Why the Census Matters at Street Level
By Albert B. Kelly
You might wonder why I am thinking about the census right
now, especially since the next one isn’t to be done for another 2-plus years in
2020. But there’s a lot riding on the census and quite frankly, we should be a
little concerned about whether or not the count is going to be accurate.
Aside from the fact that the Director of the Census Bureau
up and quite weeks ago, the new administration in DC has denied the Census
Bureau’s request for additional funds to carry out this once a decade
(decennial) head count.
Why should that matter? Because so many decisions are tied
in one way or another to what the census count finds in every corner of the
country. Whether we’re talking about Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
funds, money for transportation and roads, education funding, or a hundred
other decisions that impact a community – it goes back to the census.
We should also be concerned because we have an
administration that has made immigration a battle line. With the fear of
deportation widespread, it means that there will be a certain percentage of
people who will not want to be noticed let alone answer questionaries’ and be
counted as part of the census process.
An undercount in any community, big or small, means that a
given community might not qualify for certain funding at the state and federal
level. It will also mean that in terms of grant and loan programs, these same
communities might lose eligibility because of an inaccurate count.
In Bridgeton, our population in 1990 was 18,942. In the 2000
census, our number came in at 22,774. After the 2010 census, our number bumped
up to 25,349. Through all of these counts, more than a few suspected that these
numbers were soft; meaning that there were several thousand that got missed in
the count.
Yet, whether the count is accurate or whether it misses a
few thousand people, we still have still have to provide the necessary public
services through our schools, in our physical infrastructure, in our public
health and first responder infrastructure, or in meeting housing and employment
needs.
But it goes beyond the local level. Statewide, it goes to
our representation in Congress. Having an accurate head count means that each
state will have the necessary number of Representatives in the House. While the
issue of redistricting is its own mess worthy of a separate discussion, it
starts with getting our numbers right on the ground.
The process of administering the census count takes years of
preparation ahead of actually putting workers out in the highways and byways of
our country. After a census is completed, the Census Bureau spends the first
few years crunching and digesting the numbers. Just about the time they get a
handle on that, it’s time to begin getting ready for the next head count.
This preparation includes field tests, setting up field
offices, getting forms ready, hiring personnel, training census takers, and
whatever else is part of the process. Underfunding the census will have serious
impacts on regions, states, and communities.
Some have argued that we should just do away with the traditional
census count and handle things as we might through a poll or something similar.
With technology, this seems tempting, but we should think long and hard before we
institute something that can be hacked or tampered with digitally.
If there is one thing that we should strive for, it is a
Census Bureau that is fully funded, fully staffed, and not connected with any
one administration’s policy agenda or ideology. If the census is perceived to
be a threat to any group in the community, they will do everything in their
power not to be counted or even noticed.
This lack of an accurate count will have ramifications that
would impact communities for many years to come and if my guess is right, this
impact would be felt more in urban communities, minority communities and places
where inequality is already in play.
With that in mind, it is important that we be counted,
especially here at the local level. Given the current climate, my hope is that
the Census Bureau will take proactive steps to ensure that administering the
census will not be a cause for fear among any single group in our community. We
need to know our numbers.