Colorado families have a good opportunity to achieve the American Dream. The economy is rebounding, most workers earn enough to get ahead and residents are healthier compared to those in other states.
But for low-income and many minority residents, the state of opportunity in Colorado ranges from fair to poor.
Fewer low-income and minority kids graduate from high school, and if they attend college they are more likely to earn low-level degrees. Low-income residents are less likely to have health insurance coverage, and most have little or no savings for retirement or an emergency.
And even for middle-income families, opportunity is dwindling for an affordable college education and for health care coverage.
In a new report, the Bell Policy Center assessed the opportunities available to Colorado residents, from newborns to retirees.
The 102-page report, “Colorado: The State of Opportunity 2005,” looks at 39 indicators and makes 55 recommendations to legislators and the business community for improving opportunity in the state.
If the public and private sector work together on these recommendations, our state will be stronger. After all, it’s in Colorado’s best interest to give each of its residents the opportunity to succeed. People who are educated, healthy and have good jobs will give more and take less from society.
The Bell Center’s study of opportunity is based on a simple philosophy: Anyone who works hard should have the opportunity to succeed. It’s an idea central to our history and culture.
For most residents, that work-to-succeed rubric holds true. But for as many as 32 percent of Coloradans, opportunity is harder to grasp.
Of Colorado’s children, 32 percent live in low-income households, 28 percent of third-graders can’t read at their grade level and 31 percent don’t graduate from high school. Of Colorado’s ninth-graders, just 40 percent will go to college directly from high school, and only 28 percent return for a second year.
Among working-age adults, 18 percent don’t have health insurance and 26 percent don’t have enough savings to live at the federal poverty level if they’re out of work for three months.
Colorado does fare better than many other states on these indicators. But that comparison doesn’t help the youngster who gets a slow start in school and drops out of high school, or the motivated college student who can’t scrape together the money for tuition, fees, books and paying the rent.
It doesn’t help the worker who puts off seeing the doctor until a health problem becomes a crisis, or the family that becomes homeless when the breadwinner is out of work.
Colorado loses in two ways when residents can’t achieve the American Dream: The state’s social services bear added costs, and its workforce and economy lose a worker and taxpayer.
The new report also targets the barriers that prevent some residents from reaching their full potential. The Bell Center’s recommendations are solid ideas for action. They include calls to:
These proposals would need legislative approval.
Raising the excise tax on liquor, however, would also require approval from voters statewide. And raising the minimum wage would need the endorsement of the business community to succeed.
Meanwhile, the business community can take action right away on another of Bell’s key proposals: making employee enrollment in a 401(k) retirement plan automatic, so workers must opt out instead of opt in.
Only 52 percent of families nationwide have started saving for retirement, and the median value of their accounts as of 2001 was just $29,000. How far will that go in another 10, 20 or 30 years?
Experiments with automatic enrollment programs show that more workers will start to build their retirement savings if they have to take action to get out of the program rather than get in. Savings in these test runs increased the most among low-wage workers, those who will most need a retirement nest egg.
Colorado has a head start in providing economic security for retirees and all families.
We are a prosperous state with a low poverty rate, a well-educated workforce and a dynamic economy. In general, our challenges are less daunting and our capacity to meet those challenges is greater than for other states. But we can still do better for our state’s working families.
We have a moral obligation to use our prosperity to spread opportunity, to give anyone who works hard the opportunity to succeed.
Heather McGregor is communications director for the Bell Policy Center. The report “Colorado: A State of Opportunity 2005” is available on the Bell Policy Center’s website, .
