Alabama Children Improving But Still Need Help

In these 68 pages, you’ll find tons and tons of facts.

 

They all point to how Alabama is improving education, especially with the emphasis on Pre-k.

But they also point to something else.

 

“Children of color are more disporportionately impacted by things such as poverty, health outcomes, educational outcomes. If we don’t address those gaps in achievement and access to programs that can turn that around we will have a generation that’s not going to be prepared,” said VOICES Policy Director Rhonda Mann.

 

Those gaps are in everything from pre-term births to the number of children living in poverty. 

 

There are twice as many minority children living in poverty compared to the white population. 

 

Economist Jeff Bates says it hurts kids all the way into adulthood.

 

“It’s not just their immediate needs that are not being addressed, it’s the long term affects. They’re less likely to graduate high school, they’re much less likely to attend college, they are more likely to be unemployed. We have things like higher teen pregnancies, lower birth weights,” said Bates.

 

But it wasn’t all bad news. 

 

There were big changes in education, including improved graduation rates, now up to 80 percent, and better test scores.

 

“So in fourth grade reading and math, eighth grade reading and math, those have all improved. One of the biggest improvement in education was a decline nearly 8 percent in the ninth grade retention rate,” said Mann.

 

Mann says now is the perfect time to release the information so lawmakers can use it to make policies for next year’s session.

 

For the full Kids Count Databook, click here.