COLUMBUS – Despite poverty and lingering unemployment, children in Ohio, as in much of the nation, are avoiding the pitfalls of making bad decisions, according to an annual report that evaluates the children of all 50 states in terms of their economic well-being, physical health, education, family and community.
But that good behavior may only be rewarded with fewer jobs, which pay less than their older brothers’ and sisters’.
The report says that 23 percent of the state’s children lived in poverty in 2014, a rate that has remained virtually unchanged for several years, 31 percent live in families that lack secure employment and 14 percent live in high-poverty areas.
In spite of those conditions, the report says there was a 36 percent drop in the teen birth rate between 2008 and 2014, a decline of 38 percent in drug and alcohol use, and a 29 percent decrease in the percentage of teens not graduating from high school on schedule.
The foundation says, nationally, a record number of teens – dubbed Generation Z – have managed to avoid bad choices: The teen birth rate fell 40 percent, drug and alcohol abuse dropped 38 percent, and the percent of teens failing to graduate on time decreased by 28 percent.
The nation child poverty rate remained at 22 percent, unchanged from 2013.
The report cites concerns about the increasing number of teens living in high poverty neighborhoods that lack the resources they need to succeed. From2006 to 2010, the percent of children growing up in high-poverty areas increased to 14 percent from 11 percent.
Almost one in three children lived in families where no member of the household had full-time, year-round employment and, unfortunately, the outlook for many of those teens is not very encouraging.
The report claims that teens growing up in low- to moderate-income households have fewer opportunities to move up the economic ladder than those in the two older generations. Employers often require college degrees for middle income positions but rising tuition costs and a shift in financial aid away from needs-based grants to loans has put a college education out of reach for many of them. Among recent graduates with only a high school diploma, the unemployment rate was 28 percent for blacks, 17 percent for Latinos and 15 percent for whites.
Those with jobs earned, on average, $10.66 an hour, less than in 2000 when adjusted for inflation.
The foundation calls for expanding access to high-quality Pre-kindergarten and early childhood services, improving access to higher education and training, increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income workers who do not have dependent children and requiring paid family leave for workers.