It\u2019s hard to keep track of the\nimportant news when living through what increasingly appears to be a\npandemic. Justifiably, public officials\nare focusing attention on the emerging coronavirus public threat. That threat is certainly real, but the focus\nobscures public attention on other important issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just such an issue is the census and\nthat issue is beginning to heat up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, some background. The U.S. Constitution mandates that each\ndecade the nation counts its population and it has been doing so since 1790.\nThe U.S. census counts every resident<\/em> in the United States. The goal of the 2020 Census is to count\neveryone who lives in the United States as of April 1, 2020<\/em> (Census\nDay). Census statistics are used to determine\nthe number of seats each state holds in the U.S. House of Representatives and\ninforms how billions of dollars in federal funds will be allocated by state,\nlocal and federal lawmakers annually for the next 10 years. Beginning this week \u2013 March 12th<\/sup> \u2013\nhouseholds across the nation will be able to respond online, by phone or by\nmail to questions posed by the census. Federal funds, grants and support to\nstates, counties and communities are based on population totals and breakdowns\nby sex, age, race and other factors. Community\nbenefits the most when the census counts everyone. When all respond to the\ncensus, communities gets its share of the more than $675 billion per year in\nfederal funds spent on schools, hospitals, roads, public works and other vital\nprograms, and they get their fair share if the census is accurate and complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New York faces significant challenges\nin achieving a complete count for the 2020 Census. In many parts of the\ncountry, the self-response rate in the 2010 census was significantly higher\nthan in New York. Wisconsin had the most successful response rate with 85\npercent, while New York was 45th in the nation with a 76 percent response\nrate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Given that New York is second only to\nCalifornia in having the highest percentage of foreign-born residents (22\npercent) in the country, confusion by these residents could lead to a\nsubstantial undercount. Within New York,\nthe boroughs of New York City and the surrounding suburban counties have the\nhighest percentage of foreign-born residents. \nFive upstate counties estimate that they have double-digit percentages\nof foreign-born residents; Putnam, Tompkins, Dutchess, Orange, and Albany. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\naddition, colleges pose unique challenges. \nThere\u2019s the challenge of simply informing students, a majority of whom\nhave never participated in the decennial census, about the detailed\nquestionnaire they will be receiving from the federal government and why it’s\nimportant to fill it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nspread of misinformation on social media, misconceptions on how students are\ncounted and propaganda campaigns that generate mistrust in government are also\nbarriers that could impact student participation. A controversial plan by the Trump\nadministration to add a question about citizenship status on the census\nquestionnaire, while ultimately struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has\nalready made some students and immigrants distrust the government’s motives for\ndoing the count and will likely discourage participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To\nmake matters worse, scam artists can use it as an opportunity to con people out\nof private information. They may pretend\nto be from the census. We all know that\nthieves are always looking for ways to steal personal info and then use it to\ncommit identity theft and other frauds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\norder to protect yourself from a scam, remember that census takers must show a\nphoto ID with the U.S. Department of Commerce seal. Second, the Census Bureau will never ask for\nyour full Social Security number, bank account or credit card numbers, money or\ndonations, or anything on behalf of a political party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite\nall of that, however, answering the census really does matter \u2013 it matters\npolitically, economically and socially. \nThis week marks the beginning of that once-in-a-decade responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s\nmake sure we all get counted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s hard to keep track of the important news when living through what increasingly appears to be a pandemic. Justifiably, public officials are focusing attention on the emerging coronavirus public threat. That threat is certainly real, but the focus obscures public attention on other important issues. Just such an issue is the census and that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2371,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions\/2371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nThe census asks questions of people in homes and group living situations,\nincluding how many people live or stay in each home, and the sex, age and race\nof each person. The goal is to count\neveryone once, only once, and in the right place \u2013 the place where they live as\nof April 1st<\/sup>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n