Here’s a disturbing statistic from a recent U.S. Census data release: The poverty rate for African Americans and blacks living in Maine is the highest in the nation.

More than half of Maine blacks (defined by the Census Bureau as people having origins in any of the black racial groups in Africa) and African Americans endure life below the federal poverty line ($19,530 a year in income in 2013 for a family of three).

And it might be even higher; the margin of error for Maine is 11 percent, meaning that actual poverty levels among blacks and African Americans in Maine could range from 39 percent to 62 percent.

No other state had a recorded poverty rate for blacks and African Americans greater than 50 percent. Even at the lowest estimate, Maine’s poverty rate for blacks and African Americans would still be 10 percent higher than the national rate.

Often ranked as the whitest state in the country, Maine has 12,397 black and African American residents or 1.4 percent of Maine’s population, according to the Census report. Given such an extraordinarily high poverty level for this relatively small population, the acute disparity is a reminder that we still have a lot of work to do to achieve broadly shared prosperity.

There is no single compelling explanation for why poverty is so high among Maine blacks and African Americans. This trend has persisted for years and includes African Americans and U.S. native and non-native blacks, including refugees and asylum seekers living in Maine legally but not yet eligible to work under federal law.

Many of these refugees were doctors, teachers, lawyers or business owners back home but now are unemployed or working in minimum-wage jobs. Maine won’t move ahead as a state until all Mainers have access to quality education and training and jobs that pay enough so they can live with dignity.

The backdrop for this information about minorities was a generally dismal report about the economic well-being of all Mainers. Maine’s median household income and the percentage of Mainers living in poverty barely changed from 2012 to 2013. Maine’s poverty rate remains higher than it was even in the depths of the Great Recession, and incomes for Maine’s working families are down from a decade ago and going nowhere.

Real Maine median household income is lower than it was at the bottom of the recession and shows no signs of growth. And with paychecks for wage earners stagnant, the gap between Maine’s best-off residents and everyone else continues to widen.

There was some welcome news: Poverty among Maine children under age 18 fell to 17 percent in 2013 from 20 percent in 2012, and among kids under 5, it dropped to 20 percent from 27 percent.

These levels are much closer to those before the recession, but having nearly one in five Maine children in poverty is intolerable.

It’s time Maine takes a hard look at factors that contribute to poverty, particularly among minority populations. We should measure success by how many people have progressed toward providing for their families, not by how many people we have kicked off one program or another.

As recent health insurance coverage data demonstrates, the latter approach only makes matters worse. Maine was one of only two states where the percentage of people without health insurance increased in 2013. This is likely due in part to tighter Medicaid eligibility restrictions for low-income working parents and adults without children in 2012 and 2013.

Maine needs leadership and investment at all levels if we are to craft solutions that result in real progress. There are many local efforts already in place to remove barriers and bolster skills and opportunities for low-income minorities, but they cannot succeed in a vacuum.

A policy environment that fails to create well-paying jobs and pits one group against another, denigrates low-income people and ignores critical issues like limited public transportation and child care is counterproductive. Real reform supports local action and puts people on a pathway to becoming self-sufficient, productive and prosperous participants in the state’s economy.

Maine’s future relies on our ability to attract and retain talented people from all over the nation and the world. Maine’s small and growing minority population has the potential to lead the way.

While the poverty figures are daunting, they are not insurmountable. We can and must create shared solutions that strengthen Maine’s economy for the long haul.

— Special to the Press Herald