Last night Governor Walker gave his State of the State address. The Governor used his address to talk about his vision of where Wisconsin stands economically, outline his priorities for the last part of his term, and push the need for additional tax cuts.
The State of the State doesn’t focus on children, but we think the Governor’s address provides a useful opportunity to take a moment and evaluate the progress Wisconsin has made in promoting the well-being of the state’s children and families – a State of the State for Wisconsin’s children and families, in a way.
The past several years have been difficult ones for many of Wisconsin’s children and families. Here is a quick survey of how kids and families are faring, especially in regards to poverty:
- Nearly a quarter of a million Wisconsin children live in poverty. That amounts to a 37% increase since 2008, and it means that one out of every six Wisconsin children lives in poverty. Growing up in poverty can have life-long negative effects on a child.
- More than four out of ten Wisconsin schoolchildren come from families with low incomes, and receive free or reduced-price school lunch.
- There are enormous disparities in the economic wellbeing of Wisconsin children, particularly between children of different races. One out of every two black children in Wisconsin live in poverty, compared to just one out of every nine white non-Hispanic children.
- School classrooms are becoming more crowded. Wisconsin public schools lost 3,000 teachers over the last five years, and class sizes have climbed.
- About 61,000 Wisconsin children were uninsured in 2012 and lacked access to timely preventive health care.
There are also some bright spots in the state of today’s children and families in Wisconsin:
- More children than ever have access to public 4-year-old kindergarten in Wisconsin. Ninety-three percent of Wisconsin school districts now offer 4K, and the number of children served has tripled over the last decade.
- Fewer teens are getting into trouble with the law. The number of juvenile arrests in Wisconsin has fallen 42% since 2003.
- Fewer teenagers are having babies. The rate of births to teen mothers in Wisconsin has fallen by 25% over the last ten years.
Some of these facts pose large challenges for Wisconsin, while others are signs of positive trends that advocates and families have worked hard to bring about. There is no reason that Wisconsin can’t make significant progress in improving the state of Wisconsin’s children and families in 2014 if lawmakers, families, and advocates agree to make children a high priority.
Tamarine Cornelius
