Some political observers have warned for years that the state’s frayed social safety net is transforming the Great Lakes State into “Michissippi.”
The latest Kids Count report gives credence to that critique as Michigan slips down toward the same levels as the poor Southern states.
The story below, published in today’s Oakland Press and Macomb Daily, offers disturbing stats that demonstrate why kids today are not doing very well — in many, many ways.
The number of children in poverty jumped 39 percent from 1990-2012 in Michigan, a nationwide kids’ well-being advocacy report shows.
And among southeastern Michigan counties, Oakland ranks the lowest in the rate of child poverty as of 2012, with 14.3 percent. Macomb County has 17.9 percent of children living in poverty, while Wayne has 38.9 percent and Washtenaw has 15.4 percent.
Michigan is ranked 32nd among the 50 states in the overall well-being of children, according to The Annie E. Casey Foundation — a Baltimore, Md.-based philanthropy group that puts out the annual Kids Count report with the Michigan League for Public Policy, or MLPP.
The state’s overall ranking is down one slot from last year, said Judy Putnam, communications director for the MLPP. It is also in the bottom quarter in the nation for education in 38th, with 69 percent of fourth graders not proficient readers in 2013, worsening from 68 percent in 2005.
“We’re moving in the wrong direction, and what’s more troubling is that when you look at our Great Lakes neighbors, we’re not doing well,” said Putnam. “This puts us in the bottom quarter in the U.S. for education.”
In 2013, 22.7 percent of fourth graders in Oakland County were not performing up to their reading level, compared to 40.9 percent who weren’t reading well in Wayne County, 29.5 percent in Macomb and 22.8 percent in Washtenaw.
The study, which ranks 16 indicators of well-being in four categories — economic well-being, education, health and family and community — showed that along with children living in poverty, the percentage of children living in high-poverty areas went from 13 percent in 1990 to 16 in 2008-2012.
For the full version of the story, click here.
