Texas Lags on Child Well-Being

Eli Okun a senior at Brown University where he works as the editor-in-chief of their newspaper has written an article on how Texas lags on child well-being.  The annual Kids Count report released the Annie Casey foundation revealed that more than a quarter of  Texas Children are below the federal poverty line and there is a good majority who don’t even attend preschool.  Thus, the big debate going on right now is how to deal with this issue.

Researchers advise a number of changes in order to better deal with the issues. Remarkably, some of these suggestions are items on Democratic wish lists (higher minimum wage, expanded access to health care for the working poor and greater funding for prekindergarten programs).  Laura Speer, associate director for policy reform and advocacy at the foundation is convinced by the research that more money should be spent in high quality early education.  In fact, she implies that investing in the early years of a child’s life can help pave the way for him/her to have a better future.

Conservative researchers on the other hand disagree about the proposed solution of funding current programs.  They argue that in order to have real success there must be a disruption of the status quo with more school choices and the availability of online learning.  Chuck Devore, vice president of policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation argues that long-term studies have proven that material learned in prekindergarten are wiped out of the child’s memory by third or fourth grade.  For Devore, it would be a waste of money to invest in early programs.

As Texas continue to struggle in the education arena among the other states some call for action.  Research revealed that while there was a drop in the number of eighth graders not proficient in math, fourth grade reading proficiency have worsen by 1 percent.  This small percentage worries Speer since the nation as whole improved in that area.

As Texas grows, it becomes more diversified.  The widening socioeconomic gap has caused colored children to make up the majority in Texas.  While non-whites make up the majority, research has revealed that they lag behind whites and Asians on most measures of well-being.  Frances Deviney, the Texas Kids Count director and senior research associate at the CPPP argues that racial inequalities in education have shrunk as socioeconomic gaps expand.

Consequently, Deviney argues that if Texans focused on the wellness of their kids as much as they focus on job growth and making Texas a friendly business state, we could do the impossible.

This article is relevant for everyone in Texas.  It is a source of information for everyone especially minorities.