Let me start this entry by saying I find it highly depressing that the following study even exists and hopefully it's more a case of "you can reach whatever conclusion you want if you conduct the study just so" than it is accurate, but hey, what do I know?

Here's the dillyo:

The Every Child Matters Education Fund, a non-partisan nonprofit, today released a report that says the state a child lives in can adversely affect his or her life, so much so that kids in the state's that rank lowest according to "a wide variety of child well-being indicators" are...

* Twice as likely to die in their first year as children in the highest ranking state.
* Three times more likely to die between the ages of one-14.
* Roughly three times more likely to die between the ages of 15-19.
* Three times more likely to be born to a teenage mother.
* Five times more likely to have mothers who received late or no prenatal care.
* Three times more likely to live in poverty.
* Five times more likely to be uninsured.
* Eight times more likely to be incarcerated.
* 13 times more likely to die from abuse and neglect.

Tito, bring me a tissue. That is awful!

Among the factors used to arrive at this determination, and to rank the states accordingly, were poverty, race, educational achievement, political culture, taxes and weak federal policy on things such as health insurance, child abuse and poverty.

From the press release:
"Based on a wide cross-section of 10 major child well-being standards, the 10 bottom states identified in the Every Child Matters Education Fund report are:  Arizona (41); South Dakota (42); Nevada (43); Arkansas (44); South Carolina (45); Texas (46); Oklahoma (47); New Mexico (48); Mississippi (49); and Louisiana (50). 

The 10 top states for children by the same measures are:  Maine (10); Washington (9); Minnesota (8); Iowa (7); Hawaii (6); New Hampshire (5); Rhode Island (4); Connecticut (3); Massachusetts (2); Vermont (1)."

I guess our fair Golden State falls somewhere in the middle. Do you think we're nearer the Top 10 or the bottom? And why is New England so dominant?

To learn more about the report and the Every Child Matters organization, which is calling these "life and death" differences the "forgotten campaign issue" of 2008, visit this website.