Policies need to reflect the diversity of our children. Their futures depend on it — and ours

“Children make up one quarter of this nation’s population and all of its future.”

That sentence appeared in the very first paragraph of a new kind of report designed to assess the well-being of children nationwide and state by state: the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data Book. Three decades later, its 30th edition looks at a generation’s worth of change.

The nation’s child population has grown, from close to 64 million in 1990 to almost 74 million in 2017. California added 1.1 million kids in that span, ranking third most among the states. As a nation, we have more and better data and research on child development, and this knowledge and evidence can aid policy leaders at the state level as they prioritize children.

But a failure to prepare children of color to succeed has profound consequences in a country with an increasingly diverse child population. Broad progress masks the reality of deep and stubbornly persistent racial and ethnic inequities that erect hurdles for children of color on the road to success.

Nationally, for instance, the share of African American and Latino kids living in poverty in 2017 were about three to two times, respectively, the share of their white peers. In California, the gap is even wider: 29 percent of black children and 24 percent of Latino children live in poverty compared with 9 percent of their white counterparts.

Today’s kids are tomorrow’s contributors to our economy and communities. Here is some additional context as we think about the future:

• All three states that added 1 million or more children, including California, and every state where growth in the child population outpaced the national average since 1990 are located in the South or West regions of this country. These regions also contain the 18 lowest-ranked states for child well-being, and the overlap is concerning.

• Nationally, the percentage of Asian and Pacific Islander children and the percentage of kids who are Latino doubled. Asian and Pacific Islander kids accounted for 13 percent of California’s child population in 2017, up from 10 percent in 1990. The majority of California kids – 52 percent, up from 35 percent – were Latino by 2017.

• There’s lots of good news. The percentage of children without health insurance has dropped by 62 percent nationally and 72 percent in California. The teen birth rate is down 68 percent nationally and 79 percent in the state. Greater percentages of kids are attending preschool and graduating from high school. Yet failures of equity persist.

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Here’s how we can do better, both nationally and in the individual states:

• Expand programs that help keep kids healthy. Children’s health has improved because of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Affordable Care Act and expanded access to Medicaid.

• Improve tools that are proven to help families lift themselves up economically, such as earned income and child tax credits.

• Ensure the 2020 census counts all children, including those younger than 5, who are most likely to be missed. Some 55 federal programs, such as Head Start and CHIP, that allocate money based on census data have delivered more than $115 billion per year to California. That’s a lot of money at stake.

• Enact public policies that acknowledge and tear down the obstacles faced by children of color.

If we want America to build from the same unlimited potential it always has, we must ensure that the potential of our children is not limited by our policy choices. I am optimistic. Progress made over the last 30 years proves that while the work is hard and change can feel slow, we can make it happen. California and America will be stronger for it.