ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: RACHEL L. JONES KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
STATISTICS LEAVE little doubt that childhood is very difficult - and often fatal - for many youngsters.
For most of the last year, Congress has been battling over how to make the world a better place for children.
Republicans say balancing the budget and streamlining such social programs as Medicaid and welfare will rescue kids from programs that do not work and save them from a debt-ridden future.
Democrats argue that the Republican plans would make poor children suffer and middle-class children poor. President Clinton cited concern for children as his main reason for vetoing the welfare proposal passed by Congress.
But while politicians debate, child advocates point to a disconcerting trend - life is becoming measurably worse for American children year by year, as measured by basic standards of health, education and housing.
That grim assessment is supported in reports released recently by the Children's Defense Fund and the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
The studies - the 1996 ``State of America's Children Report'' and ``Housing America's Future: Children at Risk'' - are compilations of the most recent available data for an array of indicators of children's status.
They show:
Every day in America, three children die from abuse and neglect. In 1993 there were 2.9 million abuse and neglect cases. That compares with 1.7 million cases reported in 1984.
Some 10 million American children had no health insurance in 1994, up from 9.6 million in 1993 and 8.7 million in 1992, according to Census Bureau estimates.
Nearly 300,000 babies, or 7.2 percent of all births in 1993, had a low birthweight, the highest rate since 1976.
Nearly 35,000 babies died before their first birthday in 1992, a rate of 8.5 per 1,000. For every 1,000 babies born to black mothers that year, 16.8 died before their first birthday. This compares with rates of nine per 1,000 in Cuba, 12 per 1,000 in Malaysia and 15 per 1,000 in Sri Lanka.
In 1993, 15.7 million children, or 23 percent of all children, were poor, according to statistics compiled by the Child Welfare League of America. More than one in four American preschoolers is poor. In 1969, 9.7 million children were poor, or 14 percent of all children.
Nearly 44 percent of African-American children live in poverty, versus 16.9 percent of white children and 41.5 percent of Latino children.
``Children are all the talk among policy makers and politicians,'' said Robert Adams, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. ``But we have only to look at the realities of their lives to see how little concern there is.''
LENGTH: Medium: 63 linesby CNB