2020 Census Resources – NCL
In the spring of 2020, households across the United States will be asked to participate in the census. We know that the census is critically important for a number of reasons. First, it determines how many representatives each state gets in Congress, and the results are used to redraw district boundaries. Second, communities rely on census data to make decisions about how to spend money and distribute resources. Finally, the federal government distributes more than $675 billion annually to states and communities based on Census Bureau statistics. In a nutshell, communities that are falsely underrepresented on the census because of low response rates run the risk of not having as loud of a voice in Congress and not receiving all of the funds that they are entitled to.
With so much riding on an accurate count, it is vitally important that we, as ABE professionals, help our learners to understand what the census is and why they should respond. Quite simply, we need to help them navigate this system. The National Coalition for Literacy (NCL) has put together a collection of resources to help Adult Education professionals talk about the census and help learners understand why their participation is vitally important.