Robin Hood CEO Wes Moore joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to discuss how millions of individuals are seeking financial aid after becoming unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Video Transcript
ADAM SHAPIRO: We have hundreds of thousands of people, not only in New York, but across the country who have been put at risk in so many ways because of coronavirus. And to talk about this, we want to invite back to our program Wes Moore. He's the CEO of Robin Hood. And this organization is committed to helping the less advantaged in our society get through normal times. Wes, this is not a normal time. And we have people, our neighbors, who need food and they need cash. So-- so what is happening?
WES MOORE: Yes. Thank you so much for having me. And thank you for putting a focus specifically on this issue. You know, this is-- this is not a normal time for our large society. Where-- where we're watching going from a-- a relatively robust-- robust economy to now where we are having millions of people who are now having to claim unemployment and a government who's being able to force to respond and react quickly to it.
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But the reality is, for so many of the communities that we serve, for so many of the communities that we live in and we work with this unfortunately is terribly predictable.
And the crisis that we're seeing, or crises, that for many of our families and communities, they've been living with for a very long time. I think what this-- what this moment has shown and expose has been the extraordinary vulnerability that many people have and many people are living with, where even prior to COVID-19, close to half of all people in this country, half of all New Yorkers, could not afford a $400 emergency-- not a $400 emergency shock.
And so what we're now seeing is that shock playing itself out in real time. And we're watching a very real and present human vulnerability that's now being able-- that's now being pushed throughout our community. So this is a hard time for our community. But the reality is, for many people who are living in poverty, these have been hard times. And I think it's something that our larger society has to confront and has to wrestle with that.
JULIE HYMAN: Wes, it's Julie here. It's good to see you and I hope that you are well. There has been this concern, right, that lower income populations would be most at risk from this. Because folks are still going to work out of necessity, for example, or are acting as essential workers. I don't think we've seen the actual data on that as of yet. But I'm curious what you're seeing from your perspective. And at this time, I know you're primarily a sort of economic aid organization, but do you find yourself also having to step in as a health care aid organization?
Or right now, are they one and the same thing?
WES MOORE: Those are such great questions. And-- and you're absolutely right in the fact that, you know, there is the concern that those who are the most susceptible or those that are the most vulnerable that this is going to hit them harder. And actually what we're now seeing is the data is actually reinforcing that. It's heartbreaking to see, actually, this data coming in. And there's a few different reasons for it. One is, you're absolutely right.
When we're talking about who are the essential workers, who are the people who have to go to work, who have to be able to-- to come in, many of them are people who are low wage workers. And so, you know, everyone from the people who are serving as the orderlies and-- and the health care respondents in our hospital systems, you know, people who are helping to take care of things like sanitation, et cetera, these are low wage workers oftentimes and people who have to go out and the idea of social distancing becomes complicated.
You also have the dynamics of people, for example, who are-- who are society's-- some of our society's most vulnerable. For example, those who live in homeless shelters. You know, how do you social distance when you are living in a homeless shelter? You know, if you're a child. You know, you're a child who's coming up in our-- in the New York City public school system alone. You know, over 100,000 of our kids, before COVID, who are in the New York City public school system were homeless or were dealing with housing security issues.
You know, how do you do remote learning when you don't have access to Wi-Fi or computers? And then-- then you take on the third component, which is the health component. Where, you know, one of the most dangerous and just absolutely, you know, just, you know, evil things about this virus is that it actually attacks the most vulnerable. So for people who are the most susceptible to it, it's people who have things like asthma and heart disease.
And when you're looking at the population that we oftentimes serve, whether it is an individual who is dealing with COVID-19 or whether it-- or whether it's an individual who prior to COVID-19 was dealing with things like asthma or lead poisoning, they are not only the ones who are the most susceptible to actually become casualties to this because their bodies don't have the strength to be able to combat it.
We also are seeing how that-- how that level of targeting when it comes to low income and even racial disparities that we continue to see, continues now to [INAUDIBLE] and the data continues to reinforce it.
- Wes, let me pick up on one of the points that you just made about the school system. Because you know, as you've already highlighted, inequality was a significant issue before the coronavirus. But one of the things that's been most glaring to me about the-- the system and just how the challenges that are happening right now is-- is when you look at the attendance rates in public schools between the poorer neighborhoods and the well-to-do neighborhoods where they're looking at a 100% attendance rate, and it's not just the New York City problem.
We've seen this in counties all across the US. What do you-- what ramifications do you think that has in the long run if these students are not able to get an education at home right now for two months or three months? You know, what are the ripple effects we see down the line?
WES MOORE: If you look at the main reasons why students-- why we have these education gaps that exist within students prior COVID-19, it really comes down to oftentimes three different measures and mechanisms that we track, that we know how have-- have huge implications and they start early, right. You know, one is just the idea of-- of chronic absence. So students who are missing, on average, anywhere from 20% to 30% of the school year for a variety of different reasons.
But if you're not in a class, to your point, you're not learning from what's happening in the class. The second reason is-- is-- is students who are entering school unprepared. So students who are entering into the classroom at first not knowing things like colors and letters and numbers. And so, you know, we talked to most teachers and say, you know, what do you-- what would you-- what do you need in order to help you do your job? Oftentimes it's not just more materials or more time.
Oftentimes it's-- it's giving a classroom full of students who are all ready to learn. Because if you teach too slow, you will lose the kids that are prepared. You teach too fast, you lose the kids that are not. And the third main reason is thi-- is this idea of summer learning loss and what happens during the summer months. When you have children who are not getting stimulating activities during the summer months, it'll take them until November to catch up where they left off in June.
What we're seeing right now, particularly with this, is we're now having students who potentially will not be in a formalized school setting from March until, potentially, the fall when they come back. So we now have the potential watching these gaps completely blown apart. And so how we're thinking about this idea of-- of not just, you know, remote learning, and getting students Wi-Fi, and getting students computer access and tablets, that's one part of it. But it also is about how we're making sure that we're actually rethinking the entire learning experience for our students.
How are we involving the families inside of that process, in the communities inside of that process? How, once we are able to, to make sure that all the various community assets that we have on board, everything from our hospitals to our-- to our libraries to our community centers, are all on the same sync and on the same frame when we think about ways to be able to, you know, better make sure that our students are entering the classroom unprepared. But it is something that is going to be a massive issue to deal with.
Because we've had levels and measures of disparities prior to this. This, now, adds on an additional level of competition.
ADAM SHAPIRO: Wes, as I say thank you and we wish you the best, want to let people who are watching-- we have several hundred thousand who watch these hours-- you can go to the Robin Hood web site. You have the relief fund. You don't have to just listen to these discussions. You can do something. And you're one of the highest rated charities. And I-- I don't want to use the term "charity," but you help people. And if you want to make a donation, Robin Hood and the Robin Hood relief fund on the web.