BOSTON – Massachusetts leads the nation in education and ranks second in child health (with the highest percentage of insured children), according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2012 KIDS COUNT Data Book Like so many across the nation, however, children in Massachusetts face significant economic hurdles. Fourteen percent of all Massachusetts children–200,000 children–are currently living in poverty.
“Our children are better educated and healthier than those in other states because the people of Massachusetts have consistently used our government to provide children with the supports and opportunities they need to thrive,” said Noah Berger, president of MassBudget, the KIDS COUNT group in Massachusetts. “But being better than most states isn’t good enough–the challenge remains to offer real opportunity and security to every child.”
Some of the challenges Berger refers to are captured in the Data Book‘s assessment of economic well-being and community support. Thirty percent of all children in Massachusetts live in families where no parent has full-time, year-round work. And even parents who can find work face very high housing costs.
“Too many children are growing up in poverty,” said Michael Curry, president of the Boston Branch NAACP and a member of the Massachusetts KIDS COUNT Advisory Council. “There are parents all over Massachusetts who struggle to provide for their children, and since the Recession, that struggle has gotten harder and harder.”
The Data Book evaluates states on a range of different measures, all organized into four domains (in each case, one is best and 50 worst.)
- Economic Well-Being: Massachusetts ranks 11th overall, but it has a large number of households with high housing costs.
- Education: Massachusetts ranks first overall, thanks to top ratings for reading and math proficiency.
- Health: Massachusetts ranks second overall, and first in health care coverage.
- Family and Community: Massachusetts ranks 10th overall—third in teen birth rate but 21st for children in high-poverty areas.
Looking at the country as a whole, the Data Book found that kids and families were continuing to struggle in the wake of the recession. In 2010, one-third of youths had parents without secure employment–an increase of 22 percent or about 4 million children in just two years. From 2005 to 2010, the number of children living in poverty rose by 2.4 million.
There is good news–in the past few years children’s health and education has improved. This includes a 20 percent decrease in the number of kids without health insurance; a 16 percent drop in the child and teen death rate; an 11 percent decline in the number of high school students not graduating in four years; and an 8 percent dip in eighth-graders scoring less than proficient in math.
For overall child well-being, New Hampshire and Vermont rank highest alongside Massachusetts, while Nevada, New Mexico, and Mississippi rank lowest. A few other noteworthy state developments:
- In 42 states, more than 30 percent of kids are in households with high housing cost burdens.
- The number of fourth-graders scoring less than proficient in reading dropped in 35 states and the District of Columbia, with Maryland and Alabama seeing the greatest improvement.
- Child poverty rates rose in 43 states, ranging from New Hampshire’s 10 percent to Mississippi’s 33 percent.
- Vermont and Virginia were in the lead among 47 states that saw their child and teen death rates decline, at 46 and 30 percent, respectively. The District of Columbia saw a decline of 36 percent.
The Data Book also highlights major disparities that still exist among U.S. children along racial and ethnic lines. Even as children of color grow in numbers, representing the majority of U.S. births, they continue to lag behind their white counterparts by almost every measure of child well-being:
- While only 6 percent of white children had no health insurance in 2010, more than twice as many American Indian and Latinos shared the same plight, at 18 and 14 percent, respectively.
- In 2010, American Indian (49 percent) and black (49 percent) children were nearly twice as likely as their white counterparts (25 percent) to have no parent with secure employment.
- While 58 percent of white fourth-graders had yet to achieve reading proficiency in 2011, more than 80 percent of their Latino, African-American and American Indian classmates lagged in this area.
- In 2010, 66 percent of black youths lived in single-parent families, exceeding their American Indian (52 percent), Latino (41 percent), white (24 percent) and Asian (16 percent) peers.
“This year’s findings emphasize that millions of families are struggling across the country,” said Laura Speer, the Casey Foundation’s associate director for policy reform and data. “We also know that where a child grows up impacts his or her chances of becoming a successful adult. It’s particularly disturbing that California, the most populous state is ranked at No. 41 in terms of overall child well-being, with Texas at No. 44 and New York at No. 29, using data from 2009 through 2011. In fact, eight of the 10 most populous states, representing 34 million children, ranked in the bottom half of all states in terms of how well their children are doing in key areas.”
The 2012 Data Book has been updated with a new index that provides an even more robust and comprehensive portrait of how U.S. children are faring. It assesses states based on how they do on 16 indicators of child well-being–a change from previous annual rankings based on 10, reflecting the tremendous advances in child development research since the Foundation’s first KIDS COUNT Data Book in 1990. In addition to ranking states, the 16 indicators are organized into four domains: Economic Well-Being, Education, Health, and Family and Community. The report also provides state ranks in each of these areas.
