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August 22, 2012
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Ed Walz
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Washington — First Focus, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization, released today a report illustrating how America’s changing demography makes the Southwest (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah) a bellwether for challenges facing children in the United States. Key demographic findings indicate that kids in the Southwest accounted for:
“The Southwest is a bellwether for America’s children and our nation’s future. The more we learn about kids in the Southwest and the challenges they face today, the more we’ll know about kids nationwide and the challenges they’ll face tomorrow,” said First Focus President Bruce Lesley.
The Children of the Southwest is the first in a series of papers to be released by First Focus this year, as part of the Big Ideas: Children in the Southwest series. Additional papers will be released through the fall of 2012.
The authors, headed by Rice University professor and former U.S. Census Bureau Director Steve Murdock, also found that children in the Southwest are more likely than U.S. children overall to be harmed by social problems that can impede healthy development and educational progress. In particular, the authors found that children in the Southwest are more likely to: live in poverty – these seven states account for nearly one-third of America’s poor children; and be uninsured, accounting for more than 40 percent of America’s uninsured children.
“The children of the Southwest are disproportionately disadvantaged in term of poverty levels and health insurance coverage,” said Murdock. “The major question raised by this data is: Will the United States’ adult population support youth who are racially and culturally different, or will they perpetuate a dual class education and economic structure?”
Big Ideas: Children in the Southwest tasks experts with delivering outside-the-box ideas to address critical challenges facing kids in the American Southwest. In addition to papers responding to the poverty and health care problems facing children in the region, the series will also explore ideas to remove educational obstacles and protect children from abuse, neglect, and other threats to their physical safety.
“There are promising ideas that are making life better for kids in the Southwest. We’ve got to shine a spotlight on those ideas, so we can start making progress on some of the issues just over the horizon for kids nationwide,” said Lesley.
Big Ideas: Children in the Southwest is the latest in First Focus’s “Big Ideas” publication series. The series, dating back to 2008, is available at www.firstfocus.net.
First Focus is a bipartisan advocacy organization dedicated to making children and families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions. For more information, visit www.firstfocus.net.
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