{"id":1169,"date":"2020-01-21T20:49:42","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T03:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1169"},"modified":"2020-01-21T20:49:42","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T03:49:42","slug":"idaho-poverty-and-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1169","title":{"rendered":"Idaho; Poverty and Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Garrett and Emily Strizich receiving the Rosa Parks Award at the Latah County Human Rights Task Force breakfast for their work on Proposition 2 to expand Medicaid in Idaho.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Governor Little has a sense of justice. And he\u2019s acting on\nit. He\u2019s fighting poverty in Idaho, though he doesn\u2019t freely use the term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week we remember Martin Luther King. He fought against\nracial injustice but more, he knew poverty was a millstone around the neck,\npreventing young children from developing the content of character by which he\nfamously called for us to judge them. But many rise up out of poverty and grow\ntheir character, and indeed, grow their wealth. Justice guards that path from\npoverty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Idaho, as well as nationally poverty is defined based on monthly\nincome; this gives us the measure \u201cFederal Poverty Level\u201d. Many dispute these\nterms, but if you are going to measure something, you need to be consistent. I\u2019ll\nuse it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you look at that national designation, Idaho is actually pretty\nlow, with only 11% below 100% FPL, ranking us near the bottom. Nationally,\nnearly 14% live below 100% FPL. But if you look a little higher, folks making\nless than 200% of the FPL, we jump up to the top third, with 34% earning less\nthan $2082\/month. Nationally, only about 30% earn less than 200% of FPL. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Idaho has poverty, but more, we have many folks working\nhard and not making a lot. We are a low wage state. That pathway out of\npoverty, guarded by justice is paved with education. Idaho folks would benefit\ngreatly from the opportunity of education, a free, common, uniform education,\nas our Idaho Constitution guarantees. Our founders knew it; Brad knows it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Governor Little knows, for primary education to be\nvaluable and effective, the ability for students to read at grade level when\nthey reach third grade is a key indicator. Most of those that can\u2019t struggle\ngoing on in the grades; many of those that can will thrive. He has committed\ninvestment toward early reading capabilities. It is a worthwhile investment.\nAnd, as always, there is more to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other move Governor Little has made for justice in Idaho\nhas to do with the recently released criminal offenders. Idaho has one of the\nhighest incarceration rates in the country. Over a third of those in the system\nare there for crimes involving drugs or alcohol. Furthermore, Idaho has the\nhighest recidivism rate (people released, then returned to prison). So, we\nincarcerate many with fixed sentences for drug violations, and when they are\nreleased, they often go back to jail or prison for parole violations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reintegrating offenders takes an investment. The recently\npassed Medicaid Expansion law will help felons in need of medical care, since,\nodds are they will be working a pretty low wage job that might not offer health\ninsurance benefits. Brad knows this value and knows the investment is worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Governor Little knows the path for released offenders\nfrom the structured chaos of the prison environment to the goal of productive\ncommunity members would benefit from sign posts; limited structure. He has put\nfunding to operate a community reintegration center in Twin Falls. Low risk offenders\nwill live there in a supervised setting, continuing programs and working in the\ncommunity before being released. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work gives more than a paycheck. It\u2019s a place to build\nrelationships, confidence, skills and value. And people need more than money to\nclimb out of poverty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I appreciate our governor\u2019s commitment to justice. All\npeople deserve our respect and all, under our Constitution have the right of\njustice. But making positive steps forward take time. And there is more to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To quote Martin Luther King:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 If you can’t\nfly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but\nwhatever you do you have to keep moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor Little has a sense of justice. And he\u2019s acting on it. He\u2019s fighting poverty in Idaho, though he doesn\u2019t freely use the term. This week we remember Martin Luther King. He fought against racial injustice but more, he knew … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1171,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions\/1171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}