Date Published: 6/28/2006
Kids' advocates blast state on spending choices A children's advocacy group said lawmakers missed the boat on improving the lot of kids. BY BILL KACZOR Associated Press TALLAHASSEE - A national report that shows little improvement in the well-being of Florida's 4 million children is evidence the state should have spent more of its revenue surplus on kids, a statewide advocacy group said Tuesday.
Florida failed to show significant improvement in any of the 10 indicators cited in the Annie E. Casey Foundation's 2006 Kids Count Data Book, although its ranking increased slightly from 35th to 33rd among the 50 states and District of Columbia. In the two previous years, Florida had been 34th.
''Florida could have seen improvement if it had directed a fair share of the state budget surplus to Florida's children,'' said Amanda Ostrander, coordinator of communications and policy for the nonprofit Tallahassee-based Children's Campaign. ``The state failed to seize an opportunity.''
The Children's Campaign advocates for maternal and children's healthcare, child protection, high-quality early learning programs, before- and after-school activities and juvenile justice accountability and fairness.
House Fiscal Council Chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart, defended the Legislature's track record. He said lawmakers provided enough money to pay for every child who qualifies for the state's KidCare health insurance program, increased payments to foster parents by $60 per month and approved the largest spending increase in the state's history for public schools -- $1.77 billion, or 8.7 percent more money for every student.
Lawmakers, however, turned down a $15 million proposal to add children of legal migrants and state workers to the KidCare program, which provides low-cost health insurance for families.
''The primary responsibility for the well-being of children rests with the parents, not the government,'' Negron said.
He said some of the child advocates' favorite programs are of ''dubious merit'' and that the Legislature funds only those that actually work.
The Kids Count report shows Florida got worse in three of its primary categories with 8.5 percent of the state's babies born underweight, 70 deaths from all causes for every 100,000 teens, and 9 percent of teenagers neither attending school nor working.
Other findings show that 8 percent of Florida's children live in extreme poverty, 42 percent live in low-income families and 15 percent lack health insurance -- all the same as last year.
In other categories 22 percent of children under age 6 live in families classified as working poor and 68 percent of low-income families with children spend at least 30 percent of their household incomes on housing.
Florida's most significant improvement since 2000 has been in the teen birth rate, which has decreased by eight births for every 1,000 female teens.