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Editorial: Kids Count's No. 2 is a warning signal

Needed: A focus on minimizing poverty's toxic effects on kids.

Last update: August 14, 2009 - 9:12 AM

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SLIPPING

From 2000 to 2007, Minnesota slipped on these Kids Count indicators:

•Children living in poverty up 33 percent.

•Children in single-parent homes up 24 percent.

•Children whose parents lack full-time year-round employment up 22 percent.

•Low-weight births up 7 percent.

Children's Defense Fund Minnesota.

It's been a rough economic decade for too many Minnesota kids. That -- and not a glowing No. 2 ranking among the states -- ought to be the message for Minnesotans in this year's respected annual Kids Count report, issued recently by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Minnesotans love to hear about comparative measures on which their state outpaces the other 49. But there's little comfort in this No. 2 ranking. It's built on the success of previous decades. Other states started the decade with a larger share of kids in poverty than Minnesota had.

Since then, the share of Minnesota families that are struggling financially has spiked. Kids Count reveals that even before the recession hit, Minnesota had witnessed a 33 percent increase since 2000 in the number of children growing up in poor homes. That's among the fastest growth rates in the nation; the share of children in poverty grew only 6 percent on average in the nation as a whole during the same period.

To be sure, Minnesota's 2007 child poverty rate, at 12 percent, remained well below the national average of 18 percent. But what has happened economically since 2007 has likely only worsened families' struggles and has put more children at risk for the ills associated with growing up poor: high infant mortality, school underachievement, poor health, chemical dependency, teenage pregnancy.

Kids Count tells Minnesotans that as of 2007, increasing poverty among the state's children had not yet taken a larger toll. Despite the poverty increase, school drop-out rates and teen birth rates held steady between 2000 and 2007, and infant mortality rates improved.

But those successes are at risk of erosion as the deepest and longest recession since the 1930s lands more parents and children in poverty. Kids Count is sounding a warning bell for Minnesota. This state should be stepping up its public and private efforts to minimize the damage poverty can do to young lives.

One such effort has been mounted by the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF.) It is offering preschool scholarships of up to $13,000 per year and family mentoring to at-risk families in St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood, to demonstrate the value of early intervention and investment in the academic success of children from impoverished homes.

Now in its second year, the public-private program is serving 515 children and monitoring their results. The program was designed in cooperation with researchers at the University of Minnesota and senior vice president Art Rolnick of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, a national advocate for early education.

MELF could serve perhaps 100 more children were it not for the elimination of a $1 million state appropriation for preschool allowances in the final days of the 2009 legislative session. Among many regrettable cuts in state spending this year, that one was particularly short-sighted. During tight money times, it's more important than ever to keep money flowing to those public investments that produce a high rate of return, cutting spending in less effective programs if need be. Early education for at-risk kids demonstrably deserves that priority treatment. If the 2010 Legislature is able to eke out any additional money for public investment, the MELF scholarships should rank high among candidates for a few dollars more.

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