A long way to go with kids

The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City: Oklahoma isn’t ranked last among the states when it comes to the well-being of our children, and our standing has improved a bit from a year ago. But the bottom line is, we’ve got a long, long way to go.

In its 2011 Kids Count report, the Annie E. Casey Foundation places Oklahoma at No. 43, up one spot from its standing the previous two years. Not quite a decade ago we were 38th, so the trend line is not encouraging.

Oklahoma is one of only four states that have seen an increase in the rate of child deaths since 2000. We’ve had a 16 percent increase in the number of children living in poverty in the past decade, and a 17 percent increase in the number of children living in single-parent households during that time. Our teen birthrate is among the highest in the country.

Desiree Doherty, head of the Parent-Child Center in Tulsa, said the Kids Count numbers are “dreadful.” How, she asked, can babies born in Oklahoma this year “thrive and be prepared for school and for life when they are growing up in generational poverty?”

She went on: “Little ones can’t pull themselves out of poverty. They can’t protect themselves from adults who are harming or exploiting them.”