Award for area misses the point
In too many ways, we're failing to care for our kids. Author:
Jerry Paul Publication:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 12, 2005
Sometimes a compliment is the last thing in the world that we need. Unfortunately, that's the case with St. Louis being named one of the nation's 100 best cities for children by Colin Powell's America's Promise project. Although the organization's awards strive to recognize community efforts on behalf of children, many may take this particular award to mean that we are actually providing a good environment for our kids in the St. Louis region. In too many instances, that's just not so.
Let's focus on just three areas:
* With respect to the health of our children, consider that over 11 percent of children in the city St. Louis are poisoned by lead, compared to less than 2 percent in St. Louis County and 3.1 percent in the nation. In one sense, that's not the fault of anyone who's alive today; this is a relatively old city, and many of its buildings are covered in lead-based paint. But in another sense, we have to ask ourselves -- no matter where we live in this region -- why we tolerate a situation in which thousands of our children are routinely harmed by a problem that's totally fixable.
* Turning to education, although the graduation rate of the St. Louis Public Schools system has increased in recent years, it remains 15 percentage points below the national average and 20 percentage points below the state-wide average. Although improvements in student achievement are encouraging, it's way too early to declare victory: We're still failing to provide almost one in two children with the essential skills they need to achieve economic self-sufficiency.
* Finally, let's look at that most basic of all human requirements: day-in, day-out physical security. The homicide rate in the city of St. Louis is five times the national average and four times the Missouri average. That means children growing up west of the Mississippi River and roughly east of Skinker Blvd. are significantly more likely to know someone who has been the victim of crime -- or to have been victimized themselves -- than kids growing up in our region's Illinois and Missouri suburbs.
That is not a child-friendly environment.
Given these and other factors, it's no surprise that the city of St. Louis consistently ranks dead last among Missouri's 115 counties in terms of overall child welfare, according to Citizens for Missouri's Children.
Colin Powell's America's Promise is no doubt a fine organization, and the goal of promoting the welfare of children by recognizing those working on their behalf is unquestionably worthwhile. Moreover, the fine people fighting the battle here, including St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, deserve all the support they can get.
But the America's Promise honor will be counterproductive if it lessens concern among the general public or if it is used to justify reduced funding from the federal and state governments or the private sector. The hard truth is, if St. Louis is one of America's 100 best cities for children, then God help the kids in communities below ours on the list.
Regardless of where our community stands relative to others, everyone has to work together in order for St. Louis to truly be a healthy place for all our children.
Getting an A for effort doesn't do much good if we get an F for performance.
The Rev. Jerry Paul is president of the Deaconess Foundation, created in 1997 with assets from the sale of the Deaconess Incarnate Word Health System. Its mission is improving the health of children living in the core urban neighborhoods of the St. Louis metropolitan area in Missouri and Illinois.