Children have a much harder time thriving when they’re raised in Louisiana, findings from a new study show.
Louisiana ranked 48th in the 2012 State Child Well-Being Index, a report released by the Foundation for Child Development.
While Louisiana, Mississippi and New Mexico ranked last on the index, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire were named the top three states for child well-being.
The index is based on seven domains: family economic well-being, health, safe/risky behavior, education attainment, community engagement, social relationships and emotional/spiritual well-being, according to the FCD’s website.
Pamela Monroe, professor in the School of Social Work, said she was not surprised that Louisiana ranked low in the index, and she attributes the ranking to the large number of children in the state raised in poverty. About 25 percent of children in the state are reared in poverty, and percentages are even higher in delta or rural areas, she said.
In single parent households, children are more than 50 percent likely to be raised in poverty, she said.
While Monroe said poverty is the major cause of less than desirable child well-being in the state, she said “poverty is complex in its causes and solutions” and is a “multifaceted problem.”
In many cases, impoverished families are living in areas where infrastructure and educational opportunities are undeveloped, and the community can’t bring better jobs into the area.
“Kids are growing up in families and communities where poverty has characterized their families and communities for decades,” Monroe said.
Another common companion of poverty is crime.
“It’s no coincidence that the locations of homicides [on the annual Baton Rouge homicide map released by police] tend to be in impoverished neighborhoods in Baton Rouge,” she said.
But Monroe said life in Louisiana is tremendously different for children born into middle-class families.
“If you’re a child growing up in a family with two educated adults who are employed full-time, the community is usually thriving and crime is low,” she said. “For those kids, Louisiana is a great place to grow up. My kids have thrived here.”
Monroe said many in the state are growing increasingly concerned about the gap between children reared in poverty and children reared in the middle class.
“It’s not perfectly accurate to say that Louisiana is a bad place to raise children, but it is a terrible place to raise children in poverty,” she said.
Studies by the FCD have shown that states with higher tax rates were found to have higher rates of well-being among children.
With less than 10 percent of the federal budget utilized on children’s programs, states are left to provide the majority of funding for these programs. Monroe said states ranking high on the index more than likely use state taxes on public education and infrastructure to attract businesses and quality jobs to the area.
“Minnesota has a long history for using tax dollars for education and public infrastructure,” she said. “The taxes are used for things that benefit children.”
Monroe said Louisiana has a number of programs aimed toward the advancement of children, but many of these programs are vastly underfunded.
Louisiana Children’s Health Insurance Program, or LaCHIP, provides health care to uninsured children until they turn 19 for no cost. In order to be eligible to enroll in the program, the family must meet standards including family size and income.
Louisiana also participates in the Nurse-Family Partnership, a program run by the Louisiana Office of Public Health, and provides a home visitation program for low-income families in the state.
“A nurse goes into the home as soon as the baby is born to work with the mom and baby and to make sure the baby is thriving while mom is learning good parenting skills,” Monroe said. “It’s a national model, and Louisiana’s program is doing a great job with it.”
But Monroe said the program is not accessible to all applicants due to underfunding.
“It’s an expensive program, but national data shows that the return on the investment is tremendous,” she said.
Monroe said the state also supports a “hodgepodge of programs to promote early childhood education,” but many families cannot access these high quality Pre-K programs.
“These are great programs, but they aren’t fully funded,” she said. “If fully funded, these programs could make Louisiana a great place for all children.”
 
 
 
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Contact Kate Mabry at [email protected]