Census Bureau wants YOU

The Census Bureau has launched a $102.8 million advertising campaign, buying prime-time slots on television and radio in an effort to get people to fill out the forms they will receive in the mail next spring.

The response rate for census forms has fallen steadily for decades and was predicted to be only 55 percent without the ad campaign. With the ads, the bureau is expecting 61 percent returns, still lower than the 1990 rate of 65 percent. The bureau's research indicates that response rates are falling because of mistrust of the government and because the forms are getting lost in growing piles of junk mail.

The new ads emphasize the loss to the community when residents are not counted. About $180 billion a year in federal funds, including money for Title I and other education programs, is allocated on the basis of census figures.

In 1990, the bureau estimates that it missed 4 million people. The undercount was 5 percent for Latinos, 4.4 percent for African-Americans, 12.2 percent for American Indians, and less than 1 percent for Whites.

Since the census is used to apportion seats in the House of Representatives, areas with large numbers of uncounted residents--mostly large cities--have fewer seats than they are entitled to.

The bureau is asking for help from teachers in reducing the undercount, especially those who teach large numbers of children from undercounted groups.

The bureau has produced lesson plans for grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12 for teaching about the census while also meeting curriculum objectives. Free lesson plan kits can be downloaded from the Census 2000 part of the bureau's Web site, www.census.gov. The kits include letters for children to take home to their parents, encouraging them to return their census forms.

American Federation of Teachers, AFL•CIO - 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20001