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.
After serving 10 years as the state's governor Rick Perry's anti-government, tax loathing, low educational achievement standards, building prisons while gutting schools crusade has yielded an unprecedented number of high school dropouts and an increasing pool of under-educated, unskilled workers. The rate of poverty has also increased over the past decade. According to an article in the Houston Chronicle a demographer at Rice University is truly frightened for the future of Texas.
The demographer who warned a decade ago about Texas' unhappy mix of dismal education achievement and high poverty is more concerned than ever. Actually, he's frightened.
Also getting restless are growing numbers of Texas business executives. Some don't see much leadership from politicians or the private sector in attacking the trend line that demographer Steve Murdock says will result in three of every 10 workers not having a high school education by 2040.
"I don't see business rearing up, and I sure don't see the state Legislature, with an $18 billion problem, saying, 'Man, we really need to muscle this thing up.' I think the thing that's going to change it is going to be another lawsuit," said Jack Lowe, chairman of Dallas-based TDI Industries and a board member of the Texas Business and Education Coalition.
The pattern of an increasing pool of low-income workers and high drop out rates in the high schools has us fast tracked to third world country status. This is what happens when our elected lawmakers believe they are lobbyists that serve corporate interests. The well-being of the people and the best possible educational and economic outcomes for the state never appear on their radar screens.
When will the those who really need it get their bailout?
There will be another economic stimulus package in the next few months. President-elect Obama made it clear at his first press conference last week: "If it does not get done in a lame-duck session, it will be the first thing I do as president of the United States." A glance at headlines from the past few days drives the seriousness of the situation home:
Regardless of anyone's opinions of the 2006 election cycle, a phrase that the Democrats' Gubernatorial Candidate often used seemed to stick in the memories of many. Personally, it was my favorite line of the cycle.
"Thank God for Mississippi."
I cannot be sure if Mississippi is worse than Texas on poverty issues, but the point of the statement was to highlight the failures of our Republican leaders to help Texans.
Texas has many claims to fame and much to recommend it. But among the Lone Star State's shames is its residents' high rate of poverty and the deprivations - from hunger to illiteracy to a lack of adequate health care - that go along with being poor. But rather than working in Congress to lift impoverished Texans into the middle class, the members of the Texas delegation in Congress were among the nation's least likely to support anti-poverty programs.
Every member, except Nick Lampson, of the Texas Democratic Congressional delegation receives an A+ (that means 100 percent). And Mr. Lampson, who is fighting for his life in a very Republican district, still received a B.
On the other side of the aisle, the highest Republican grade was a D (including both of our Senators).
Four Texas Republicans received an F-, meaning they voted for NONE of the proposals to help poverty. These disgraceful congressmen are Sam Johnson, Jeb Hensarling, John Culberson, and Randy Neugebauer.
Senator John Cornyn, up for reelection, received a D -- voting for only 21 percent of the studied measures. Today he is speaking at the University of Texas about his new high stance on Darfur. I am glad that Senator Cornyn for finally seeing the light on Sudan, but he remains hypocritical as the Sudanese are the only people in dire need he wishes to help. What about those Texans in dire need? They deserve help, too.
LINK Texas not meeting kids' Medicaid needs, court agrees.
Ruling in mothers' federal lawsuit means they can seek relief from state for failing to comply with 1996 agreement
In Tyler, it’s the recent gunfire that left two people injured. Four bank robbers were arrested just this past month. Police say gang activity has become more organized and is gaining influence. In Longview, there have been a plague of drive-by shootings. Police there are attributing the issues to drugs and gangs. These have become the signs that in formerly small town East Texas, some areas are facing big city growing pains.
Community leaders aren’t standing by idle, though. Donald Sanders, a recently elected city council member for Tyler’s west side is organizing the support. Thursday night Sanders led a community town hall meeting to talk about reclaiming the neighborhoods.
"I think this is a meeting that's long past due," Sanders said, addressing an estimated crowd of about 100. "I cannot sit back and not do anything to try and eliminate these kinds of problems. I have nothing to fear. If we pull together as a community, we can put a damper on it."
In Longview, local ministers have begun to fight back with their own non-violent movement. The Longview News Journal has followed several of the pastors as they have organized community events to bring about awareness and speak to the issues that have been driving some into their homes and off of the their formerly safe streets.
The Rev. D.J. Nelson, pastor of Friendship Baptist Church, compared violence with cancer.
"If doctors find cancer in a certain part of your body, it's a threat to the entire body," he said. "Any time we have issues in our city like drugs or violence, it's a threat to the entire city."
The Avalanche-Journal reports on the shocking numbers that tell the story of childhood poverty:
The number of children subsisting in low-income families here has increased to 15,145, or by approximately 5 percent since 2000, based on data compiled by the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities' Texas Kids Count Project.
With this increase in poverty comes an increase in infant mortality, low-birth weight babies, and the percentage of babies who are not immunized, according to the Kids Count Data Book, a national report released last week by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Forbes came out with thier new list of the worlds richest people today. 793 billionaires in the world, that's a 15% growth over the past year. In the US we have 371 of those billionaires and Texas lays claim to 33 of those people, including two of the top 20. In Houston alone thier are seven billioniares.
As I mention all this I also want to say that almost 3 billion people live on $2 Dollars a day. Half of the worlds children live in poverty. "The combined wealth of the world’s 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries is $146 billion." (see here for a list of other poverty/wealth realted facts).
I'm not a huge "save the children" kind of person, but when I heard about Forbes new list on the radio this morning it just made me wonder what we could do with the combined $2,600,000,000,000 ($2.6 trillion) of the list.
