THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The good news is that Virginia's children are doing better overall than those in many other states. The bad news is that no one should be satisfied with a condition in which almost a quarter of the state's 1.6 million youth are living in families that are poor or nearly poor.
Statistics released recently by the Action Alliance for Children and Youth paint a portrait of childhood in the Old Dominion that is comforting at one level, unsettling at another. On most of more than two-dozen indicators, from percent of women receiving adequate prenatal care to high-school dropout rates, Virginia's young people are statistically better off than the norm.
But those numbers are skewed by the relative prosperity of Northern Virginia. In cities such as Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk, and in some rural areas, children overall are growing up with fewer resources and greater health risks than are most of America's youth.
For instance, about 7 percent of the nation's babies are born with a low birth weight. As an indicator of a mother's nutritional state, low weight at birth may point to a variety of problems to come. The state average of low-birth-rate babies is slightly higher at 7.4 percent. But in Portsmouth, the figure is 12 percent. In Norfolk it is 11 percent; and in Suffolk, 10 percent.
Similarly, the percentage of families with children headed by a single female - another statistical indicator of future difficulties for the children and society - is 17 percent statewide. But in Norfolk that figure is 31 percent; in Portsmouth, 35 percent; and in Suffolk, 26 percent.
By those measures and many others, children in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake are close to the state norm. But even in more-prosperous localities, averages are only that. The fact that many children are doing well should not allow us to forget any one child who is not.
In its winter session, the General Assembly increased financial support to several organizations intent on addressing the overall health and well-being of families with small children. CHIP of Virginia, which aims at improving the health of low-income children by strengthening the skills and abilities of parents to care for them, will receive $1.4 million in state funding over the next two years. While this is less than the $4 million requested, it is a good start toward recognizing the value of a comprehensive approach to dealing with the needs of children and families.
Healthy Families, which has built a strong reputation nationally for preventing child abuse and neglect in families at risk of both, was given a deserved $150,000 grant.
Virginia can be proud of the investments made in our children. We can be grateful for an economy that is sufficiently healthy to provide a decent standard of living for most families.
But this is one area in which our gaze must remain on what needs to be done rather than on what has been accomplished. When a child lies behind every statistic, anything less than perfection is not good enough. by CNB