The Children's Defense Fund "State of America's Children, 2011" report is below,
with a section on Juvenile Justice.
----------from the Children's Defense Fund-----
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 18, 2011 |
For More Information Contact: Patti Hassler Vice President of Communications and Outreach 202-662-3554 office phassler@childrensdefense.org |
The State of America’s Children® 2011 Finds Children in Jeopardy
Washington, D.C. (July 18, 2011) – America’s children have fallen further behind in the last year in a range of leading indicators according to The State of America’s Children 2011,
a new report from the Children’s Defense Fund. With unemployment,
housing foreclosures, and hunger at historically high levels, children’s
well-being is in jeopardy. In the United States one in five children is
poor and children are our poorest age group. In 2009, millions of
children fell into poverty due to the economic downturn, an increase of
almost 10 percent, the largest single year rise since 1960. Today, 15.5
million children are adrift in a sea of poverty and every 32 seconds
another child is born poor. Two-thirds of poor children live in families
in which at least one family member works. The gap between rich and
poor families has continued to grow. Income gains for the bottom 90
percent were completely wiped out by the recession, leaving the average
income for the bottom 90 percent at its lowest level in more than a
decade.
This report also shows continuing and increasing inequality in our
country. Particularly striking is the fact that children of color, who
are now 44 percent of America’s children, will be the majority of
children in 2019 – just eight years from now. In nine states and the
District of Columbia, this is already the case. Millions of poor
children of color are at increased risk of dying before their first
birthday, living in poverty and extreme poverty, being uninsured and in
poor health, lagging behind in early childhood development, lacking a
quality education, dropping out of school and being excluded by zero
tolerance school discipline policies, being stuck in foster care without
permanent families, ending up in the juvenile and criminal justice
systems, being caught in the high school and college completion gap,
being unemployed or being killed by guns. A Cradle to Prison Pipeline
haunts them from birth to adulthood.
“Black children are facing one of the worst crises since slavery, and
in many areas, Hispanic and American Indian children are not far
behind. The alarm bells should be ringing across our country. If we
compare just Black child well-being to child well-being in other
nations, 70 nations have a lower infant mortality rate including
Thailand, Costa Rica, Lebanon and Serbia, ” said Marian Wright Edelman,
president of the Children’s Defense Fund. “This report should be a
wake-up call to our political leaders and every citizen. We need to get
our priorities straight. We must not cut funding for programs benefiting
children including education and other survival investments for poor
children while protecting massive federal subsidies for corporations and
individuals?”
The best hope children have of lifting themselves out of poverty is a quality education with a good job at the end of the line. The State of America’s Children 2011
details how our schools are failing our children. American education,
once the envy of the world, is in dire straits. More than 60 percent of
fourth, eighth and 12th grade public school students are reading or
doing math below grade level. For Black and Hispanic students in these
grades, it is nearly 80 percent or more. Our children are losing rather
than gaining ground.
The State of America’s Children 2011 is a comprehensive
annual report produced by the Children’s Defense Fund using the latest
data available. The report includes a foreword by Marian Wright Edelman,
“Moments in America”—a snapshot of children each day in America, and 11
chapters on the well-being of children in America.
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