Dig a little deeper

A few weeks ago I heard about a move that the Obama administration made to move the US Census out of the commerce department and into the White House. Now, on the surface, one might say, "no big deal." That was actually my response at first too. What's the big deal, they're just counting people anyways, right? Listen to this and I'll see if I can't convince you that it could actually be a bigger deal then one might realize.

The National Center on Family Homelessness released a report on Tuesday estimating that 1.5 million american kids went through some sort of homelessness in 2005-2006. The only problem with that statistic? It's only off by 1.17 million children. Yes, 1.17 million. And not under, it's over. In reality, there were only 330,000 children who experienced TRUE homelessness in 2005-2006. That's a massive difference. The difference comes from how the National Center on Family Homelessness defines "homeless" and how the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines homeless. The National Center includes in the definition of homeless any kids who stayed with a friend or family member or even stayed in a private shelter. Whereas the Department of Housing and Urban Development defines homeless as literally homeless (not having any place to stay).

Now again, why does this make a big deal? Well, the feds send money to the states to help pay for education of the "homeless" kids. So, if you can skew the results by over a million kids, that means a WHOLE lot more money goes to the states when in reality, they shouldn't be getting that money. So how does this tie into the census? I'm glad you asked!

Now that the census reports directly to the White House, they no longer have to get congressional approval to change policies (such as how thing are defined) which means that the White House can define things however they want and they don't even have to make it public that they want to change it. Is this the reason the Obama administration moved the census? There is no evidence that points directly to it, but at the same time, there's no real good evidence that points to it being a good move either.

So that's my take on the census. I don't see how it's a good idea that census report directly to the White House. It only means less transparency and accountability (2 things this administration promised more of).