Every year, the KIDS Count Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation ranks all 50 states from 1 to 50 using 16 key indicators of child well-being. In this year’s version, the Grand Canyon State placed 40th, a slight increase from last year’s ranking of 42nd.
For the first time this year, states also receive a comprehensive score from 0 to 1,000. Scores show whether policies and public investment have actually improved children’s lives, not just how states compare to each other. Arizona received a score of 446, below the national score of 547.
Some of the lowest scores were in the education domain, coming in at 141. Education in the Grand Canyon State is at a new low, with nearly 74% of fourth graders not testing proficiently in reading and math, worse than last year’s 69%. However, the overall ranking for education as compared to national numbers comes in at 47th in the country, staying consistent with last year’s ranking.
January Contreras, executive director of Children’s Action Alliance, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss Arizona’s low ranking.
Contreras identified education as what’s weighing Arizona down in the rankings.
“What drags us down the most is education. We just heard a little bit about how education has become this political football in our state. It wasn’t always that way, and we need to get past that.
We need to stop divesting public funds from public schools so that every kid here that goes to a neighborhood school has everything they need for a quality education,” Contreras said.
Contreras explained how to ensure funding goes in the right places to make progress.
“It’s been said a million times that our budget is a moral document, right? What are our priorities? And so it’s important that we’re paying attention to things like this. If we know our literacy reading rate is abysmal for third graders, we need to start putting some of the tools in place that really help that,” Contreras said.
