A black Iowa leader says minority kids in the state are doing even worse than they are nationwide. Johnathon Narcisse chairs the “State of Iowa Black Initiative,” and he says the poverty rate in black families is a disgrace. It’s 60-percent for kids under five, 50-percent for 18 and younger. Narcisse is former chair of the Iowa Commission on the status of African Americans, and he says funding been stripped away. As proof, he points to the vacant position of administrator of the commission. Nearly a year after the former one left, he says there’s no new candidate in sight. Narcisse compares that to the media spokesman in the governor’s office, who was replaced as soon as he announced he was leaving. Narcisse says the commission’s funding should be restored, and it should be made a freestanding entity, taken from under the administration’s control.
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