Michigan needs stronger foundations for state’s young adults to thrive

A version of this column originally appeared in The Alpena News.

On Dec. 27, I turned 25 and am officially on the other side of “young adulthood.”

According to research, my frontal lobe is fully developed, which is probably why I can already feel the advice my parents used to tell me finally clicking! However, I recognize that young adulthood is such a weird time — you aren’t quite an adult (you still call mom to ask her what to say when making a doctor’s appointment), but you are no longer a child (you do your own laundry and pay your own bills).

A new brief from the Michigan League for Public Policy, “Who are Michigan’s Young Adults?,” explores data on young adults, ages 14 to 24, regarding the four domain areas analyzed by the Kids Count in Michigan Project: economic security, education, health and safety, and family and community.

Honestly, much of my own experience as a young adult is reflected back to me in that data. I have been part of the young adults living in poverty, without health insurance, and who have a high housing cost burden, and I can confirm firsthand the stress that being financially unstable has on all other domains of life.

I also graduated college — as a first-generation student — and received a Master in Public Policy degree without support from my academic institutions and having to learn to navigate barriers to state and federal support. Those are policies and programs that were created to help improve outcomes in education, health, and economic stability, but navigating the systems can be challenging, and there are barriers throughout the process.

Overall, young adults in Michigan are more likely to live in poverty, report poorer mental health, and are less likely to graduate on time than their national peers. In 2020, nearly one in four young adults ages 18 to 24 in Michigan were living in poverty, with young adults of color more likely to live in high-poverty areas than their white counterparts.

When young adults have the struggles of poverty vying for their time, energy, and incomes, they often are left unable to pay for necessities like education, medical care, and everyday living expenses.

In addition, nearly a quarter of young adults in Michigan lack access to a computer and high-speed internet, especially in rural communities, where broadband services are sparse and unreliable.

Counties like Alcona, Presque Isle, Montmorency, and Oscoda, for example, have lower rates of high-speed internet than other areas of the state. If young adults don’t have access to that critical technology, tasks like completing homework or working from home become difficult to accomplish, leading to problems that bleed into other aspects of their lives, like higher poverty and lower graduation rates.

But the picture isn’t completely bleak.

Young adults who have health insurance tend to have less expensive medical costs, leading to healthier behaviors and outcomes. And, in Michigan, 93% of young adults were covered by health insurance in 2019, compared to 89% nationwide.

Plus, the future looks brighter for young adults who will be leading our democracy in a few short years. We saw an uptick in young adults exercising their right to vote in both the last two midterm and presidential elections. We can continue to channel that newfound political energy into promoting policies like the ones below to help provide young adults support within the systems they need to thrive:

∫ Permanently extend the American Rescue Plan Act enhancements to the federal Earned Income Tax Credit.

∫ Increase cash assistance eligibility and benefit levels to support families in poverty.

∫ Adopt a true weighted school funding formula to fund schools based on community and student need.

∫ Address barriers young people may face in accessing school-based health services.

Looking back at my experiences, I can’t help but think of all of the ways in which my peers and I could have been better supported by improved state and federal policies.

Learning to balance growing up, creating new experiences, navigating school and work, and building a career, all the while trying to stay afloat to financially support yourself, can be extremely difficult — especially when we aren’t fully supported by economic policies. Policymakers need to realize that they can — and should — do more to help cultivate our growth and create an environment in which we thrive.