The Mississippi Press has a story on what the Census numbers will show us...
Census measures students, poverty
Friday, November 27, 2009
By HARLAN KIRGAN
Some 19 percent of the student-aged population in Jackson and George counties comes from families in poverty, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report on the nation's school districts.
The Census numbers point to an ongoing shift in the school population, said one Jackson County school superintendent.
The annual Census school district estimates are used as criteria for school funding by the U.S. Department of Education to implement the No Child Left Behind Act.
The Census counted 30,696 children ages 5 to 17 in the two counties in 2000. Of those, 5,080 children nearly 17 percent were in poverty. In 2008, the number of 5- to 17-year-olds dropped to 29,645 in the two counties, but the number of children in poverty rose to 5,607 or 19 percent.
The percentage of children living in poverty in 2008 ranged from nearly 27 percent in the Pascagoula School District to 11 percent in the Ocean Springs School District.
The Ocean Springs percentage is nearly double the 6 percent in 2000. Robert Hirsch, Ocean Springs superintendent, said even though the change in numbers is small, "they are big enough to make an impact."
In 2008, there were 563 youths living in poverty out of 4,939 students in the district, the Census reported. There were 307 out of 5,256 youths living in poverty in 2000.
"I've been in Ocean Springs 25 years," said Hirsch, "and I can honestly tell you that the demographics in Ocean Springs 25 years ago were very different than currently. We have more poverty, more immigrants."
Hirsch said all the school districts along the coast have experienced changes in their populations.
"Seven to eight years ago, we had zero homeless children," he said of the Ocean Springs district. "Over the last several years, we have had a number of homeless children show up."
The number of non-English-speaking students has grown during that period, he said.
"When I was principal of the high school, that was just four years ago, the entire school district had seven or eight ELL English language learners students. Now, we have more than 100 ELL kids."
By contrast, the percentage of youths in poverty in the Pascagoula School District has remained steady and the total number has declined. In 2000, there were 2,116 youths in poverty, which was 26 percent of the 8,162 youths in the district. In 2008, the census report estimated 2,039 youths, 26.5 percent, in poverty out of 7,674, according to the report.
Wayne Rodolfich, Pascagoula superintendent, said the Pascagoula district has six times the poverty of Ocean Springs.
"The way we really gauge it is by free or reduced lunches, and we are about 73 percent free and reduced lunch in our district," said Rodolfich. "And, we are about 60 percent minority and 40 percent white in the district."
The number of non-English-speaking students in the Pascagoula district has grown from about 150 before Hurricane Katrina to about 600, he said.
Rodolfich said the school district works to "equalize the playing field" for students.
"We believe all our children can learn."
A recent study found Pascagoula ranked second to last in the state in the number of college graduates.
"So, you have a smaller number of college-educated families in Pascagoula than in the rest of the state, but you look at our performance in algebra last year and we were one of the top-performing school districts on the Gulf Coast in algebra," he said.
The district employs programs such as home visits, Family Interactive Center, interactive learning activities such as the Wetlands Day and tutoring to augment classroom work, he said. A Backpack Buddies program ensures students have something to eat when they leave school, he said.
About 13 percent of the 5- to 17-year-olds in the Jackson County School District are counted in 2008 as coming from families in poverty by the Census. In 2000, the Census estimated that at 12 percent.
Barry Amacker, Jackson County superintendent, said there is a correlation between poverty and student achievement.
"Without even considering the poverty level, we work on the academics and hopefully it is addressing it no matter what income level they are coming from," he said.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Blast from the Past: Census 2000
From the Secretary of State's website, a historical look at where MS was just 10 years ago...
http://www.census.gov/census2000/states/ms.html
http://www.census.gov/census2000/states/ms.html
Monday, November 9, 2009
Mitchell: Illegals unwanted...until Census time rolls around
Illegal residents unwelcome, except in census years
By Charlie Mitchell
Mississippi doesn’t have enough residents living here illegally and will be penalized as a result.
Sound strange?
Well, it is.
Here’s the deal:
• In 2010, as directed by the nation’s founders, the federal government will conduct a headcount.
• The results of that headcount will be used for the ensuing decade to apportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the 50 states and to allocate all sorts of federal goodies that exist today and those to be created in years to come.
