Valerie Butler teaches math in an overcrowded classroom in Houston, Texas. With 25 seats for 35 students, teaching is difficult at best. Angela Smith is a 90-year-old senior in Germantown, Md., looking for elder care services. An accurate Census count could solve these problems over the next 10 years, many Black organizations maintain.

"Political power, representation, money and programs are targeted to specific populations based on the Census count. It is the basis of what people will do for the next 10 years. Undercounting suggests the need is less than it is," explained Roderick Harrison, of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies� Databank and former chief of the Census Bureau�s Racial Statistics Branch.

The Census Bureau has spent $100 million on advertising to get the word out. Still ask the general population about the April 1 Census Day and, according to the U.S. Census Monitoring Board, only 42 percent of the people will know what you�re talking about.

Asking Blacks about Census Day, the Monitoring Board found only 30 percent, less than a third, knew what it was about. The lack of knowledge and confusion about the Census in the Black community is a major concern. "People believe the Census will be counted all year. There is only one day to count people for the next 10 years. Census Day is April 1," stressed Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Census 2000:
Money, power and respect?

The Constitution mandates a Census to determine representation in Congress, with the numbers used to allocate congressional seats, determine how state and local political districts will be drawn and monitor compliance with civil rights statues, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

For Blacks, Census 2000 is important to protect political power, lawmakers say.

Even with a severe undercount of the 1990 Census, 13 congressional districts were created with Black majorities or near majorities.

"The Congressional Black Caucus grew by 50 percent. Majority Black state legislative districts formed at the beginning of the decade also increased dramatically and similar gains were experienced by the Latino community," said David Ruffin, of the Joint Center, explaining the impact of the 1990 Census.

While some fear a Census bogeyman, Mr. Ruffin explained that Republicans fear a big count. "The Republicans fear that if African Americans and Latinos, who mostly vote for Democratic candidates, are fully counted, the GOP will lose seats in Congress and state legislatures," he said.

This 2000 count is not only about the power of the vote. According to the Census Bureau, $185 billion in federal funds is allocated to states and local jurisdictions based on its findings.

So much needed money for education, health care, emergency services, job training, public transportation and roads depends on how many people are counted.

"The people are there, they just weren�t counted. So when they show up for Medicaid services there are insufficient funds because they weren�t counted," said Rep. Clyburn. "This happens every year with education. We start off under funded and we start off with crowded schools and people wonder where did these kids come from."

The Undercount

Those missed by the Census are called the "undercount". The constitution initially permitted an undercount of Blacks by only including three-fifths of the slave population. Native Americans were not counted at all. After the ratification of the 14th amendment, ending slavery, Blacks were still highly undercounted.

Wade Henderson, of the Washington, D.C.-based Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LLCR) offers reasons for the continuing undercount:

• General lack of knowledge of the importance of Census participation

• Mail and door to door collection methods have a lower response rate in low income areas

• Population subgroups are more transient, making it difficult to count members at one household,

• Lower education levels, illiteracy or difficulty with English language affect the ability to understand the Census

• And distrust or suspicion of government creates fear that the Census will be used for immigration or law enforcement officials to deport of incarcerate people of may disqualify them from social services.

"The Constitution says that every resident must be counted. This includes illegal aliens. The data will be gathered confidentially Nothing has ever happened to anyone in response to the Census," said Dr. Kenneth Prewitt, director of the Census Bureau, during a Feb 1 press conference in Washington, D.C.

The General Accounting Office reports 8.4 million people were missed by the 1990 Census---the first in 50 years to be less accurate than the one before it---and another 4.4 million were double counted. That�s like ignoring the total population of an entire state.

To counter this problem, the Census Bureau is hiring an additional 100,000 "enumerators" to go out and count rural and inner city communities. They will work for 10 weeks instead of the usual six. The number of Census offices will increase form 476 to 520.