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American Morning

Are Child Poverty Rates Improving in America?

Aired July 19, 2001 - 11:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A new study points to an improving outlook for children in America. Some persistent problems such as teen alcohol and drug use showed little change, but there was improvement in several areas.

CNN's Kathy Slobogin has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Things are looking up for American children, according to the federal report released today. Child poverty is down to its lowest level in 20 years. The number of children with health insurance is up.

DR. DUANE ALEXANDER, CHILD HEALTH ADVOCATE: The big news in this report is that children's status is improving and continuing to get better.

SLOBOGIN: Dr. Duane Alexander says the boom economy of the last few years has lifted children along with everyone else.

ALEXANDER: In addition to the lower percentage living in poverty, we also see a higher percentage of children that have a parent employed full time all year. And the number of children in female-headed households who are in poverty has declined considerably.

SLOBOGIN: One of the most dramatic trends documented by the report is the sharp drop in teen pregnancy -- now at a record low.

ALEXANDER: Teen pregnancy is a particularly significant success story. Beginning in 1991, we've had a 25 percent decline in teen pregnancy, in teen births. This is a significant improvement on a major national concern.

SLOBOGIN: Although there was no improvement in the rate of alcohol and drug use by American teenagers, there are fewer who smoke. After peaking at 25 percent in 1997, the number of high school seniors who smoke went down to 21 percent in the year 2000.

Similarly, 10 percent of eighth graders reported smoking in 1996. Now that's down to 7 percent. While, in general, children's health benefited from more access to health insurance and a significant increase in those getting vaccinations, there is one disturbing health trend: more asthma. And nobody knows why. ALEXANDER: Asthma is a puzzle. There is clearly an increase in prevalence of asthma in children. This is a long-term trend. It's gone up from about 3 percent to 5 percent prevalence in children -- and in African American children, 7 percent.

SLOBOGIN (on camera): Almost most of the news is good, there is still about 10 million American children with no health insurance, still more than 11 million who are living in poverty. And, increasingly, those children have parents who work.

DEBORAH WEINSTEIN, CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND: We have a new face of child poverty in America. And that is one where the parents work. Now almost eight out of 10 poor children in America live in a family where somebody works. And increasing numbers live in a family where somebody is working full time year round.

SLOBOGIN (voice-over): What worries child advocates is that not only do jobs fail to lift the poorest families out of poverty, but that so many of the gains for children in this report flow from a strong economy, an economy that may now be weakening.

Kathy Slobogin, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well, joining us now to talk about the report and the overall condition of children in the U.S. is Susanne Martinez. She is senior vice president for policy at the Children's Defense Fund, and she joins us from our Washington bureau, as you can see there.

Welcome this morning; we appreciate your coming in.

Let me ask -- let me begin by first asking you -- if I'm not mistaken, didn't your organization paint a much darker picture for children just recently?

SUSANNE MARTINEZ, CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND: Well, every year we put out a report called "The State of America's Children." And it was issued in April. And our statistics and figures are not that dissimilar from what came out today. But I think it's what you look into these numbers and talk about, what do they really mean?

The poverty rates, for example: We've seen a decline in child poverty in the last year, but the rates are still incredibly high in terms of a country that has such a strong economy. We have basically one in six children living in poverty today. And that's a higher rate than we had 30 years ago, 20 years ago. So although it's good news that poverty is going down. it's also a little bit troubling that it's not going down faster, and these children are living in poverty.

I think, also, the issue about working parents. Many of the children who live in poverty have working parents, and that's gone up significantly in the last several years. And yet, they're not able to lift their children out of poverty despite their work efforts.

HARRIS: So why do you think the numbers of children in poverty is such a resistant factor right now?

MARTINEZ: Well, this country does not invest enough resources in lifting children out of poverty. Compared to other Western, industrialized countries, we really do not put as many programs in place to help children and families. We have had a number of families going into the workforce in the last few years, but we haven't provided them the child care support, the transportation they need to get to the jobs. We really don't do a good job of following through and making sure that when they're working they're able to climb up the economic ladder. And so that's where our failures come in.

HARRIS: You know, what's the good news that was in this report was -- seemed to be all linked to the rising economy, which has actually now flattened out some. But there's one factor here that I can't figure out: How is it, then, that the dramatic drop that has been seen in teenage pregnancy -- is that related at all to the economy's performance of late?

MARTINEZ: Well, many people think that the economy does contribute to that, because it gives young people the hope that they can have opportunities if they make good choices in their lives. So the economy does contribute to that. But there are other things that have been happening.

In the last decade, there's been a sustained effort to reduce teen pregnancy, and many community groups have been working on education programs, reaching out. And those kinds of efforts have had results, and it does show that when we take on a problem and really try to make change, we have good results.

The same thing is true in child immunizations. Those immunizations rates are really a significant improvement over the last decade, and that follows legislation passed in 1993 under the Clinton administration. The vaccination campaign began then, and we've seen those rates really, really change. So we can make changes if we just sort of concentrate and make some effort to do it.

HARRIS: The trick is to get enough people on board to do such a thing. Susanne Martinez, thank you very much for your time this morning; we sure appreciate it. And we'll be watching future reports. Thank you very much.

MARTINEZ: Thank you.

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