For a lot of kids, Minnesota is a great place to grow up — fourth best in the nation according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. But not every child benefits from the state’s exceptionalism.
“We live in a state that, for the most part, is not designed well for everybody,” said Bharti Wahi, executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund of Minnesota. “We can see that children of color and American Indian children are not doing as well. They are left behind by a system that is not designed for them.”
The Annie E. Casey Foundation 2019 Kids Count Data Book is the latest study to illustrate Minnesota’s widespread racial and economic disparities. Residents of color, American Indians and people with low incomes often have fewer opportunities and therefore achieve less than their white and more affluent neighbors.
According to the report, Minnesota ranks:
- Third in economic well-being, measured by the number of children in poverty, families with high housing costs and teens who are out of school and working.
- 10th in education, gauged from preschool attendance, math and reading proficiency and high school graduation rates.
- Sixth in health, assessed from the number of low-weight births, uninsured children, child and teen deaths and teens who abuse drugs and alcohol.
- Sixth in family and community, determined from a count of single-parent families, children living in poverty, teen births and families with the head of household lacking a high school diploma.
Wahi says if you dig down into those measurements and other data, you will often find stark differences between how children of color fare.
Consider kids living in poverty. Statewide, just 12 percent of Minnesota children live in poverty, significantly less than the 18 percent national average. But breaking the numbers down by race show children of color face more challenges.
For instance, 36 percent of black children’s families in Minnesota are considered poor by federal standards compared to just 6 percent of white children’s families, according to a 2018 data analysis by the Children’s Defense Fund.
Advocates hope statistics like these will spur policymakers to re-examine how state programs can best support struggling families and help them achieve success.
They note a recent legislative victory: Lawmakers voted to increase by $100 a month grants from the Minnesota Family Assistance Program, a welfare-to-work initiative, for the first time since its inception 33 years ago.
Yet Wahi stresses there is a lot of work to do to level the playing field and give all children an opportunity to succeed.
“Every child in the state of Minnesota deserves to thrive. We’ve built a system where some can and some will not,” she said. “We can do better as a state. I want to be number one, and I want to set the bar for number one higher.”