Census Undercount Has Harsh Impact on Nation's Disadvantaged
Feature Story by Janee Hayes - 8/20/2001
Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia stand to lose a total of $4 billion as a result of the 2000 Census undercount according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The study shows that the 2000 Census failed to accurately tally the population, particularly the poor, children and minorities, and as a result, these groups will likely lose programs and services that serve their communities.Dr. Gilbert Casellas, Presidential Co-Chair of the bipartisan Census Monitoring Board, reacted, "The undercount not only deprives Congress of its ability to direct federal funds where they are needed, it also denies taxpayers the right to have their money come back to their community in the form of federal program funds."
The programs that will suffer the most are those designed to help the disadvantaged, such as Medicaid, Foster Care, Substance Abuse Prevention Block Grants, and Vocational Education Basic Grants. States and counties with large metropolitan areas were the most adversely affected; many large counties will not only face losses due to the undercount, but they will also lose funds to other areas in the state that were more accurately counted.
Currently, states and localities are contesting the official 2000 Census counts and asking that adjusted numbers be used for apportioning federal funding. The Census Bureau is blocking those requests, though it admits that the official count missed 6.4 million people, disproportionately minority and poor while counting 3.1 million predominantly white, wealthy people twice.
