ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997 TAG: 9703040090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
More children in the South live in poverty than in other regions of the United States, according to a coalition of children's advocacy organizations in 12 Southern states.
More babies in the South die each year than elsewhere in the country. More babies are born to teens. More teens drop out of school.
And more teens die violently, the group "Ending the Southern Deficit" said in a study released today.
The study - data from the annual KIDS COUNT reports - gives a state-by-state comparison of how children are faring based on indicators such as infant mortality, poverty, education and juvenile crime.
KIDS COUNT uses data from federal and state agencies, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Labor and state departments of health and social services.
Each year, Southern states have consistently ranked among the worst in the country. In a KIDS COUNT report released last summer, nine of 12 states that ranked in the bottom quarter were Southern states. Seven of the 12 states with the highest child poverty rates were in the South.
And in every Southern state except Virginia and North Carolina, the child poverty rate exceeded the national average.
Virginia's overall national ranking was higher than any of the 12 Southern states highlighted in the study. Virginia ranked 18th. The second-closest ranking among the 12 Southern states was Kentucky, which ranked 36th.
Kentucky was followed by North Carolina (39th); Arkansas (40th); Georgia (43rd); Tennessee (44th); West Virginia (45th); South Carolina (46th); Alabama (47th); Florida (48th); Mississippi (49th) and Louisiana (50th).
"Clearly it does show that the South is having more struggles with children's issues than other regions of the country," Susan Gholston, KIDS COUNT project director at the Action Alliance for Virginia's Children and Youth, said Monday. The alliance was one of 12 children's advocacy organizations that endorsed the study.
"One of the things we were looking at is what is the culture of the South," Gholston said. "It's endemic in not tackling some issues more strongly. There is a kind of tendency to take care of one's own family but not necessarily reach out to others."
Virginia, however, is faring better than other Southern states, Gholston said. It ranks as the best of the Southern states in nearly every indicator, she said.
"But is that where we want to be?" Gholston asked.
Virginia is diverse, with pockets of poverty in the southern and southwestern part of the state and high incomes and prosperity in the northern part, she said.
"Northern Virginia, because of the high salaries, often pulls our average up in looking at some of those things," Gholston said. "We still have an awful lot of improving to do just bringing part of the state up to meet the levels of other parts of Virginia that are doing better."
The study calculated the difference between statistical rates in the South and the rest of the country. It came up with a hypothetical additional risk that children assume by living in the South. By that measure:
* 580,000 more children are poor.
* 8,172 more babies are born each year to girls 15-17.
* 67,600 more teens 16-19 drop out of school.
* 74,360 more teens 16-19 are idle, neither attending school nor working.
* 501,000 more children live in single-parent homes.
The coalition of children's advocacy organizations recommended that Southern states, in part, instill a sense of community concern for children in the South by investing in government programs, developing strategies to end racial inequities and addressing the dropout problem as a community problem.
"Ending the Southern Deficit" was funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based charitable organization established in 1948 by Jim Casey, one of the founders of United Parcel Service. Data analysis was conducted by the University of Louisville's Urban Studies Institute.
Some states are tying the study's information to other activities, such as commissions that are examining children's issues, Gholston said.
"One of the reasons we are doing this as a region is to call attention to the fact that it is a problem in the southern states," she said. "We want to catch the attention of decision-makers, be it legislators or people at the community level."
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