If we ignore the needs of rural families, we'll all pay the price

Children's Alliance of NH President Ellen Shemitz's remarks at release of Making KIDS COUNT in Rural New England in the Legislative Office Building in Concord

October 21, 2004

Good morning. And thank you to each of you for joining us for this morning’s release of our newest KIDS COUNT report: Making Kids COUNT in Rural Northern New England.

Making Kids COUNT in Rural Northern New England is a unique project:

• It examines the quality of life for children and families in rural communities in the three northern New England States: New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.

• While these rural areas account for more than 78% of the land mass of the three states, they account for less than 1/3 of the population — with the result that statewide data on child health and well-being can mask the real needs of rural children.

• This report shines light on the hidden New England—with a focus on the regional and economic changes that have harmed family economic standing.

This report is a collaborative effort of three child advocacy organizations from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, with significant support and technical assistance of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

We are pleased to recognize the work of Dignitas — a New Hampshire-based economic research firm that conducted the core research for this report — research that included 15 focus groups in eight towns, involving 104 parents, representing 231 kids. Making KIDS COUNT in Rural Northern New England highlights the voices and perspectives of these local residents.

We are grateful to our funders: Providian National Bank, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and Northeast Delta Dental. Their support of this project has been invaluable.

Finally, we thank the many professionals across New Hampshire who have assisted our work through the Rural Advisory Group. I am pleased to be joined by one of those professionals today, Cathy McDowell of the FRC at Gorham, who will take the podium after my remarks.

Key findings

So what does this report say? The report focuses on the regional economic trends that have changed jobs, wages, work hours and quality of life throughout rural northern New England.

Making KIDS COUNT details a regional shift away from higher paying industrial and farming jobs toward lower- paying, low-benefit jobs in retail, tourism and service. From 1970-2000, industrial jobs in the rural northern New England states were cut in half. The 2000 Census reports that 17% of rural families in New Hampshire earn less than $25,000 a year. The average wage in rural areas pays just over $26,000 per year. And the wage gap between the average job in rural versus non-rural areas is $10,000, compared to a wage gap of only $2,000 (adjusted for inflation) 30 years ago.

Decreased wages have been accompanied by increased hours and decreased benefits. Families report the need to piece together multiple jobs or to find creative self employment. Almost 12% of workers in rural northern New England are self employed, versus only 7.5% in non-rural northern New England. New jobs often lack benefits — increasing barriers to medical care

Voices from the community focus groups stressed the many ways in which low paying jobs undermined life in rural areas:

Lynette, a mother of one in rural Vermont , explained: “A lot of the issues we have are because there are no jobs, and if you get a job, it’s low pay and crappy hours.”

Another mother, Janice, a mother of 3 from rural Maine, stated: “If you could make a living here, this would be heaven on earth.”

Indeed, many residents reported both the challenge of raising a family in an area lacking good jobs at the same time as they recognized the unique benefits rural life — a quality of life which residents say is due to tightly knit, strong social networks within rural communities.

E ven though people look out for each other, rural families are suffering. Consider, for example, the disparity between child poverty rates in rural versus non-rural communities. 9.5% of children living in rural New Hampshire live in poverty — compared to 6.9% of non-rural children. That reflects a 37% difference in the rate of child poverty. And child poverty is, of course, a critical measure of child health and well-being — closely linked to children’s success in school, physical and mental development, and future economic success

Making KIDS COUNT also documents significant population changes in rural communities as families with young children have moved away in search of better economic opportunities. This out migration has led to a graying of the population, a sharp decrease (of over 20%) in the population of children ages 0 to 4, and an increased pressure for school consolidation.

School consolidation presents a real threat to rural life. One mother of two from rural Maine said: “Right now my kids are up at 6 to be at school by 7. If they consolidate the school they’d have to be up at 5 to be at school by 7.” Another rural resident explained: “We send our kids on this hour bus ride every morning. No one goes to the school. We don’t go to any ball games, we don’t go to any plays, we don’t go to see the school band. We do nothing. There is very limited parental involvement. Our high school is over an hour away. We have no connection to our high school. It’s a crime.”

Policy implications

The regional changes described in the report are beyond the ability of any one individual or any one community to address . . . and so the report identifies necessary public policy responses to improve family economic success.

Making KIDS COUNT is grounded in the recognition that children do better when families are strong and families do better when they live in areas that help them succeed.

The report calls for community investments and workforce development to help working poor families achieve economic self sufficiency.

In the area of economic security, Making KIDS COUNT supports:

• Tax and policy changes to enable working families to retain more of their earnings. For example, outreach on the availability and advantages of the Earned Income Tax Credit.
• Policy changes to increase wages so full-time work enables a family to meet basic needs — an issue with particular resonance in New Hampshire, where minimum wage is the lowest among the three northern New England states (NH, $5.15; Me., $6.25; Vt., $6.75)

In the area of education, Making KIDS COUNT supports investments in early care and education, after school programming and quality public education. Strong communities have strong public schools, and strong public schools have clear standards, fair, sustainable and reliable funding and meaningful measures of success.

In the area of health care, Making KIDS COUNT supports maintaining funding for NH Healthy Kids — to insure health insurance for low-income children and pregnant women

Making KIDS COUNT seeks to increase the visibility of rural communities so that policy makers consider their needs when assessing and recommending policy initiatives. As such, it is a call to action to increase the visibility of rural children and families. Rural children’s needs must be considered in making policy recommendations for the state as a whole.

Consider, for example, the news on Medicaid reform that surfaced in yesterday’s newspapers. Under a plan labeled “GraniteCare,” the Governor and his Commissioner of DHHS seek to replace the successful NH Healthy Kids program with so called health services accounts that would create cash incentives for families to decrease routine health care visits. Given the existing barriers to health care across rural communities, it simply is not good policy to offer incentives to delay or refuse health care.

Making KIDS COUNT concludes with the recognition that all of our state is connected — and that investing in our rural children and families is an investment in the economic health of the state.

It reminds us that no only do rural KIDS COUNT, but rural KIDS MATTER. If we ignore their needs, we all pay the price.

Link to Making KIDS COUNT (PDF file)