California did not get a single A on the 2014 California Children’s Report Card, which lists grades for 27 factors that contribute to the well-being of children.
“In a recent national ranking of children’s well-being, California ranked 41st out of the 50 states,” the report states. “California has more impact on national measures of children’s well-being than any other state because it is home to more children than any other state in the country (13 percent of [the] national total).”
The 27 factors outlined in the report include things like school finance reform, children’s health insurance coverage, infant and toddler education, and family preservation and unification.
Children Now Director of Research Jessica Mindnich told the Sun that factors California receives a D or D- in are areas where “we think here are a lot more things the state can and should be doing.”
For education, those areas are infant and toddler care, children’s savings accounts, kindergarten through 12th-grade investments, teacher and training evaluation, and innovation and technology. For health it’s home visiting, oral health, mental health, and school-based health services. The education and health of foster youth, and family preservation and reunification also received Ds.
The report isn’t all bad, though. Mindnich pointed out that there are areas where California is doing better than in the past. A good example for 2013 was the passage of Local Control Funding Formula. Incidentally, that granted the report factor of school finance reform a B-.
The formula provides a base amount of funding for all students and an additional 20 percent more funding for high need students, including English learners, low-income, and foster youth. Districts with 55 percent or more high-needs students receive concentration grants.
Other areas where California fared better than average were health insurance, preparation for the new Common Core state standards, expanded and linked learning, and transition from kindergarten.
One of the big conclusions drawn in the report is that California isn’t spending as much money on children as it should and could. The state is ranked high on the national list for per capita state and local tax revenues and low on the list for amount of money spent on health and education for children.
“The takeaway is that California is a wealthy state, you know, we’re an innovator in so many ways,” Mindnich said. “And yet, when you look at indicators of health and indicators of education, California is ranked near the bottom nationally.”
This article appears in Jan 9-16, 2014.