Census Bureau Counting on Children for Help

Cabinet officials will fan out to public schools around the country in the next two months as part of an administration plan to enlist children in convincing their immigrant and low-income parents to answer their Census 2000 questionnaires, President Clinton is expected to announce today.

Children accounted for about a quarter of the estimated 8.4 million people missed nationally by the last census in 1990, an undercount that cost California one congressional district and millions of federal dollars for children’s health care, education, roads, parks and libraries. The state accounted for about 10% of the total national undercount.

This year, minorities and immigrants are again among those most likely to be missed, and federal, state and local authorities are trying to minimize the undercount. Since Latinos and Asians are among the fastest-growing segments of the population, a repeat of 1990 could crimp state and local budgets for the remainder of the decade.

“Often, children were not counted in 1990 because parents were afraid of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and would not list their children,” said Maria Echaveste, White House deputy chief of staff. “It’s important to get the children to talk to the parents.”

Some 1 million classrooms, about 40% of the national total, will participate in the program. Children ranging from preschoolers in Head Start to 12th-graders will get classroom workshops on the census and educational materials to take home to their parents.

Clinton’s announcement will come during a speech here to a legislative conference of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a grass-roots civil rights organization. In his speech, the president also is expected to promote the candidacy of Vice President Al Gore.

White House polls show that Clinton enjoys an 83% favorable rating among likely Latino voters, while Gore’s ratings, at 64%, are significantly lower. The top GOP rivals, Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, have favorable ratings above 50% among Latinos.

The “Census in the Schools Program” is part of a long-standing practice of using children to try to change parental behavior. For example, many smokers have endured lectures and even confiscation of cigarettes from their children, who were taught at school that smoking causes cancer.

The program is part of a $4.8-billion effort by the government to ensure that the census is as complete as possible. In California, state and many local governments also are spending money to publicize the census, since their allocation of federal grant money is heavily based on population. For the first time, the federal program will include paid advertising.

The detailed census questionnaires can be especially intimidating for immigrants. Echaveste said children will be taught in their classrooms that the information gathered by the census will remain confidential.

Among the high-ranking administration officials who are expected to make classroom pitches for the census is Echaveste’s boss, Chief of Staff John Podesta. The visits will be used to try to generate local media coverage, particularly on ethnic television stations.

Census forms will be mailed in late March, and the count itself will take place in April.

It is estimated that the 1990 census failed to count some 800,000 people in California, many of them minorities and low-income city dwellers. If Census 2000 undercounts the state’s population by the same factor, an estimated 153,000 Los Angeles residents might be missed and the city could cumulatively lose some $240 million in federal funding.

Nationally, the 1990 census missed about 2% of Asian Americans, 5% of Latinos and 4% of blacks, according to estimates.