League for Public Policy. "In particular, we've seen in recent years ... how much the cost of childcare has gone up, and how much housing has gone up. We talk about those two a lot, and how much of a minimum wage worker or lower income families' salary goes to some of those those specific needs."

Those pressures may also be connected to another big trend both in northern Michigan and the entire state, which is decreasing numbers of 3- and 4-year olds enrolled in preschool programs.

The most recent figures for preschool enrollment, which is based on a five-year average ending with 2020, are down more than 4 percent from that same measure a decade prior in Grand Traverse County, though they still exceed the statewide average at nearly 49 percent compared to 46.7 percent for the entire state. In Leelanau County, the decline is even more drastic, a 26.7 percent change.

Nearly all nearby counties are also seeing worsening standards for prenatal care. Using an index which measures the adequacy of prenatal care by the month the pregnancy began, the number of prenatal visits and the length of the pregnancy, 35.5 percent of expecting mothers receive less than adequate prenatal care in Grand Traverse County. That's more than the state average of 32.2 percent, and far worse than what that same measure was a decade ago, at 29.3 percent. Leelanau, Benzie, Wexford, Kalkaska and Antrim Counties are all seeing similar trends.

However Michigan has also seen fewer teenagers getting pregnant and giving birth, and fewer instances where children have to be taken away from their homes because of abuse or neglect.

In many cases, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed considerable social and economic disparities in Michigan communities. At the same time, officials from the Michigan League for Public Policy said many of the COVID-era safety nets put in place in the last few years have helped — not just in addressing the fallout from the pandemic, but also in reversing long-standing systemic issues.

"Policymakers at both the federal and state level really did a good job of using policy and investment to navigate the pandemic, and in particular, the impact on families with lower incomes and the impact on kids," Rossman said.

"(We would like to see policymakers) carrying forward the work that has happened the last two years. ... The challenges arise in another year or two when we might end up with less revenue to still prioritize the programs and services that help families and kids that need it the most."

The league's findings recommend extending the child tax credit and earned income tax credit, as well as increasing the rate of the latter. The organization also recommends reducing the threshold to access state child care subsidies and other critical safety net programs.

Report for America corps member and data journalist William T. Perkins' reporting is made possible by a partnership between the Record-Eagle and Report for America, a journalism service project founded by the nonprofit Ground Truth Project. Generous community support helps fund a local share of the Record-Eagle/RFA partnership. To support RFA reporters in Traverse City, go to www.record-eagle.com/rfa.