Topeka — A new state report released Monday on the well-being of children in Kansas shows that child-poverty rates are increasing, but other negative indicators, such as high school dropout and mortality rates, are declining.
Among Kansas’ 105 counties, Douglas County was the 18th best across all indicators. The Douglas County child poverty rate of 13.8 percent was tied for 16th.
Johnson County had the lowest child poverty rate at 7.7 percent, while Wyandotte County had the highest at 34.7 percent.
The “State of the Family” report was put together by researchers with Kansas State University, which analyzed 18 indicators on child well-being. Those indicators were picked by the Kansas Department of Children and Families.
The report showed that in 2010, 18.1 percent of Kansas children were living in poverty, which is an increase of 53.4 percent since 1970.
In 2010, 37.7 percent of births in Kansas were to unmarried women, compared with 12.2 percent in 1980.
Other indicators associated with poverty, such as Medicaid and food assistance, were also on the rise.
But teen pregnancy, infant mortality, the high school dropout rate, youth binge drinking and youth tobacco use have been declining.
The 18 indicators used for the report were child poverty, child care assistance enrollment, divorce, enrollment in free and reduced lunch programs, high school dropouts, infant mortality, lack of maternal education, low birthweight babies, Medicaid enrollment, parental unemployment, out-of-wedlock births, single-parent households, food assistance enrollment, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families enrollment, teen pregnancy, uninsured children, youth binge drinking and youth tobacco use.
Comments
oneeye_wilbur 6 months ago
And just how did folks be so tough during the depression? All these programs now and no progress. Time for a financial collapse to toughen up everyone.
JJE007 6 months ago
But... But... Trying to toughen people up to depression standards might bring more Robbing Hoods out of Sherwood Teachemathangrtwo Forest. Baby daddies would die!
Mandatory marriage with no divorce option sounds more in line with Brownbackistani dreamland guidelines. Yes?
Perhaps we should build a razor wire wall around Topeka and throw anyone who's not married in there...so that our fearless weeder can lead them to the promised altar of fiscal responsibility. I'm sure that's what would happen... :)
Briseis 6 months ago
How can a highly educated blue county, in the midst of a red state, do so poorly with their children? This is sad news.
JJE007 6 months ago
Ranking 16th out of over 100 counties isn't doing "so poorly" ... as compared to the majority of the "red" counties. That's just silly talk.
none2 6 months ago
While his comment definitely had a bias, it is a legitimate question to ask -- not because of Douglas County being a blue county, but because it has a lot of prosperity, lots of supportive services, etc... My own take is that perhaps a lot of the more rural counties are loosing women of child bearing age thus fewer children to be considered in this study.
Do note that the top county was Greeley, a western Kansas county on the border with Colorado. It is the LEAST populated of all the 105 Kansas counties with a 2010 population of 1247. The largest city is Tribune with a 2010 population of 758. The second largest town is Horace with a population of 70. Note that in 2000, the populations were 835 and 143 respectively. At this rate, Horace is on its way to becoming a ghost town. (For a little bit of trivia... Horace Greeley was the editor of the New York Tribune from which the county and the two towns got their names.)
Here is an interesting story on the attempt to repopulate many of these counties. (Personally, I seriously doubt that tax breaks are going to be enough.)
http://www.dailyyonder.com/kansas-beckons-natives-home-breaks/2012/08/22/4354
So while I'm sure we all wish Douglas County had scored better on the child well-being data, I don't think anybody round here would wish to trade places with Greeley County. I wish the best for all these counties. Still the odds are against them without a major influx of job opportunities in rural counties.
reality_check79 6 months ago
Award for most ignorant comment of the day is...... YOU!!!!
chicago95 6 months ago
These results are constructive if they help motivate us to build a better environment in which to raise our children. But data are just data, and these are not the only possible indicators by which to measure well-being. The percentage of births to unmarried women, for example, reflects particular cultural values that may not carry the same weight in all parts of Kansas. Unemployment rates are difficult to measure. Rankings are not helpful. This is not a competition. And what of those areas in which our performance is "best" of a bad lot.
I'd like to see greater public access to databases of all available public health measures. From these, we might try to build a more detailed understanding of what is going on and a basis for shared insights, if not shared values. We might discover gaps, ambiguities or contradicitions among the indicators, leading to a demand for increased data gathering. And, the civic discourse might lead to greater concensus on how to formulate a public health response.
LarryNative 6 months ago
Its because we do not have a living wage and it's Bush's fault, or Brownbacks fault. Could be greedy corporations, capital "vulturists" or global warming is to blame. Maybe the GOP is to blame as well, it's anything but the parents fault. Blaming the parents would be ridiculous.
none2 6 months ago
I was going to write to indicate that there was a mistake. The story originally said 16th, but it has been corrected to say 18th ranking....
This article should have included the data. Since it doesn't, here it is from CJOnline.com...
http://cjonline.com/databases/child-wellbeing
happypill4014 6 months ago
Thank you! I was just getting ready to post asking for the link to the data.
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