The state received good news this week- a national study ranks New Hampshire number one in child well-being.
But the annual survey also reported a sharp increase in the number of kids living in poverty.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein has more.
Between 2000-2003, New Hampshire saw the number of children living in poverty spike 33%.
According to the annual survey conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 8% or 24 thousand children now live below the federal poverty line.
While those numbers disappoint Ellen Shemitz of the New Hampshire Children's Alliance, they don't surprise her.
She says just look at the state's lack of affordable housing and the number of parents working two or more jobs just to keep their families in the black.
Shemitz says living in poverty means a kid's chance of success is dramatically reduced.
T.14
7:29 did you have shelter the night before? Did you have decent food? Do you have adequate clothes when you get to school? A lot of times the answer is no. and then how can a child attend to what is going on in a classroom if they are ill, hungry, cold.
T.24
Sfx: kids playing
:40 good start
30-40 kids at the Merrimack Valley Day Care Service in Concord run around pouring water on each other's heads, trying to get relief from the heat.
Representative Mary Jane Wallner has worked here for about 30 years.
Most of the kids' parents, she says, work service industry, low-wage jobs.
The new Kids Count report troubles her, because she sees children go home with parents worried about making ends meet.
And that stress, says the veteran teacher, isn't something wealthier kids have to worry about.
T.19
:37 those children are often maybe calmer, they feel like they are more self-assured, more content, more sure of what is going to happen to them. There isn't the anxiousness of children in poverty, if they've moved a lot, if they are doubled up...they don't feel that security they really need to feel.
Wallner says the result of parents stressed about making rent, lacking food, or just being in a sour mood is kids who are clingy, aggressive, or just sad.
And she says their experiences often come out when they play.
T.20
:19 one day a teacher came up and she said that two of the 4 yr. olds had turned the Housekeeping corner into the prison waiting room. And they were playing like they were at the prison waiting room.
Wallner says both kids had parents in jail at the time.
UNH Economics Professor Ross Gittell explains the reason for the increase in kids living in poverty in New Hampshire has to do with available jobs.
He says even though the state is seeing employment growth and a low unemployment rate, the jobs being created just don't pay as well as the ones that have gone away.
7:21 this trend will continue, but it can be addressed by changes in public policy, and one change is to help raise wages in industries that now pay at the minimum or near the minimum and support families and children.
Gittell says about 10 thousand parents, many single mothers, earn between $5.15 and $6.65 an hour.
Gittell admits, raising the minimum wage won't solve the problem, but it helps.
Long-term, he says, the state must consider ways to help those living in poverty get better jobs.
That's what Representative Mary Jane Wallner wants to do too.
T.22
5:21 maybe someone gets a six week training course to become a nurses' assistance, but then give them the opportunity, if that is successful...then give them the opportunity to go on and be an RN, give them something to aspire to.
3:15 the problem with that is you are rewarding the behavior...
Representative Fran Wendelboe.
...young people should say I am going to get my CNA degree and then I am going to work towards my RN degree, and then I am going to start a family...instead of them starting a family and then the government bailing out...I don't mean to sound like an ogre but this goes to personal responsibility...if they would just wait and be more responsible it would prevent children living in poverty.
Wendelboe says despite the increase in poverty levels, New Hampshire still has the lowest rate of children in poverty nationwide.
And she adds New Hampshire already provides top of the line services to children.
She points to the state's immunization program, and the state's health insurance plan for children.
According to the authors of the Kids Count study, it is actually because the state has invested money into those health programs that New Hampshire is considered the best place to be a kid.
For NHPR News, I'm DG.
