{"id":10467,"date":"2019-06-28T18:18:09","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=10467"},"modified":"2019-06-28T18:19:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T18:19:03","slug":"report-tx-lags-behind-most-states-for-child-well-being","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=10467","title":{"rendered":"Report: TX Lags Behind Most States for Child Well-Being"},"content":{"rendered":"
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More than 1.5 million Texas children live in poverty, despite the state\u2019s booming economy. Photo: AdobeStock<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Compared with other states, Texas remains in the bottom 10 for the well-being of its children, according to a new report.<\/p>\n

The annual\u00a0Kids Count Data Book<\/a>\u00a0from the Annie E. Casey Foundation uses 16 indicators to rank states in four areas: health, education, economic well-being, and family and community. For 2019,\u00a0the report ranks Texas 41st in the nation<\/a>\u00a0for overall child well-being.<\/p>\n

Frances Deviney, chief executive of the\u00a0Center for Public Policy Priorities<\/a>, said her organization fights an uphill battle against a lack of state funding for children\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen over the last 30 years of this report being done is that Texas has consistently fallen, if not in the bottom third and most of the time in the bottom 10,\u201d she said, \u201cand for the most part, we continue to be in the bottom for children\u2019s well-being across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report ranks Texas 39th in terms of economic well-being, with 1.5 million children living in poverty. It\u2019s ranked 30th in education, based in part on a low high-school graduation rate; 47th in the category of \u201cfamily and community,\u201d for a lack of policies that support children and families; and 39th in health, for having one of the highest rates of uninsured children in the country.<\/p>\n

Deviney said the report points to a few small but significant bright spots for Texas kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve actually seen a big decline in the poverty rate, particularly over the last 10 years,\u201d she said. \u201cIt used to be one of every four kids lived in poverty; now, it\u2019s one of every five. It\u2019s still 1.5 million kids living in families who are struggling to make ends meet, but it\u2019s moving in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leslie Boissiere, the Casey Foundation\u2019s vice president for external affairs, said lawmakers need to provide the tools proven to help families lift themselves up economically. She said federal and state earned-income tax credits and child tax-credit programs allow working parents to devote more take-home pay to meet their children\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year alone, 6 million people benefited from the credit,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a proven program that allows families to have more access to the wages that they earn, and that allows them to provide more for their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boissiere said it\u2019s also important to get an accurate census count in 2020. She said 55 major federal programs allocate more than $880 billion a year based on census data.<\/p>\n

The Data Book is online at\u00a0aecf.org\/databook<\/a>, and Texas data is\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas \u2013\u00a0Compared with other states, Texas remains in the bottom 10 for the well-being of its children, according to a new report. The annual\u00a0Kids Count Data Book\u00a0from the Annie E. Casey Foundation uses 16 indicators to rank states in four areas: health, education, economic well-being, and family and community. For 2019,\u00a0the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10468,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10467\/revisions\/10468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}