As a teacher, I’m giving you a deadline…Tomorrow is the final day for you to mail in your completed Census forms!
What happens you don’t remember to send it in? It ends up costing the tax-payers more money to complete the Census process.
For every 1 percent increase in the national participation rate by mail, the Census Bureau saves taxpayers $85 million by not having to send census takers door to door to households that failed to return the census form. If every household mailed back its 2010 Census form, taxpayers could reduce the cost of taking the census and save $1.5 billion. It costs the government just 42 cents for a postage paid envelope when a household mails back the form but costs on average about $57 per household to send a census taker.
And don’t forget to count every child in your Census form! Why?
Children have been undercounted in every census since the first one in 1790. Local communities rely on census information in planning for schools, child care, health and other critical services. Babies need to be counted today, so they can benefit tomorrow from community services.
Census counts are used, in whole or in part, for more than 140 programs that distribute more than $400 billion of federal funds to states and localities, including such child-focused programs as:
- Special Education Grants to states ($10.8 billion)
- Head Start ($6.9 billion)
- State Children’s Health Insurance Program ($5.9 billion)
- Foster Care Title IV-E ($4.7 billion)
- Improving Teacher Quality State Grants ($2.9 billion)
Unlike adults, who may bear some responsibility for making sure they are counted in the Census, children are dependent on others to make sure they are included. Yet in 1980, 1990, and 2000, Census Bureau data show children, particularly young children, are one of the groups most likely to be missed in the Census. In fact, in the 2000 Census, there was a net undercount of more than 1 million children under age 10.
Global Influence is working with 2010 Census to help spread this important message for the next week to all of the parents who read our blogs. We need your help to make sure that every child is reported so they can receive the services they will need in the future.
For more information about the importance of the Census, please feel free to visit my original post then fill out your Census form and drop it in the mail!
This post is a public service announcement done as part of a Global Influence campaign to promote the completion of the 2010 Census.
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Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
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