One would expect Virginia children to be better off than children in other states if only for the reasons that our household incomes are higher than the national average and Virginia has a smaller percentage of poor children. But what happens when you focus on just the poor? How well off are Virginia’s poor children compared to their peers in other states?
Given the chintziness of Virginia’s social welfare programs, one might expect that poor kids in the Old Dominion get a raw deal. But that’s not so, as it turns out.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation has studied the issue, compiling a wide variety of indicators of well being. Virginia’s composite score is 18th in the country — 4th best in the country east of the Mississippi River. (Believe it or not, West Virginia edges us out!)
Here’s how Virginia fared in the category scores (the lower the score, the better):
Health status — 10
Social and emotional well being — 19
Cognitive development and educational attainment — 10
Family activities — 41
Family and neighborhood context — 26
Social and economic context — 26
What I find interesting is that Northeastern states known for the generosity of their social services fare the worst in the country. Poor children in Massachusetts rank 50, Rhode Island 49, New York 48, and New Jersey 47. And who’s at the top? Utah, not exactly a bastion of the welfare state, ranks No. 1. Other top performers are the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states — all part of “red state” flyover country.
Maybe the Annie E. Casey folks can do a follow-up study next year and examine the apparent reverse correlation between government social spending and child welfare.
(Image credit: Annie E. Casey Foundation. Click on image for a larger, more legible graphic.)