Some sobering numbers surfaced last week about declining quality-of-life conditions for children in Dallas County. More than 29 percent of the county’s children now live in poverty, a shocking increase from the 19.2 percent reported in 2000.
Beyond ABC: Assessing Children’s Health is an annual study by the Children’s Medical Center. This year’s results should be troubling to everyone: These are human lives hanging in the balance, and the neglect of our neediest children today ultimately will cost Dallas taxpayers far more in the future.
Impoverished children have a higher risk of dropping out of school, which vastly reduces their income-earning potential as adults. Lower-income residents contribute less to the tax base, which adds to the burden wealthier residents must bear.
The report indicates increasing numbers of children face exposure to risk variables — health problems, delinquency, abuse, learning difficulties, drugs and crime — that threaten to destroy lives that have only just started.
You may think it’s a small subset of our population whose children face such adverse conditions. But when close to 70 percent of Dallas County public school children rely on free and reduced-price meals for basic nutrition, ever wonder who picks up the tab?
Census data shows that the highest concentration of children living in poverty is in southern Dallas, which also happens to be home to the largest food deserts — areas with no access to grocery stores within one mile.
The absence of fresh food sources means parents often must rely on the high-fat, low nutritional value food typically available in corner convenience stores. And when children grow up eating such food, they face far higher risks of obesity and diabetes — and malnourishment. Not surprisingly, the Beyond ABC study says child diabetes rates have grown 34 percent since 2000.
Poverty also leads to higher stress in the home, which raises the likelihood of child abuse. The number of confirmed cases of child abuse increased 39 percent.
When this newspaper draws attention to groups working to boost the quality of life in southern Dallas, like Habitat for Humanity and CitySquare, we do so with these children in mind.
When we outline the various crime hot spots in the city and note the efforts of Police Chief David Brown to coordinate efforts among nonprofit groups focusing attention on at-risk youths, we do so with these children in mind.
The idea behind such studies or this newspaper’s Bridging Dallas’ North-South Gap project isn’t to make readers feel guilty. It’s to invite new ideas and initiatives aimed at fixing a serious imbalance that has caused half of our city to grow and envision a prosperous future, while the other half lags far behind.