In a rational world, it would make sense, as part of the headcount, to tally citizens and noncitizens separately.
Charlie Mitchell is executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail.
That’s because the fundamental reason for ordaining a decennial census in the first place was to assure balanced representation of citizens (voters) in the nation’s largest lawmaking assembly. It was only later that census data also became the template for goodies. So it can’t make sense to include noncitizens (nonvoters) as having equal standing, can it?
That’s a point U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is trying to make — tossing in that including illegal residents of other states in the last census has already cost Mississippi one House seat.
“Following the 2000 census, Mississippi went from five seats to four in the House of Representatives,” Wicker said. “The Center for Immigration Studies stated in a 2003 report that this loss was due to the counting of illegal immigrants elsewhere in the country.”
Wicker, who formerly served in the House, isn’t interested in jumping on the overly emotionalized and overly generalized anti-immigration bandwagon. An important point to make is that we are a nation of immigrants. Anthropologists say even Native Americans came here from somewhere else. And lots of today’s noncitizens are in the country legally, working legally and with every right, under law, to do so.
So what Wicker is doing is joining with Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, to ask for a complete headcount, but with a separate tally of voting-eligible citizens to be used for House apportionment purposes.
Their effort will likely fall short for two reasons. One is that other states with more illegal residents can parlay their presence not only into a larger House delegation, but also an unfairly larger share of the approximately $400 billion in federal funding now being distributed to states each year based on census information. Second is that it’s politically incorrect or “stigmatizing” to ask a person if he or she is a U.S. citizen.
Be clear about how ridiculous this is: Under state and federal law, an employer who hires a noncitizen who is ineligible to work in the United States can be fined or sent to prison. However, census forms, already printed, contain no line to record citizenship information.
Wicker has some pretty compelling numbers. “Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows there are 298 million people currently living in the U.S., a number that includes 21 million noncitizens,” he said. The 21 million is an estimate, of course. The federal government demands to know about every penny of wages or other income people receive, but can only guess the number of people in the country without permission.
Anyway, the totals mean a House district would have approximately 635,000 voters or, if nonvoters are included, more than 685,000. States with high numbers of illegal immigrants — California, Nevada, Texas, and New York — stand to gain House seats. California, which has 5.7 million noncitizen residents, could gain five or more seats.
It’s unlikely Mississippi will lose another House seat in the coming reapportionment. However other lower-immigrant states, including Louisiana, are right on the cusp.
Wicker said he’s been told, sorry, but it would be too costly to reprint forms to ask about citizenship. At least his colleagues have enough sense to argue the process, not the point, because they have to know Wicker is absolutely correct. “It is unfair for Mississippi or any other state to be forced to cede influence and federal representation to other states that have high noncitizen populations, particularly those that harbor illegal immigrants,” he said.
The best estimates say Mississippi has about 30,000 residents who are in the United States illegally. There are those who say any is too many and, in fact, Mississippi politicians make hay every year by hawking legislation to “halt the flow.” Consider, however, that for every “illegal” here, there are nearly 200 in California.
Might is making right on this topic in Washington. States with big numbers of illegal residents complain about them, too, but find them mighty welcome during census years.
By Charlie Mitchell
Mississippi doesn’t have enough residents living here illegally and will be penalized as a result.
Sound strange?
Well, it is.
Here’s the deal:
• In 2010, as directed by the nation’s founders, the federal government will conduct a headcount.
• The results of that headcount will be used for the ensuing decade to apportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the 50 states and to allocate all sorts of federal goodies that exist today and those to be created in years to come.
In a rational world, it would make sense, as part of the headcount, to tally citizens and noncitizens separately.
Charlie Mitchell is executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail.
That’s because the fundamental reason for ordaining a decennial census in the first place was to assure balanced representation of citizens (voters) in the nation’s largest lawmaking assembly. It was only later that census data also became the template for goodies. So it can’t make sense to include noncitizens (nonvoters) as having equal standing, can it?
That’s a point U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is trying to make — tossing in that including illegal residents of other states in the last census has already cost Mississippi one House seat.
“Following the 2000 census, Mississippi went from five seats to four in the House of Representatives,” Wicker said. “The Center for Immigration Studies stated in a 2003 report that this loss was due to the counting of illegal immigrants elsewhere in the country.”
