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Tue Jul 27, 2010 at 09:08 PM CDT
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| According to a new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Texas ranks 34th nationally in a state-by-state study on the well-being of America's children. There are also significant areas in which Texas is among the worst in the nation, and these ranks represent a failure in many of the public policies instituted over the last two decades.
Texas is among the very worst in preventing teenage pregnancies. The teen birth rate in Texas in 2007 was 64 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19, which is considerably higher than the national rate of 43 births per 1,000. Texas ranked 48th in the nation in teenage pregnancies, and only New Mexico and Mississippi ranked higher. This follows a nationwide trend of increased teenage pregnancies. According to a report by the Guttmacher Institute, after a decade of declining teenage pregnancies the nationally teen pregnancy rate rose 3% in 2006, which reflected an increase in teen birth of 4%. The report notes that the cause of the decline in teenage pregnancies in the 1990s was due to more and better use of contraceptives among sexually active teens. However, during the 2000s sex education programs aimed exclusively at promoting abstinence, and these programs have lead to increasing teen pregnancy rates especially in states such as Texas.
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| After radically socially conservative Republicans gained control of the Texas State Board of Education, they began to push education "reforms" which included abstinence only education. According to a report by the Texas Freedom Network, most Texas students (94%) receive no instruction about human sexuality apart from the promotion of sexual abstinence. Also, sexuality education materials used in Texas schools regularly contain factual errors and perpetuate lies and distortions about condoms and STDs. These types of programs do not prevent teenage pregnancy, and they do not prevent teenagers from being sexually active. However, they do prevent teenagers from using contraceptives when they do become sexually active. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics' teen pregnancy policy, affirmed that the evidence does not support abstinence only education as the most effective method to keep young people from having unintended pregnancies.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation also found that child poverty in Texas is well above the national average, and ranks 43rd in the nation in child poverty. In Texas 23% of the children live in poverty compared to 18% of children nationally living in poverty. Since 2000 the number of children living in poverty in Texas increased by more than 240,000, leaving a total 1.5 million Texas children living in poverty. This is significant because poverty leads to so many other ways in which we fail our children. Texas ranks last in child food insecurity; 1.6 million do not have consistent access to food. Also, low birth weight children born in Texas have increased by 17 percent since 2000, infant mortality has increased by 11 percent since 2000, and the number of children with special health or medical needs has jumped by 42% since 2001. These statistics are compounded when you consider that over the last ten years Texas has highest rate of uninsured children in the nation. Poor economic and health conditions lead to children attending school less, scoring lower on test, and being more likely to drop out.
While the Texas legislature focusing on a $18 billion budget shortfall that was created due to the lawmakers not address the shortfall during the last legislative session, and Texas Republicans focus on wedge issues such as immigration it is unlikely that policy changes will be made to address these problems. These problems are also disproportionately affecting children of working class families and children of people of color. The people that will lose are the people with the least amount of voice: children. If changes are not made then we are ensuring that the next generation of Texans grows up at a significant economic disadvantage to the rest of the nation and the rest of the world.
Political and Social Thought...
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