KIDS COUNT REPORT Poverty puts potent clamps on kids

This is the second in a two-part series about the well-being and educational progress of children in the state overall and North Idaho specifically, based on just-released national and statewide data.

TODAY: Kootenai County and the rest of North Idaho may look better statistically than the rest of Idaho, but some serious problems remain.

By STEVE CAMERON

Staff Writer

Statistics can be a cold knife, but sometimes they cut straight to the heart of a problem.

For instance, North Idaho generally and Kootenai County to a lesser degree face basic standard-of-living issues that impact education in the region.

Consider: More than a quarter (27.3 percent) of children in Kootenai County live in households receiving Supplemental Security Income, cash public assistance income or food stamps, according to new data released in the 2017 KIDS COUNT report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Those numbers rise to 35.5 percent in Benewah County and 36.6 percent in Shoshone County.

Or this: In Kootenai County, more than half (56.8 percent) of children under 6 have all available parents working — thus ruling out home preschool activities.

Or this: The Coeur d'Alene School District counted 409 homeless students during the 2015-16 session, of whom nine were preschool age.

The district's projections suggest the number of homeless students overall may increase to 475 - 500 per year.

Most of these depressing statistics look better in Kootenai County and the surrounding area than across Idaho as a whole, but they obviously point to the fact that many parents here face increasing struggles as they try to make sure their kids are getting a good education — from infancy onward.

Difficulties start early: Lack of any state pre-K funding means most of those working families must find money for acceptable preschool programs.

That isn't easy, since roughly 26 percent of low-income family money is spent on child care.

The area does have several agencies fighting to help, including the various school districts.

In the preschool age range, there is a regional Early Head Start program that begins its assistance during a mother's pregnancy; Head Start itself for pre-K children; the United Way of North Idaho; the Panhandle Health District and several more.

Beth Ann Fuller, director of the regional Head Start program at North Idaho College, said she has 280 federally funded slots and another 13 allocated by the state with extra federal money.

Unlike many other programs designed to help financially challenged families and their children, Head Start has 52 years of history and appears likely to be safe from any large cuts that have been discussed in Congress under the Trump administration.

“But if we see cuts,” Fuller said, “then just like so many others that need outside funding, we're going to have even more people falling through the safety net.”

The United Way, meanwhile, sponsors a program called: “READY! FOR KINDERGARTEN,” which helps parents give their children basic education at home.

“Showing parents how they can help is a direct way to give these kids preparation for kindergarten and beyond, because they can't afford to get behind other children of their age,” said Executive Director Mark Tucker.

The Panhandle Health District, which serves all five counties in North Idaho, offers a child care resource center to help preschool providers, and gives educational toys along with library access to families who request help.

All of this early education emphasis is supposed to pay off later, when today's tots are tomorrow's employees. But the KIDS COUNT research carries more local warning signs.

Among young adults in the state (ages 25-34), only 33 percent have a post-secondary degree or certification of any kind — at a time when demand for some type of degree (including tech school work) continues to rise for most jobs.

That degree/certificate figure is even lower in Kootenai County at 32 percent.

Failing to push post-secondary education numbers higher would be disastrous in Idaho, as state officials have acknowledged.

“Improvement has to happen there, so it's an area that we give a lot of emphasis,” said Trina Caudle, acting superintendent for the Coeur d'Alene School District. “We have our CDA4Kids after-school program, and besides using that for additional educational and cultural support, it's exciting that we're doing instruction in things like coding and robotics.

“We're aware of the shift to needs in mechanical and tech skills, and we have college and career advisors to help students look at the future.

“You know, thinking of four-year universities is fine, but some students have the interest and skills that suggest looking in a tech direction. Why not? There are welders who make more money than I do.

“It only makes sense that we try to anticipate what the workplace needs will be down the road, and tailor some of our instruction in different directions as we go.

“Information about technology and similar jobs tells us all we need to know, so we have to keep working to reach the right kind of goals — not just pushing kids through school.”