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Arkansas ranked 45th in nation in well-being of children Wednesday, Jul 25, 2007 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - For the second year in a row, a national child advocacy group has ranked Arkansas 45th in the nation in the well-being of its children. The 2007 Kids Count Data Book by the Annie E. Casey Foundation of Baltimore, Md., ranks states based on their performance in 10 categories. The report states that since 2000 Arkansas has improved in five of the categories, worsened in three and shown no change in two. In every area, Arkansas performed below the national level in the report scheduled for release today. The biggest improvements were in education. The state's high school dropout rate decreased from 12 percent in 2000 to 8 percent in 2005, the most recent year for which data was available. Nationally, the high school dropout rate decreased from 11 percent to 7 percent over the same period. The state also saw its percentage of teens not attending school or working decrease from 12 percent in 2000 to 9 percent in 2005. "I would say that we're finally starting to see some of the results of the substantial investment in education that we've made as a result of the Lake View case," Rich Huddleston, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, said Tuesday. The Lake View school funding lawsuit, filed in 1992 by the now-defunct Lake View School District, led to a state Supreme Court ruling in 2002 that funding for Arkansas' public schools was unconstitutionally inequitable and inadequate. The state Legislature responded with a series of spending increases for education, finally satisfying the court this year that funding levels were sufficient. "Even though this is 2005 data for those education indicators, I think that was probably the first year that would have reflected the changes made, and so I think we're starting to see some improvement as a result of our reform efforts, which is good news," Huddleston said. The report also shows a 9 percent decrease in Arkansas' teen birth rate and 1 percent decreases in the infant mortality rate and the teen death rate. Arkansas's performance worsened in the percentage of children in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment, which increased 9 percent; the percentage of low birth-weight babies, which increased 8 percent; and the child death rate, which increased 3 percent. The percentage of children living in poverty remained constant at 25 percent. Nationally, the rate rose from 17 percent to 19 percent. The percentage of Arkansas children in single-parent families remained constant at 34 percent. The national percentage rose one point to 32 percent. The state was ranked 44th in the nation in the 2004 and 2005 Kids County studies. It was ranked 47th from 2001-2003. States ranked below Arkansas in the 2007 study, in descending order, are South Carolina, New Mexico, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. The study places Minnesota in the No. 1 spot, with New Hampshire, Connecticut, Utah and Massachusetts rounding out the top five. "The overall lesson that I pull from this report is that we've made substantial progress on a couple of indicators, but overall we've not shown much improvement," Huddleston said. With record tax cuts, the 2007 legislative session was one of the best ever for children and families, but there is more the state could do, including primary enforcement of seat belt laws and creation of a state earned-income tax credit, Huddleston said. If Arkansas wants to take a major step forward, then the Legislature, the governor, the business community and the public need to work together to devise a comprehensive public policy agenda for improving the well-being of children and families, he said. "Forty-fifth is just not acceptable," Huddleston said. Matt DeCample, spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, said Tuesday the governor's office has received an advance copy of the report. "There's obviously some good points to it, but at the same time we can clearly do better, and we're already working to get the tools in place to do so," he said. DeCample cited current efforts to reform the system of care for children's mental health, promote the ARHealthNet small business insurance program and expand pre-kindergarten programs - which received a $40 million funding increase this year - as ways the governor's office is seeking to do more for Arkansas' children. |
