IF THE REPORT card being released today by Philadelphia Safe and Sound on the well-being of children and youth in Philadlephia assigned letter grades instead of numbers, the letter summing up the results would not be A, B, or C, but "Why."
Why, during an administration that has declared children a priority, has the overall well-being of children not significantly improved? While some individual areas have seen progress, such as lead blood levels in children, each of the five major categories identified and graded by Safe and Sound have remained virtually the same since 2003, with some categories unchanging or even worsening over a longer period of time.
And why, during a period that has seen a significant increase in the amount of spending on children, have we not seen signs of more dramatic improvements in their lives and health?
For example, the $1.21 billion dollars spent by the city on children in 2006 (from city, state and federal sources) representated an increase of 35% over fiscal year 2000, according to the organization's "Children's Budget."
And while these are complicated problems, surely some link between funding and impact on quality of life should be more evident.
Safe and Sound's measurement of Healthy Start, which includes infant deaths, low birthweight, lead levels, early care and readiness for school; performance there earned the highest of five grades, with a "2" for "promising."
A "mixed''grade of 3 was earned by categories related to children living in stable families, health behaviors, and school achievement. The worst grade, of 5, for "problematic" was assigned to whether children live in safe and supportive communities. Given that last year, 179 young people, from age 7-24 were homicide victims - a 20 percent increase over the previous year - this should come as no suprise. But why hasn't more money made more of a difference? A clue to that mystery may be found in the fact that, according to the budget report, half of the children's funding that passes through city government is administrated by the Department of Human Services (DHS). This troubled agency has come under fire recently for the number of deaths of children under its care.
The serious re-evaluation of this organization should be followed by an equally serious assessment of all of the city's programs related to the well-being of our children. *