Wicker, who formerly served in the House, isn’t interested in jumping on the overly emotionalized and overly generalized anti-immigration bandwagon. An important point to make is that we are a nation of immigrants. Anthropologists say even Native Americans came here from somewhere else. And lots of today’s noncitizens are in the country legally, working legally and with every right, under law, to do so.
So what Wicker is doing is joining with Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, to ask for a complete headcount, but with a separate tally of voting-eligible citizens to be used for House apportionment purposes.
Their effort will likely fall short for two reasons. One is that other states with more illegal residents can parlay their presence not only into a larger House delegation, but also an unfairly larger share of the approximately $400 billion in federal funding now being distributed to states each year based on census information. Second is that it’s politically incorrect or “stigmatizing” to ask a person if he or she is a U.S. citizen.
Be clear about how ridiculous this is: Under state and federal law, an employer who hires a noncitizen who is ineligible to work in the United States can be fined or sent to prison. However, census forms, already printed, contain no line to record citizenship information.
Wicker has some pretty compelling numbers. “Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows there are 298 million people currently living in the U.S., a number that includes 21 million noncitizens,” he said. The 21 million is an estimate, of course. The federal government demands to know about every penny of wages or other income people receive, but can only guess the number of people in the country without permission.
Anyway, the totals mean a House district would have approximately 635,000 voters or, if nonvoters are included, more than 685,000. States with high numbers of illegal immigrants — California, Nevada, Texas, and New York — stand to gain House seats. California, which has 5.7 million noncitizen residents, could gain five or more seats.
It’s unlikely Mississippi will lose another House seat in the coming reapportionment. However other lower-immigrant states, including Louisiana, are right on the cusp.
Wicker said he’s been told, sorry, but it would be too costly to reprint forms to ask about citizenship. At least his colleagues have enough sense to argue the process, not the point, because they have to know Wicker is absolutely correct. “It is unfair for Mississippi or any other state to be forced to cede influence and federal representation to other states that have high noncitizen populations, particularly those that harbor illegal immigrants,” he said.
The best estimates say Mississippi has about 30,000 residents who are in the United States illegally. There are those who say any is too many and, in fact, Mississippi politicians make hay every year by hawking legislation to “halt the flow.” Consider, however, that for every “illegal” here, there are nearly 200 in California.
Might is making right on this topic in Washington. States with big numbers of illegal residents complain about them, too, but find them mighty welcome during census years.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Should everyone be counted in US Census? WLBT asks the question.
WLBT discusses the upcoming 2010 Census...
JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - The gathering Saturday at Capital City Alternative School aimed to inform people of all races and backgrounds why they should get counted in the Census.
The Mississippi Census Stakeholders' Alliance says some demographic groups are hard for Census takers to reach, whether by their own choice, or by the fault of the Census taker.
"Young people, communities in poverty, communities of color, especially black men are hard to count," says Leroy Johnson, Executive Director of Southern Echo, which co-sponsored the meeting.
Illegal immigrants may not answer their doors for fear of the government discovering them, says Alisha Johnson, Development Director for the Mississippi Immigrants' Rights Alliance (MIRA).
"When the forms get to the home, whether or not they're understood, what is being required of me, what is gonna be done," are some of the worries immigrants have, she says.
There's conflict over whether non-U.S. citizens who live and work in this country should be counted.
U.S. Senator Roger Wicker supports a bill that calls for a question on the Census: Are you or are you not a U.S. citizen?
"We ought to allocate our congressional seats, our electoral college based on the number of citizens that are there," Senator Wicker says.
But organizers at the Stakeholders' Alliance meeting disagree.
"I believe that wasn't the intention of the framers of the Constitution," Alisha Johnson says. "Everyone wants to talk about strict interpretation. I don't think that was the intention. At the time they wanted to count everybody."
A flyer given to attendees of the meeting teaches this: African Americans are in the third stage of domination and control by the white community. The first stage was slavery, the second stage was racial segregation, and the final stage is colonialism.
We asked an organizer what that "colonialism" means in this context.
"The way you treat people in this country as colonies inside other countries," Leroy Johnson says. "You deprive them of some of the things they need as part of their rights."
JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - The gathering Saturday at Capital City Alternative School aimed to inform people of all races and backgrounds why they should get counted in the Census.
