35 Years of Progress in Children's Economic Wellbeing Down the Drain

According to the 2009 Child Wellbeing Index- Special Focus Report, “Anticipating the Impacts of a 2008-2010 Recession” we are in the process of witnessing the undoing of over three decades of national progress in Childhood Economic Wellbeing. All of the data is from 2007, the most recent year of available information.

The Childhood Wellbeing Index is based on seven domains: Family Economic Wellbeing, Health, Safety/Behavioral, Educational Attainment, Community Connectedness, Social Relationships, and Emotional/Spiritual Wellbeing.

On the national level, by 2010:
-The percentage of children living in poverty is projected to increase to 21%
-27% (8 million) of children will have at least one parent not working full-time, year-round
-Annual Family Incomes will drop from $59,200 in 2007 to $55,700
-Single female-headed household incomes will drop from $24,950 in 2007 to $23,000
-Single male-headed household incomes will drop from $38,100 in 2007 to $33,300

The 2007 rate of child poverty in Illinois is 16.6% which is down from 17.1% in 2006. Which is good, but as the CWI report states, minority families “tend to be more sensitive to economic fluctuations, (and) will be affected most by these changes.” Here is the breakdown of childhood poverty by race:

Total Illinois Child Poverty: 16.6%
African American Child Poverty: 38.6%
Asian American Child Poverty: 10.8%
Latino Child Poverty: 21%
Caucasian Child Poverty: 8.5%

We know that minorities are being particularly hard hit by the recession, and we know that children experience poverty at a greater rate than adults. Put these things together and the discrepancy shown above is just going to get worse.

Here are some other things that we know:
-Community violence tends to increase during times of economic downturn due to cuts in juvenile prevention programs, cuts in the police force, and (let’s be real here) increased anger, frustration, fear and desperation.

Violence prevention programs are on the chopping block from the Illinois budget. At a time when we are predicting an increase in violence, does this make sense? No. Call your legislator now.

-More and more families are at increased risk of homelessness due to the combination of the collapse of the housing market and the increase of unemployment.

Cuts to homeless prevention, affordable housing, and homeless education programs are currently being discussed in Springfield as a way of balancing the budget. Does this make sense? No. Call your legislator now.

Scary as these numbers are, they are not inevitable. There are steps that the state of Illinois can take to prevent these predictions from coming true. But we need to take the steps, the hard steps, and we need to take them now.