09:10 AM Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Report: More Black Children Living in Poverty
Date: Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 4:43 am
By: Michael H. Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com
More African-American children are living in poverty, many black kids still do not have access to quality health care, and a disproportionately high rate of black teenagers are having babies, according to a new report by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Heather Higginbottom, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told African-American journalists during a recent conference call.
In 2007, about 15 percent of African-American children were reported to have asthma, compared with 7 percent of white children and 9 percent of Hispanics. Birth rates for adolescents ages 15 to 17 years old rose to 35 percent for black teenagers, compared to 11 percent of whites.
Higginbottom said the trend with racial disparities among black children began long before the recent recession, saying that problems for poor black children have mounted significantly with many of their parents now out of work.
Although the statistics for some black children may seem daunting, the good news, Higginbottom said, is that the Obama administration is working hard to improve the quality of life for young African-Americans.
She said the administration will take a “holistic” approach to helping children in crisis by allocating billions of dollars for programs like Head Start and other educational initiatives for young people.
The poor diets and eating habits of many children and adolescents is also a major concern. “Such patterns are major factors in the increasing rate of childhood obesity over the past decades,” the report stated.
In February, President Barack Obama signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which provides quality health care to 11 million kids – including four million who were previously uninsured.
Obama is also allocating $5 billion for early learning programs, including Head Start, Early Head Start, child care and programs for children with special needs.
Formally established in April 1997, the forum collects data on children and youth through 22 federal agencies, as well as partners in private research organizations.
The 2009 report presents 40 key indicators on important aspects of children's lives. According to its findings:
* Eighteen percent of all children ages 0–17 lived in poverty, an increase from 17 percent in 2006. Compared with white, non-Hispanic children, the poverty rate was higher for black children and for Hispanic children. In 2007, 10 percent of white, non-Hispanic children, 35 percent of black children and 29 percent of Hispanic children lived in poverty.
* About five percent of white, non-Hispanic children in married-couple families lived in poverty in 2007, compared with 32 percent of white, non-Hispanic children in female-householder families. Eleven percent of black children in married-couple families lived in poverty, compared with 50 percent of black children in female-householder families.
* Racial and ethnic diversity has grown dramatically in the United States in the last three decades. In 2008, the report said, 56 percent of U.S. children were White, non-Hispanic; 22 percent were Hispanic; 15 percent were Black; 4 percent were Asian; and 5 percent were "all other races."
* The percentage of children who are Hispanic has increased faster than that of any other racial or ethnic group, growing from 9 percent of the child population in 1980 to 22 percent in 2008. By 2021, it is projected that one in four children in the United States will be of Hispanic origin.
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Sorry Elchar I was doing some research and ran across this article, Jazflutesmith comment disturbed me and I mistook it to be your but wasn't familar with the cite format so did see it wasn't you until the post, again my apolgies.
by
08Cumlaude
October 19, 2009, 12:49 pm
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Elchar you are an imbasil
For your personal records you should note the following
the Welfare system was initially started for White women
White Females receive more Social Security and Public****istance income per household including food stamps government housing school lunch WIC medicaid SSI & AFDC
Therefore you may conclude "LAQUESHA cannot stop having children," but LaQuesha is definately taking care of her own children, without public****istance, at a higher rate then BECKY.
by
08Cumlaude
October 19, 2009, 12:47 pm
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Welfare creates lazy men. Women do not have children alone. Goverment is not cracking down on childsupport to me that states they support the behavior of these men then they should provide for them due to neglecting their rights of enforcing men to stand up and while we are at it give them instead of drugs to sell. Our Family is being pimped and we critcize the family.
by
Elchar
July 24, 2009, 7:57 am
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Little boys need to be encouaged to value little girls. Encouage them to encouage young girls to get an education and them consider relationships. We keep saying man is king all kings must be taught.
by
Elchar
July 24, 2009, 7:53 am
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Where are the jobs? Where is the education? Would things change if ther were no young children? What if a married couple lose their job? Could they wind up on welfare? The real problem is we need to teach our children to value themselves.
by
Elchar
July 24, 2009, 7:51 am
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More African-American children are living in poverty, and many black kids still do not have access to quality health care.
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