Why are our children being left behind?

The cover headline of yesterday's Boston Metro blared "Mass.'s poor children are being left behind" and "Child welfare report ranks state dead last in caring for needy kids." The headline is not nearly as shocking to those, like myself, that have or know children living in poverty unable to gain the early childhood development supports they need from lack of funding, age restrictions, and/or accessibility. The article cites a report by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, stating:

"The report ranks the Commonwealth 50th in the well-being of low-income children based on over 102,000 interviews nationwide that focused on health status, social and emotional well-being, cognitive development and educational attainment, family activities, family and neighborhood context, and socio-economic characteristics. …Among the six categories, Massachusetts ranked last in health status and in social and emotional well-being for low-income children. It was 49th in cognitive development and educational attainment."

The article adds:

"Despite the state’s dismal showing in terms of low-income children [that is, children living in household that earn less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Level], it ranked 21st for those in high-income families and 26th overall. Because of this Massachusetts had the largest disparity of ranking from high- to low-income children."

According to recent reports, Massachusetts is the 5th wealthiest state in the nation (CNN). So, how can a wealthy state like ours—with one of the lowest percentages of children living in poor households in the nation—be ranked the lowest when it comes to child welfare and well-being in essential categories such as health and cognitive development?!

Interactive:

Why is Massachusetts falling behind in assisting low-income families? What solutions would you propose to rectify this situation? Comment Now!

Comments

[Jane Titus]

The government and the citizens of Massachusetts should consider it a scandal the way we, as a commonwealth, treat our poorest children. This situation is the fault of those in the Legislature, who have the power to allocate money to various parts of the state budget, and do not give early education and care enough to support all our children. But we as citizens and voters must also carry our share of the blame--since we have failed to not care enough to influence our elected officials to make this a priority.

When enough people put their political will behind this kind of agenda item, things happen and improvement occurs. While it may take years, as it did with health care, for change to occur, I believe we all have a moral obligation to work to change a system that is so clearly detrimental to those who share this society with us.

[Jackie O'Connor]

Give back and think big. Alex Beam hit the nail on the head by pointing out in his column in the Boston Globe last week that hedge fund manager Ray Dalio has financed (spent two million dollars) a national campaign to encourage people not to give another unnessary gift this holiday season to someone who doesn't need it but to "give people a donation to your favorite charity. A lot more money would go to people who need it." Wouldn't that be nice. The gap between the wealthy and poor is growing and this should be of concern to everyone. Now is the time for those who have made it big to step to the fore to support organizations who are doing what government isn't and hasn't been doing. Women can achieve economic independence. If you've been lucky enough to make it in Massachusetts -- give back and think big.

[margalit]

The numnber one thing we can do to change poverty in MA and the rest of the US is to challange our federal representatives to change the way the federal poverty rate is calculated and used as a gateway to services. For people in expensive parts of the country like MA, the poverty rate is a joke. Until that's changed, with geographical equity, nothing else will matter because the poor will continue to not qualify for any services in MA.

It's hard to believe that in a state with so much brainpower that we could let this happen. What are other states doing that we are not?