State of America’s Children 2011

• Every 34 seconds, a child is born into poverty.

• Every 42 seconds, a baby is born without health insurance.

• Every 42 seconds, a child is confirmed as abused or neglected.

• Every two minutes, a child is born at a low birth weight.

• Every 18 minutes, a baby dies before his or her first birthday.

• Every five hours, a child is killed by abuse or neglect.

• Every 16 hours, a mother dies from complications of childbirth or pregnancy.

Instants in time like these are part of the Children's Defense Fund's State of America's Children 2011 report, released July 18. The overview, "The Need for a Level Playing Field for All Children," states that the report "paints a devastating portrait of childhood across the country." Indeed, the 200-plus page report is full of grim statistics about the health, poverty, family stability, education and safety of America's youngest population. The numbers get worse when they focus on Hispanic and American Indian children, and far bleaker when black children are the subject.

"Particularly striking is the fact that children of color in America who now constitute almost 45 percent of all children will be the majority of children in 2019 - just eight years from now.... Yet nearly 80 percent or more of black and Hispanic public school students cannot read or do math at grade level in fourth, eighth and 12th grades, sentencing them to social and economic death in this globalizing competitive economy," the report states.

A major way to close the achievement gap is to address poverty, as well as the lack of adequate health care, early childhood programs, supports for abused and neglected children and other safety net services. More than one in three black and Hispanic children and one in 10 white children live in poverty. For children under age 5, 41.9 percent of black, 35 percent of Hispanic and almost 15 percent of white are poor.

In her foreword, CDF President Marian Wright Edelman likens the current plight of America's children, and the country's response to them, to the biblical Noah's Ark story. Using lessons like "don't miss the boat" and "plan ahead," Edelman says: "We have pushed so many of our children into the tumultuous sea of life in small and leaky boats without survival gear and compass....

"I hope we will work together with urgency to build the transforming movement required to give all of our children the anchors faith and love, the rudder of hope, the sails of health and education, and the paddles of family and community, to keep them safe and strong when life's sea gets rough."

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