A growing share of Nebraska's children lives in poverty — a trend that has major implications for the state's schools, workforce and future vitality, according to the latest Kids Count in Nebraska report.
"Poverty really underscores so many different aspects of a child's life," said Melissa Breazile, who wrote the report for < a href=http://voicesforchildren.com/>Voices for Children in Nebraska, a statewide research and policy group. "It influences outcomes in all kinds of different indicator areas."
As it has for the past 19 years, the group's report provides a report card on how children fare in Nebraska. It includes statistics on subjects such as test scores, infant mortality and juvenile crime.
This year's report outlines numerous challenges and urges Nebraska to invest in its future through programs that help children, especially in their early years.
"It's time to make sure that we're connecting the dots between early childhood and later outcomes," Breazile said. "By 18 months, there's an achievement gap."
Poverty isn't the only factor affecting that gap, but it plays an important role.
Nebraska's child poverty rate was 18.2 percent in 2010, based on the latest Census Bureau survey. That's up from 12.3 percent in the 2000 Census and 13.5 percent as recently as 2008.
David Drozd, a researcher with the Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said the recession has helped boost the latest child poverty numbers. He said other factors include Nebraska's growing minority population, since minority families tend to have lower incomes than white families.
Low-income infants are less likely to have had prenatal health care than better-off babies. They are less likely to develop strong literacy skills by age 3. And they are less likely to have success later in school.
On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, for example, 46 percent of Nebraska's low-income fourth-graders scored below the "basic" reading level. Only 21 percent were proficient or better.
Among better-off students, 18 percent were below the basic level and 48 percent were proficient or better.
Children who lag their peers in grade school could have more trouble graduating from high school, let alone attending college and finding productive careers. The Kids Count report urges help for children in and out of school, partly because the state risks stagnation if large numbers of its children are not prepared to succeed.
"We do know that poverty can be cyclical," Breazile said. "A child born into poverty faces a much greater likelihood of remaining in poverty. At what point in a child's life are we intervening? From the research, we know that the earlier, the better."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1114, paul.goodsell@owh.com
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