Santa Cruz County was healthy, wealthy, and wise, but will it last for long?
Every year, the United Way contracts with Applied Survey Research (ASR) to release a fat book of data on Santa Cruz County. Called the Community Assessment Project (CAP) Report , the release of the book is a joyous time for number hounds and trend watchers, and it’s mandatory study material for anyone involved in making policy for county residents.
What’s particularly interesting about this year’s report is that the national mood swing since last summer is not reflected in its results. As the report authors state in the introduction, “The majority of the data in this report were collected prior to the severe global economic crisis in the fall of 2008. Therefore, most of the data in this report will not reflect the downturn in the economy and its impact on the daily lives of residents.” Most of the hard economic figures are from 2007, which makes the “Year 14” report, as it’s known, a snapshot of a happy calm before the storm.
So, with that grain of salt (and perhaps the chorus of “The Way We Were” unspooling in your mind), let’s take a look at three of the report segments to see how everybody’s doing.
Health
A record percentage of Santa Cruz County residents are insured (91 percent overall, compared to 81 percent 10 years ago), and the most dramatic increase has come for the Latino population, now reporting as 78 percent insured, compared to 58 percent in 2003. There are also record highs in the percentage of people with dental insurance and those who report “five or more days” a week of exercise for at least 30 minutes (just over half of the county).
People are also partying less, and not as happy with those who do enjoy a good time at the expense of their health. A full 89.3 percent of adults responded they haven’t had more than five drinks in a sitting, up 6 percent from 2005. The number of people who find recreational marijuana use acceptable—a figure that has hovered between 25 and 30 percent since the beginning of the CAP Report—suddenly plummeted to 17.5 percent this time. And the number of non-smokers (tobacco) is a hair above 90 percent, compared to 73.6 percent in 2002. Then again, cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea are at all time highs.
Economy
Here’s where the rear-view mirror is particularly polished, with an increase in the number of residents reporting they’re better off than last year—but what’s really stated is they were better off last year than they were in 2006. The jury’s still out on 2008, but few people are expecting the trend to continue in a positive direction.
The most important numbers in the whole book are probably the return to calculating self-sufficiency income standards, which haven’t been updated since 2003. By taking into account housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, taxes, and miscellaneous expenses, the CAP Report came up with a annual salary and corresponding hourly wage that’s necessary to avoid poverty in Santa Cruz County. The numbers are much higher than the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), and point to the extreme economy in which our county operates. A single adult must make $13.45 an hour to be self-sufficient ($28,400 annually); a single parent with two kids must make $21.55 an hour ($45,500 annually); and a couple with two kids must make $15.56 an hour each (combining for $65,700 annually). The FPL for those respective situations, in terms of annual salary, is $10,400, $17,600, and $21,200. In short, the poverty threshold in Santa Cruz is three times higher than the federal government realizes.
The report also lists average hourly wages for several industries, and based on those figures, an employed single person is likely to be living in poverty (earning less than $13.45 an hour) if they work as an office clerk, file clerk, data entry keyer, cashier, child care worker, or restaurant cook.
And then there are the foreclosures. Between the fourth quarter of 2006 and the second quarter of 2007, there were 460 homes foreclosed. Fast forward to the same time frame a year later, and the number has jumped to 1,290. Yikes.
Education
Here’s a strange fact: STAR test scores for ninth graders are up in English language, general mathematics, geometry, and biology, but parents are unhappy with the county’s high schools—only 35 percent said they were “very satisfied” with the state of high school education, compared to 56 percent in 2005. Despite, or maybe because of, parent grumbling, 49 of the 51 schools in the county posted a higher Academic Performance Index (API) this year.
Parents are also participating more than ever, at least at the elementary level, where 67 percent reported taking a part in schooling “often” compared to 45 percent in 2003. Participation levels for middle and high schools, however, hover around 20 percent, about 10 percent less than five years ago.
Fewer students are taking the SAT and ACT tests, and those that do take the stalwarts of college entry exams aren’t doing as well, with an average SAT score of 1567, compared to 1591 last academic year. (Remember, the SAT changed its scoring scale to a total of 2400 a few years ago, so if you brag about your perfect 1600 to a high school kid today, they might wonder how you got into Stanford.)
The number of respondents saying that bilingual education is “very important” dropped from 59.7 percent in 2005 to 46.2 percent in this report. Annual drop-out rates for Latino children are around 8 percent, compared to less than 1 percent between 2002 and 2005. Drop-out rates for African American children also used to hover around zero, but went up to 4.1 percent in 2005/2006, and an alarming 15.2 percent in 2006/2007.
For all your number needs, you can download the full CAP report for free.
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