The recession also targets children

California Fall ballot sales/high income tax will help public schools

San Francisco Chronicle/Neil J. Riley, 7/25/12.  "California sinks to 41st on kids' well-being."

We're just kids, give us a break

" A new study that shows California has fallen from 16th to 41st in the country when it comes to children's well-being. The rankings take into account economic well-being, education, health, and family and community."  This report is from " the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a national philanthropy group for children, reported in its annual rankings Wednesday."

New criteria. Past studies put more emphasis on safety and health, an area where California does fairly well. But this year's report added new criteria, including math and reading proficiency, on-time graduation rates, the percentage of children in families with high housing costs and the percentage of children whose head of household lacks a high school diploma, all weak spots for the state based on data from 2009-11.

Help us help you

 The recession has hit education funding especially hard, and schools have been a constant target of state budget cuts. The state now spends more than $1,000 less per student than it did in 2007, according to the California Budget Project, a nonprofit public policy research group. Hoping to reverse the cutting trend, lawmakers will ask voters to approve $8 billion in tax hikes to stave off billions in cuts to public schools in November, while another ballot measure seeks to raise the state's income tax to fund education programs."

The California children well-being study and low rankings are from the Annie E. Casey Foundation Report.  Of 50 USA states the results and indicators are as follows: 1) economic 45th, 2) education 43rd, 3) health 23rd, 4) family and community 42nd.  Read Article.

Reference - Jerry Brown, latest news, 3/26/12, "Strong majority backs Jerry Brown's tax-hike initiative." "It would hike the state sales tax by a quarter-cent per dollar for the next four years and create a graduated surcharge on incomes of more than $250,000 that would last seven years."

Posted by Kathy Meeh