Education is the Answer (Editorial)

There’s been plenty of bad economic news coming out of what Texas commentator Jim Hightower calls the “Doug Jones Average,” the economic indicators for average Americans.r

The news for the Doug Joneses in Arkansas has been particularly bad. Arkansas is neck-and-neck with Mississippi for the title of highest percentage of poor citizens. The “Natural State” and the “Magnolia State” had a two-year average of 18.8 and 18.9 percent for 2001-02, according to a new U.S. Census Report. But Arkansas’ tiny advantage disappears when considering a three-year average: Arkansas alone reached 18 percent.r

Either way, nearly one in five Arkansans is living below the federal poverty line, which in 2002 was $18,392 for a family of four.r

Arkansas and Mississippi were among eight states where the Census Bureau found a significant increase in poverty last year. All the others had enviable rates by comparison.r

While the national poverty figure was on the upswing, it still came in below 12 percent. But Arkansas’ unemployment rate remains firmly below the national average, which can only lead to one conclusion: Even working Arkansans are more likely to be living in poverty.r

The number of uninsured Arkansans is also on the rise. That only 16.2 percent of our residents are without health insurance, when more than that are living in abject poverty, is a testament to Medicaid and ARKids First. Nationally, 15.2 percent of Americans are on their own when it comes to health care.r

So let’s consider the reasons so many Arkansans should be living the hard life.r

Is it because we are a small state? New Hampshire, which has fewer than half as many residents, has the lowest poverty rate in the country.r

Is it because we are a Southern state? Virginia’s poverty rate is less than half of Arkansas’. r

Tempted to blame it on minorities? Michigan has the same ratio of white citizens to minorities, yet its poverty rate is 10.5 percent.r

A more likely culprit is the fact that Arkansans are less likely to have high school diplomas and much less likely to have college degrees. In point of shameful fact, the Doug Joneses of Arkansas are more likely to be living below the poverty level than they are to have a bachelor’s degree.r

When small school superintendents object to Gov. Huckabee’s plans for radical reform in the state’s education system, ask yourself what the system they want to preserve has done for Arkansas.