Yesterday, we reported that Escambia County is one of the worst counties in the nation for children of poor families as they try to move out of poverty. The county ranked 47th…from the bottom.
Leaders in other Florida counties have reacted to the study and have called for action.
A study on upward mobility highlighted on the front page of Monday’s New York Times ranks Hillsborough 98th out of the nation’s biggest 100 counties in terms of potential earning power for low-income people. Every extra year spent in Hillsborough reduces a child’s earnings by 0.67 percent, the study found.
That would equal a loss of $3,510 in income for someone who spends 20 years in Hillsborough compared with someone who lived in a state with average upward mobility. That’s about 13.5 percent less than the U.S. average level of household income at age 26 of $26,000.
Hillsborough ranked 98th. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said his city is addressing the issue.
“We are attempting to break that cycle of generational poverty,†Buckhorn said. “We’re trying to create an environment that doesn’t compound the problem and compact people into the same circumstances.â€
Leon County ranked 329th out of 2,478 counties. The Tallahassee chamber called the study flawed, but Commissioner Bill Proctor said Tallahassee could no longer afford to brush off such negative portrayals of Florida’s capital city.
“The New York Times sees it. Harvard sees it. University of Toronto sees it. They don’t have a stake in calling us out, we’ve earned it,†said Proctor.
A poor child growing in Escambia County will make $3,870 less by the time he/she reaches age 26 than if the child in an average county—Hillsborough $3,510 less; Leon $1,920 less.
What have we heard from our local political leaders? Crickets.