New report details racial gap among US children

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

New report details racial gap among US children
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer | March 31, 2014 | Updated: April 1, 2014 2:16am

NEW YORK (AP) — In every region of America, white and Asian children are far better positioned for success than black, Latino and American Indian children, according to a new report appealing for urgent action to bridge this racial gap.

Titled "Race for Results," the report is being released Tuesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which for decades has worked to improve child well-being in the United States.

The foundation also produces annual "Kids Count" reports, with reams of state-specific data, but these generally have not focused on race. The new report tackles the topic head-on, with charts and ratings that convey dramatic racial discrepancies.

At the core of the report is a newly devised index based on 12 indicators measuring a child's success from birth to adulthood. The indicators include reading and math proficiency, high school graduation data, teen birthrates, employment prospects, family income and education levels, and neighborhood poverty levels.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/New-report-details-racial-gap-among-US-children-5364248.php

[JNelson6563]

1. Kick for visibility!

Thank you for bringing this important, informative article here Judi Lynn! Not to mention keeping us updated on all things South America! You're a wonderful asset to this place.



Julie

[Sunlei]

2. our neighborhoods are still segregated and so it goes with the neighborhoods schools.

Segregated by class and race, helped along by unaffordable required neighborhood association fees, local regulations, zoning 'laws' and property tax.

[happyslug]

3. The main problem with Education is CLASS not RACE related.

The three groups, African American, Latino and Native American Children, tend also to be in the lowest economic class in the US. Such Families have themselves the lowest education and move more often then other, richer, classes of Americans. That is a one two punch in and by itself. There are whites and Asian Children with similar problems and have similar results, as while as they being African American, Latino and Native American Children whose family are more working class and upper middle class who do as well as White and Asian children.

I am sorry, the problem is NOT race, but Class and the desire that the lowest economic class be the most flexible when it comes to where they work and when they can work (which requires constant moving, sometimes as often as two to three times a year, in the middle of the school year). No one wants to address this issue, for race is easier to address. i.e. The children are behind do to racial injustice and all we need to do it pass laws making racial injustice more illegal as oppose to looking at what these children need, a more stable family environment built around parents with stable jobs. The alter is CLASS related and the US policy since Reagan has been to destroy workers stability so they do not demand higher wages.

At the end of the Clinton Administration unemployment was reaching 2-3 percent. At that rate of unemployment you should have seen massive demands for wage increases, but they were none. Why? Workers were so insecure about their jobs they dare not go on strike and risk losing their jobs. This is unlike the 1970s when Unions went on Strikes to force pay increases (or threatened to go on strikes to maintain income with inflation). The power of workers in the 1970s is "blamed" for the Stagflation of the 1970s, for workers would NOT take the loss in purchasing power and they had the power to show they did not have to accept that loss of income. By th 1990s, unions were so weak they could NOT force companies to pay their workers what they had paid then in real terms just 10 years before. Thus after 2000 when the economy went down hill, it was the workers who took it on the chin, and that hit people who tended to be African American, Latino and Native American even more.

As I said, race is an easy excuse for the low scores of African American, Latino and Native American Children, for the real reason, one of class is a problem no one wants to even talk about let alone deal with.

[Larry the Cable Dude]

4. The report backs up your claim. higher-income Asians do better than lower income Asians

"Outcomes varied for different subgroups of Asian and Latino children. For example, in terms of family income levels, children of Southeast Asian descent — Burmese, Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian and Vietnamese — faced greater hurdles than children whose families came from India, Japan, the Philippines and China."

And when it comes to Cubans vs. Central Americans, Cubans do better, which is not a surprise because almost all Cuban children had the benefit of being born in the US. English is easier to pick up for them. They eat better food from the get-go, etc.

Plus Cuban-Americans are a wealthier group than Central Americans.

[Supersedeas]

5. true, some factors like income predominate--but none of it is easy to pinpoint in the aggregate