BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — A new report shows that Louisiana has the third-lowest score for the well-being of Black children.
The Race for Results report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation analyzes the well-being of U.S. children and gives states a composite score by race and ethnicity using 12 indicators representing wellbeing milestones “from cradle to career.”
Data shows that Louisiana scored below the national average for every racial and ethnic group except American Indian and Alaskan Native children.
The report said Louisiana ranked No. 44 out of 46 states in well-being for Black children, No. 39 out of 50 states for Latino children, No. 44 out of 50 states for well-being of white children and No. 43 out of 50 states for well-being for children of two or more races.
Recommendations made in the report to create a brighter future for children include:
Expand federal and state tax credits and earned income tax credits for low-income families.
Design programs that help families provide for their child’s future while reducing racial disparities.
Expand Medicaid coverage.
Agenda for Children, an organization based in New Orleans, gave more insight into how disparities in education are affecting Louisiana children. The group said young Black and Latino Louisianans are less likely to be proficient readers compared to white peers, adding that the gap was bigger in 2022 than in 2011.
However, there are signs of improvement, Agenda for Children said, as fourth-grade reading proficiency improved by 5 percentage points for Black and Latino students and 7 percentage points for white students.
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