New Survey Results Show Challenges For Texas
An annual data book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows Texas ranking 44th in overall child wellbeing, as well as the worst state in the country with the rate of uninsured children
Today, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released their annual KIDS Count Data Book. And the results for Texas were sobering: the lone star state ranks 44th in overall child wellbeing and is the worst state in the country with their rate of uninsured children.
For 37 years, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which focuses on families and children, has been releasing this annual data book. But for the first time this year, states were also evaluated with overall scores (ranging from 0 to 1000), in addition to rankings.
When it comes to both health care and education, Texas is struggling. In the field of health, Texas notched a score of 404, with a state ranking of 47. One of the major factors for Texas ranking so low is the number of Texas children who lacked health insurance in 2024: 1.1 million. That amounts to 14 percent of Texas children, an increase from 2019 when the number hovered at 13 percent.
And while education was the state’s highest-performing area, that still means a score of 390 with a rank of 28. There were also several worrying indicators within the data. According to Annie E. Casey’s findings, 76 percent of eighth graders scored below proficient in math and 72 percent of fourth graders scored below proficient in reading.
The Texas Signal spoke with Coda Rayo-Garza, the Senior Director of Research and Data at Every Texan, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization, about this year’s results from the data book. Rayo-Garza was particularly excited about the new methodology Annie E. Casey implemented for this year’s data. And while the methodology is new, the results stayed stagnant.
“When you look at where Texas would have landed with the old methodology, and where it landed (44) it’s actually the same,” said Rayo-Garza. “Despite this methodological adjustment, Texas is doing so poorly in these domains.”
She also notes that the health care score is well below the national median point. The number of uninsured children in the state is really a major albatross. “We tend to lead in this particular indicator, and that’s weighing down the entire health domain.”
Rayo-Garza acknowledges that education, at least, is not the weakest area for the state. However, the data points for fourth and eighth grade proficiency should be a massive warning sign for Texas.
“We continually hear the narrative about Texas being a booming state and there’s so much economic success, but when we back up and look at the data telling us about milestones about children who live in the state, it’s actually not looking that promising for the future.”
Rayo-Garza and her colleagues at Every Texan hope that the results from this year’s edition of KIDS Count will serve as an impetus for lawmakers throughout the state to truly invest in the needs of children. According to the data from Annie E. Casey, the children of Texas need comprehensive changes.
Comments ()