Sad News for Alabama’s Children
July 30, 2007
Well, I’ve just got a lot of links to share with you. I’ll give you several today and invite you to check back with me over the next week, as I’ll up my blog output in order to catch up!
The news is full of articles concerning the Kids Count report issued Wednesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the news is bad again for Alabama. The report shows a nineteen percent increase, over five years, in the number of children who are living in poverty in our state. That drops us from 43rd to 48th in state rankings. Here’s the news as reported by the Huntsville Times.
There are a few areas in which we’ve seen improvement, including teen birth rate and infant mortality.
Linda Tilly, executive director of VOICES for Alabama’s Children, and a member of the APP board of directors, correctly describes this as a wake-up call for the state. She says we can do more, we can do better. She’s right.
The Times editorialized about the report today. The writer correctly points out that more and better jobs should have a positive impact on future numbers. But simply improving job opportunities cannot do all that needs to be done to adequately address poverty. The state has a very important role to play in offering supportive services to families.
It’s interesting to me also to read how the report is reported in other states, sometimes mentioning Alabama as taking up the rear. Here’s one example from South Carolina, ranked just two ahead of us.
Immigrant Children Face Challenges
Isabel Rubio, executive director of Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, and also an APP board member, has had an editorial published recently around the state. It concerns the difficulties facing immigrant teens who want to attend college, but face imposing financial barriers that stand in the way of reaching that goal.
Immigration reform is another one of those issues that seems so complicated to us. Solutions are elusive. But I agree with Isabel – it’s not enough to do nothing. In the meantime, we’re losing a generation of motivated young people who are missing out on a chance to break the cycle of poverty. Thanks to Isabel for personalizing the issue for us!
The Invisible Poor
The presidential candidacy of John Edwards most likely hinges on the one issue he’s chosen to focus on – the eradication of poverty. Edwards has gotten a lot of flack for his wealthy lifestyle and, of course, at least one $400 haircut, while holding out this issue as his passion.
But E.J. Dionne wants to give Edwards credit for at least bringing poverty out of the closet again. It’s not the first time that a presidential candidate has focused here, and Edwards is doing a good thing by insisting that we look at the people who live with insufficient incomes.
One of the hard things we face as a society is our disconnection from one another, especially across income levels. Those of us who have adequate resources seldom are in touch with those who do not. We just do not see them; they really do become invisible to us.
So we do well to pay attention to reports such as the one from Kids Count, and to hear the personalization of the story of immigrants, as Isabel tells it. It’s not just policy that’s at stake. It’s real, actual human beings. Seeing them makes doing something to help more likely.
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