Parents struggling to earn a living, the effects of poverty and astronomical housing costs all drag down California’s children to the point that an annual national survey ranks the Golden State 38th in the nation in overall child well-being.
And, the benefits of the economic resurgence aren’t evenly filtering down, leaving the state’s children 49th in the nation in economic well-being, according to the 2015 Kids Count Profile released late Monday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
“That’s really alarming for the future of our state,” said Jessica Mindnich, director of research for the Oakland-based advocacy group Children Now, which analyzed California data for the survey.
Nearly one in four children, or 23 percent, lives in poverty. And the toll may be even higher in Silicon Valley. Even three minimum-wage jobs together would fall $10,000 short of what it takes to support a family of three in the valley, said Dana Bunnett, director of the San Jose-based advocacy group Kids In Common.
The same disparity appears in the Kids Count rating for education, where California landed 38th among the states. It ended up in the bottom quarter in part because in 2013, 54 percent of the state’s eligible children were not attending preschool, a 2 percentage point decline from 4 years earlier. And on national tests, nearly three-quarters of California fourth graders had not reached proficiency in reading, and nearly the same proportion of eighth graders lacked proficiency in math.
However, in one bright spot, the survey found that in 2012, the percentage of high school students who did not graduate on time fell to 18 percent, compared with 29 percent four years earlier.
While some of the data may not be the latest available in the state, the Kids Count survey chose the most recent year for which all states had data.
The most encouraging development the survey found was in health — a vast improvement that surveyors attribute to the state’s early and full embrace of the Affordable Care Act.
The percentage of California children without health insurance fell to 7 percent in 2013, a four percentage-point drop in five years. Likewise the rate of child and teen deaths fell, from 24 per 100,000 to 20.
Mindnich credits that to California embracing the federal Affordable Care Act and moving toward insuring all children.
She believes that education similarly will improve, with the state projecting it will reach pre-recession funding levels for schools soon. “I think we are well-positioned to see kids doing better five years down the road.”
Bunnett is not so sure. While many schools are doing well, “we have that tale of two cities in this county,” she said about the disparity in funding in Silicon Valley schools. “Kids who are low-income are concentrated in schools with the fewest resources,” she said. Many of the programs to help poor kids compete fell victim to budget cuts — summer school, after-school programs, music and arts.
Mindnich said it’s imperative to improve opportunities for the most needy children.
“If we don’t lift kids from the bottom, we will never get to where we want to be in education,” she said. “We have the money in the state to do better. But too many kids and families are really struggling to scrape by.”
Contact Sharon Noguchi at 408-271-3775. Follow her at Twitter.com/noguchionk12.
Kids Count 2015 data
California’s ranking
— 38: overall among all states
— 49: in economic well-being
— 38: in education
— 14: in health
— 42: in family and community
