[Colorado] Study finds 165,478 children living in poverty

from The Rocky Mountain News

By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News

The percentage of children living in poverty continued to rise in the early part of the decade, according to a report released Tuesday.

The 13th edition of the "Kids-Count in Colorado" report, by the Colorado Children's Campaign, shows that 165,478, or 14.2 percent, of Colorado children were living in poverty in 2004, the latest year for which data were available. That's up from 9.2 percent in 2000.

Nearly one in six Colorado children lives in poverty.

"That's the most important factor as an indicator of a child's well-being," Children's Campaign interim director Van Schoales said of the rising poverty levels. "It has impacts on health, education - everything. The trends aren't good, and they're getting worse."

Schools will see more students in coming years who have problems learning, Schoales said.

"It's going to mean - and does mean - kids are coming in with bigger language problems in terms of early literacy skills," he said.

Programs for young children - such as preschool and kindergarten - will become more important, Schoales said. Those programs help students in language skills that middle-class children pick up at home.

Twenty-four percent of eligible Colorado youngsters were enrolled in full-day kindergartens during the 2004-05 school year, up from 19 percent in 2002-03. But the national average is 60 percent, the report says.

The Children's Campaign compiles the annual statistical report from data collected by state and federal agencies.

The report shows the Colorado birthrate declining to less than 15 births per 1,000 people. Colorado women gave birth to 68,475 babies in 2004, down by 800 compared with 2003.

If that rate continues, most of Colorado's population growth in coming years will be through migration from other parts of the United States and foreign nations, the report says.

Only about 4 percent of Colorado children in 2004 were born in other countries.

Three out of four of the foreign- born youngsters are in the U.S. illegally, according to a 2004 U.S. Census Bureau survey, the report says.

The foreign-born children live in more stable families than their native-born classmates - 77 percent of immigrant kids are from intact homes, compared with 68 percent among the native born.

But 23 percent of the immigrant youngsters live below the federal poverty level, compared with 11 percent of the native-born children. And poverty often equates to the breakup of families.

"The problem is, if you grow up in poverty, you're more likely to be in poverty," Schoales said.