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Lois Henry: Poor ranking a way of life for Kern
| Saturday, Jul 26 2008 12:00 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Jul 29 2008 9:06 AM
OK, so we suck.
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By just about every measurable standard, the southern San Joaquin Valley is hardly a garden spot.
We’re either tops at the bad stuff (air pollution, teen pregnancy, pedestrians getting run over in crosswalks) or we’re at the bottom of the heap for the good stuff (income, education and, I’m not making this up, romance).
The latest entry in this never-ending parade of “why do we live here?” reports was “The Measure of America,” which came out earlier this month and looked at human development in terms of income, education and life expectancy.
In a nutshell, we’re poor, ignorant and shouldn’t make plans past the age of 77.
This report was somewhat more notable than all the rest in that it broke out its findings by congressional district. District 20 (represented by Jim Costa, D-Fresno, covering western Fresno and Kings counties then squiggling south through Delano and over to Lamont) was dead last of the nation’s 436 congressional districts. Dead last!
To be fair, the surrounding valley districts weren’t quite as bad, coming in at between 235 and 403. Collectively, though, we have lots of room for improvement.
The kicker is that Costa was right when he told the paper this latest report didn’t offer many new insights.
We’ve known for years how bad things are in the valley. If we didn’t know it anecdotally, a 2005 Congressional Research Services study commissioned by Costa and his fellow valley representatives put it in cold, hard numbers. The study was specifically designed for the valley reps to use as leverage to get more federal money for local programs.
We have squeezed more money out of the feds here and there, going from $3 billion to Kern for education, job training and health care programs in 2003 to $3.9 billion in 2006, according to Congressional Research Services. That seems like a decent chunk of change until you consider our demographics.
I’m talking about illegal immigration, so hold onto your hats.
First, some basic numbers:
Between 1995 and 2003, more than 104,000 foreign-born people came to the southern San Joaquin Valley, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. More than half of those people hadn’t finished high school and about half were poor, according to the institute.
Using Census figures from 2000, the most recent numbers, about 43 percent of Kern children living in poverty were foreign born.
So, we have a large influx of new people, many needy and many of them children, every year and it looks like a lot of them are settling here.
Back in 2005 The Californian took an exhaustive look at the cost of illegal immigration.
Studies are often tinged with politics so we hunted far and wide for objective numbers and did a lot of our own crunching. The bottom line was that illegal immigrants are a drain on resources — schools and health care mostly — even though the vast majority are working hard and paying taxes. The flip side, of course, is that illegal labor keeps costs low for consumers, people like you and me.
Even Marc Grossman, spokesman for the United Farm Workers union, agreed that a large illegal immigrant population also keeps wages low because they’re afraid to unionize and demand more. They also don’t climb the economic ladder as readily because employers with better paying jobs are more likely to check citizenship status, according to Steven P. Wallace, a professor at the UCLA School of Public Health who studies immigrant issues.
I asked Costa about the “Measure of America” report and illegal immigration and he told me that he and other valley reps have been working hard to get more federal money but the Bush administration has been tough on social programs.
When I pressed on the issue of illegal immigration, Costa chose his words carefully.
“Any region with a large population of immigrants is going to have more social and economic challenges,” he said. “But there is also a level of energy and dynamics that are beneficial. So, it’s always a two-sided coin with short-term challenges and long-term benefits.”
I disagree that these are “short-term” challenges. As Costa himself pointed out, the numbers in the “Measure of America” report aren’t new. In fact, they’ve been about the same — bad — for decades.
Illegal immigration was the news du jour for a brief time in Washington, D.C., but the issue proved too intractable.
Costa hoped a new administration would bring new energy to the problem.
I wish I shared his optimism, but I’m betting next year, and probably the next and on into the future, about all we can expect are more reports with more dismal numbers.
Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com.