Most poor children have a parent who works, but earning for those at the lower end of the wage scale have been declining. And a child has no greater chance of having medical coverage or access to subsidized child care. Three of four children who qualify for subsidized child care do not have access to such care due to a lack of state funding. Yet, some areas of children's lives have improved. Compared to a decade ago, an infant today is more likely to be born to a mother who received prenatal care and is more likely to survive her first year of life.
Teenagers are less likely to drop out of school.
Teen births and youth homicides have declined in the past few years, after their rise in the beginning of the decade. But California has the resources to do much more. Looking at the balance sheet for kids over the past decade, it is apparent that many sectors of California society have fared better than children.