By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A report released today ranks Arkansas 47th in the nation in the well-being of its children.
The annual Kids Count Data Book by the Annie E. Casey Foundation of Baltimore moves Arkansas up one position from its ranking in last year’s report.
The report ranks states based on their performance in 10 categories. Arkansas ranks among the bottom 10 states in six of the categories for its high rates of child poverty, child deaths, teen births, teen deaths, single-parent families and low-birth-weight babies.
Arkansas also ranks among the bottom half of states for its rates of children living in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment; infant mortality; teens not attending school and not working; and teens not in high school who have not graduated.
Arkansas has consistently ranked in the bottom five or six states in the annual report since 2000. This year’s report is based on data from 2008 and 2009.
Arkansas’ worst ranking is in child poverty. In 2009, the state had the second-highest percentage in the nation — 27 percent — of children in families below the federal poverty line, which is $21,756 for a family of two adults and two children. That’s up from 25 percent the previous year.
Rich Huddleston, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, said Tuesday the state cannot expect to raise much in the rankings while more than one in four children live in poverty.
“Poverty really drives a lot of the other rankings,” Huddleston said. “I think the research is pretty clear that kids growing up in poverty are much more likely to have poor educational outcomes, poor health outcomes.”
Gov. Mike Beebe said Tuesday the child poverty rate raises concerns about child hunger.
“Obviously we’re working like the devil in the private sector and in the public sector to try to increase nutritional opportunities, particularly after school and (in the) summer, because that’s where it hits some of these kids the hardest,” the governor said. “The health of some of our kids is not what it should be.”
Huddleston said his group favors expanding early childhood education to serve more 3-year-olds and begin serving children under 3, creating an earned-income tax credit, and providing funds to increase access to after-school and summer programs.
On the positive side, he noted that this year Arkansas reduced the sales tax on groceries by a half-cent, provided a tax exemption to low-income single parents with two or more children and, unlike some states, did not cut funding for early childhood education.
Above all, the report serves as a reminder that “when there is a recession going on and when economic times are tight, it’s really our most vulnerable children and families who become even more vulnerable,” Huddleston said.
