News Intro Text
Louisiana congregations challenge child poverty
Date
News Item Content
<h4>
Louisiana congregations challenge child poverty </h4>
<p>by Alí Bustamante </p>
<p>Recently the Annie E. Casey Foundation updated its Kids Count Data Book, which measures and ranks the wellbeing of children across the U.S. Louisiana ranked 48th among the 50 states in overall childhood wellbeing, the state’s lowest ranking since the Kids Count rankings began in 2012. Only New Mexico and Mississippi ranked lower than Louisiana this year, 49th and 50th respectively. The rest of the Gulf South also performed poorly, Alabama ranked 45th, Texas 41st, and Florida 37th.</p>
<p>The low Kids Count ranking speaks to how poorly legislators, policymakers, and communities in the Gulf South are addressing the economic wellbeing, education, health, and family and community wellbeing of the region’s 13.9 million children. However, the low ranking is nothing new to Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf South. Since 2012, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas have ranked among the ten lowest performing states in the country every year. Florida achieved its highest ranking of 37th this year.</p>
<p>The Gulf South states lag the rest of the country in most of the 16 social and economic indicators that comprise the Kids Count childhood wellbeing rankings. Among these are: childhood poverty, low-birthweight babies, children whose parents lack secure employment, children without health insurance, children in single-parent families, fourth graders not proficient in reading, high school students not graduating on time, and, rate of teens not in school and not working. </p>
<p>Despite continuous reporting on children’s wellbeing by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and other governmental and non-governmental sources the Gulf South has found significant improvement elusive. Only Florida and Texas have made modest gains in their rankings while performance has declined for Alabama and Louisiana. Mississippi is the lowest performer in the country for the third time in the past four years.</p>
<p><a href="https://t.e2ma.net/webview/bklwi/f9edf0f554a2d86f07ff178dd0a6ee44">MORE>></a></p>
Louisiana congregations challenge child poverty </h4>
<p>by Alí Bustamante </p>
<p>Recently the Annie E. Casey Foundation updated its Kids Count Data Book, which measures and ranks the wellbeing of children across the U.S. Louisiana ranked 48th among the 50 states in overall childhood wellbeing, the state’s lowest ranking since the Kids Count rankings began in 2012. Only New Mexico and Mississippi ranked lower than Louisiana this year, 49th and 50th respectively. The rest of the Gulf South also performed poorly, Alabama ranked 45th, Texas 41st, and Florida 37th.</p>
<p>The low Kids Count ranking speaks to how poorly legislators, policymakers, and communities in the Gulf South are addressing the economic wellbeing, education, health, and family and community wellbeing of the region’s 13.9 million children. However, the low ranking is nothing new to Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf South. Since 2012, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas have ranked among the ten lowest performing states in the country every year. Florida achieved its highest ranking of 37th this year.</p>
<p>The Gulf South states lag the rest of the country in most of the 16 social and economic indicators that comprise the Kids Count childhood wellbeing rankings. Among these are: childhood poverty, low-birthweight babies, children whose parents lack secure employment, children without health insurance, children in single-parent families, fourth graders not proficient in reading, high school students not graduating on time, and, rate of teens not in school and not working. </p>
<p>Despite continuous reporting on children’s wellbeing by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and other governmental and non-governmental sources the Gulf South has found significant improvement elusive. Only Florida and Texas have made modest gains in their rankings while performance has declined for Alabama and Louisiana. Mississippi is the lowest performer in the country for the third time in the past four years.</p>
<p><a href="https://t.e2ma.net/webview/bklwi/f9edf0f554a2d86f07ff178dd0a6ee44">MORE>></a></p>