The blue state advantage

Minneapolis Star Tribune: For a child, simply being born and reared in a politically "blue" state offers a head start in life. In other words, growing up in a state where grownups vote to tax and spend more really matters for kids. That conclusion, from a recent national assessment of children's health indicators, squares with the notion that higher state government spending on children yields better results.
The Every Child Matters Education Fund, a Washington-based child advocacy group, recently released a report tying politics to the health and well-being of children. In states where voters lean toward electing Republicans, children are "at significantly more risk" than in Democratic-leaning states, the report said.
The results
Using federal health statistics, the organization's director, Michael Petit, ranked all 50 states using indicators such as infant mortality, health insurance, poverty and child abuse. Compared to their peers in the top 10, mostly blue states, a child in a state in the bottom 10 is more than twice as likely to be living in poverty and without health insurance and seven times more likely to die from abuse and neglect.
Mothers in those bottom states are twice as likely to receive inadequate prenatal care, placing children at higher risk.
A major report finding is that blue states tend to tax at higher rates, then spend more on children's programs. As a result, those states have generally better outcomes for kids, including lower incarceration rates, lower births to teen mothers and fewer infants born underweight.
According to Petit, in red states "children have been hit hardest by an antitax, antigovernment ideology." For example, Rhode Island, a blue state, spends 160 per capita on child welfare programs, topping the nation. Mississippi spends 20.
Lower state tax investments have serious consequences -- especially for kids.