The Challenge Why Kalamazoo Needs a Well-Coordinated Strategy to Promote Shared Prosperity Prepared by Tim Ready Lewis Walker Institute Western Michigan University August 27, 2015

Poverty in Kalamazoo: 2000 and 2013 * Child poverty data depicted by the red columns are for the three-year period of

Child Poverty in Kalamazoo:* Percentile Ranking among All US Cities with at Least 65,000 People % PoorNational Percentile Rank for Poverty All Children: 46%96 th Percentile White Children 33%95 th Percentile Black Children 64% 93 rd Percentile Hispanic Children 43% 79 th Percentile * American Community Survey, ** Although poverty rates appear to be decreasing slightly in some parts of the community, Kalamazoo continues to have a higher child poverty rate than nine out of ten cities in the U.S.

Percent of Kalamazoo Adults, 25 to 64, who Are Employed, by Educational Attainment, 2013

Work Status of Kalamazoo Residents, Age 16 and Older

Percent of Kalamazoo Adults in Poverty by Employment Status, 2011

Why Are So Many Men in Kalamazoo Not Working?

High Poverty Neighborhoods Concentrated Poverty (not just individual and family poverty): – Is hazardous to health – Undermines education outcomes – Increases the risk of involvement in criminal justice system 12 of 25 Kalamazoo Census Tracts Have Concentrated Poverty (At Least 30 Percent of Residents in Poverty)

Top to Bottom Ranking of Kalamazoo County Public Schools by Percentage of Economically Disadvantaged Students, 2013 In Percent Percentile Ranking among Michigan Schools The percentage of economically disadvantaged students in a school accounts for 76 percent of the variation among Kalamazoo County public schools in the Michigan Department of Education’s 2013 Top-to- Bottom Ranking of all of the state’s public schools R =.872 R 2 =.760

Child Poverty as Related to the American Ideal of Equal Opportunity for All Source: Greg Duncan, Stanford University Pathways, winter, 2011

More Broadly Shared Prosperity Our Challenge and Our Opportunity