The Poor Kids

The federal Kids Count report was released recently and barely made back-page news. This is really sad considering that kids are supposed to be our future.

Among the morass of details there were some good things...

• teen birth rates down (43 per thousand)
• high school dropouts decreased (8%)

...and some not so good...

• 18% still live in poverty, more than the 16% in 2001
• only 68% live with two married parents
• serious crime among juveniles is up to 18 per thousand

Meanwhile, WalMart still refuses to allow its workers to unionize and has one of the lowest average wage rates in the country. Not that anyone is counting or anything.