The Mississippi Census Stakeholders' Alliance says some demographic groups are hard for Census takers to reach, whether by their own choice, or by the fault of the Census taker.
"Young people, communities in poverty, communities of color, especially black men are hard to count," says Leroy Johnson, Executive Director of Southern Echo, which co-sponsored the meeting.
Illegal immigrants may not answer their doors for fear of the government discovering them, says Alisha Johnson, Development Director for the Mississippi Immigrants' Rights Alliance (MIRA).
"When the forms get to the home, whether or not they're understood, what is being required of me, what is gonna be done," are some of the worries immigrants have, she says.
There's conflict over whether non-U.S. citizens who live and work in this country should be counted.
U.S. Senator Roger Wicker supports a bill that calls for a question on the Census: Are you or are you not a U.S. citizen?
"We ought to allocate our congressional seats, our electoral college based on the number of citizens that are there," Senator Wicker says.
But organizers at the Stakeholders' Alliance meeting disagree.
"I believe that wasn't the intention of the framers of the Constitution," Alisha Johnson says. "Everyone wants to talk about strict interpretation. I don't think that was the intention. At the time they wanted to count everybody."
A flyer given to attendees of the meeting teaches this: African Americans are in the third stage of domination and control by the white community. The first stage was slavery, the second stage was racial segregation, and the final stage is colonialism.
We asked an organizer what that "colonialism" means in this context.
"The way you treat people in this country as colonies inside other countries," Leroy Johnson says. "You deprive them of some of the things they need as part of their rights."
Salter asks: Should the Census ask citizenship question?
Sid Salter writes in Sunday's Clarion Ledger about the current controversy regarding whether or not Census 2010 questionnaires should include a question about citizenship. What do you think?
From his column...
The notion that the Constitution guarantees representation in the U.S. House of Representatives to noncitizens is one that seems contradictory on its face.
That notion suggests that if a planeload of Russians lands in Attala County, they immediately become entitled to representation in the U.S. House of Representatives and that they should be counted by the Census Bureau in order to apportion Mississippi's congressional districts.
14th Amendment
Yet that's exactly what some constitutional scholars suggest to be the fact under the 14th Amendment and what they suggest is "settled law." George Mason University professor Michael P. McDonald, who studies the drawing of congressional districts, recently told The Washington Times newspaper that constitutional language is clear and that congressional seats must be allocated based on the total number of people - including illegal immigrants.
Every decade, the 435 seats in the House are divided among the states based on population. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution says (in part): "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed."
But should that number include noncitizen illegal immigrants?
In a Wall Street Journal essay in August, Louisiana State University constitutional law professor John S. Baker and Louisiana demographic analyst Elliott Stonecipher countered McDonald's assessment: "Next year's census will determine the apportionment of House members and Electoral College votes for each state. To accomplish these vital constitutional purposes, the enumeration should count only citizens and persons who are legal, permanent residents. But it won't. Instead, the U.S. Census Bureau is set to count all persons physically present in the country - including large numbers who are here illegally."
From his column...
The notion that the Constitution guarantees representation in the U.S. House of Representatives to noncitizens is one that seems contradictory on its face.
That notion suggests that if a planeload of Russians lands in Attala County, they immediately become entitled to representation in the U.S. House of Representatives and that they should be counted by the Census Bureau in order to apportion Mississippi's congressional districts.
14th Amendment
Yet that's exactly what some constitutional scholars suggest to be the fact under the 14th Amendment and what they suggest is "settled law." George Mason University professor Michael P. McDonald, who studies the drawing of congressional districts, recently told The Washington Times newspaper that constitutional language is clear and that congressional seats must be allocated based on the total number of people - including illegal immigrants.
Every decade, the 435 seats in the House are divided among the states based on population. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution says (in part): "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed."
But should that number include noncitizen illegal immigrants?
In a Wall Street Journal essay in August, Louisiana State University constitutional law professor John S. Baker and Louisiana demographic analyst Elliott Stonecipher countered McDonald's assessment: "Next year's census will determine the apportionment of House members and Electoral College votes for each state. To accomplish these vital constitutional purposes, the enumeration should count only citizens and persons who are legal, permanent residents. But it won't. Instead, the U.S. Census Bureau is set to count all persons physically present in the country - including large numbers who are here illegally."
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