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High school diploma doesn't lead families out of low-income life, study shows

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 3, 2008 at 9:58 p.m.

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New poverty data show that in Colorado a high school education isn't enough to lift parents and children out of a low-income life.

The study by the National Center for Children in Poverty indicates that Colorado parents without any college education are more likely than not to raise their kids in near poverty.

Years ago, it was assumed that high school dropouts were destined for a low-income lifestyle.

But the new report finds that a high school diploma alone likely isn't enough anymore for parents to keep their kids out of poverty.

The report found that 85 percent of Colorado children whose parents don't have a high school degree live in households where the income is less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

If the parents have a high school diploma, but no college, 54 percent of those kids are at that level or lower.

Just 20 percent of Colorado kids whose parents have at least some college experience live in poverty.

While some reports focus on families living below the poverty level, increasingly researchers point to 200 percent of poverty level as a more useful tool for determining the threshold at which households have enough money to begin to climb out of the hole of want.

A family of four living on $42,000 a year is at 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

The NCCP report found that about two-thirds of Colorado children living in low-income families have at least one parent working full time.

About 91 percent of children in households that aren't low-income have at least one parent working full time.

A report out Tuesday from First Focus, using Census Bureau numbers, found a slight decrease in the poverty rate among Colorado's children last year - one in eight is in poverty.

That runs counter to a report in June that Colorado led the nation in the percentage increase in the number of kids in poverty from 2000 to 2006.

"The bottom line is that by either measure, we have a lot of kids in poverty," said Megan Ferland, president of the Colorado Children's Campaign.

"We don't have any comfort level there is actually a true significant decrease happening."

Ferland said factors leading to poverty range include an economy in malaise and the cycle of young women giving birth before they finish high school and before they are married.

She said Colorado ranks near the bottom in per capita state spending on programs that help children and families.

Efforts that focus on early child care and early education "are a huge step in the right direction," she said.

"We are seeing the most dramatic impact on the youngest kids," both in that they are most likely to be in poverty, and they are most likely to benefit from interventions, she said.

A wise investment of public money is in programs to allow single parents to get back into the work force and to ready low-income kids to be on an equal footing with other students when they enter school, Ferland said.

"Investments in health care, an expansion of the Children's Health Plan, Medicaid, anything to help kids stay healthy is a long-term positive gain," Ferland said.

"We have a ways to go."

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2897

Childhood poverty in Colorado

85 percent Chance of growing up in a low-income household if parent(s) don't have a high school education

54 percent Chance of growing up in a low-income household if parent(s) have a high school education but no college

20 percent Chance of growing up in a low-income household if parent(s) have at least some college

42 percent Chance of growing up low-income if living in a single- parent household

15 percent Chance of growing up low-income if living in a two- parent household

54 percent of children living in rural areas whose families are low income

48 percent of children living in urban areas whose families are low-income

23 percent of children living in suburbs whose families are low-income

25 percent of low-income children whose families have moved recently

71 percent Likelihood of growing up in a low-income household if parents are immigrants

25 percent Likelihood of growing up in a low-income household if parents were born in the U.S.

64 percent Likelihood that black child is growing up in a low-income household

60 percent Likelihood that a Hispanic child is growing up in a low-income household

18 percent Likelihood that a white child is growing up in a low-income household

Comments

  • September 4, 2008

    7:21 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    LingLingfor_prez writes:

    If getting a diploma keeps someone in low income, then what does not getting a diploma do? And the assumption that getting a 4-year degree means instant success and wealth, is another issue not really being addressed. I think that a key issue missing from this study is families that have no debt but low income probably have a better chance of getting out of the low income bracket as well. Also having only one income in the household doesn't help you get ahead most of the time. I think some of the solutions given in this story are rather generic and not really solutions at all.

  • September 4, 2008

    8:20 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    lindaseebach writes:

    Scanlon keeps confusing "in poverty" -- having an income at or below the federal poverty level -- with being "low-income" -- having an income at least twice that much, or $42,000 for a family of four.

    So when he writes, "Just 20 percent of Colorado kids whose parents have at least some college experience live in poverty," he should have said, "are low-income."

    Even so, the term "parents" blurs the real issue -- parental education matters, but not as much as whether there are two parents:

    * 15 percent: Chance of growing up low-income if living in a two- parent household

    Megan Ferhold said it: Factors leading to poverty include ". . . the cycle of young women giving birth before they finish high school and before they are married."

    (She also cited "an economy in malaise," which it isn't, but the passing state of the economy has little to do with the long-term circumstances that lead to growing up low income, or in poverty.)

    No doubt the reporter was simply following the spin of the report he was writing about, but he should have looked deeper to highlight the real story.