By Paige Johnson
Kissing babies makes for a great photo op when politicians are on the campaign trail. Most legislators claim to care about children. But what happens when young people are beyond the age of a photo op, when their behavior is less than cherubic or when their needs run counter to a legislator’s personal beliefs?
The chasm between what legislators say and what they do is partially to blame for the sad state of children’s well-being in North Carolina. The Annie E. Casey Foundation just released their annual report, Kids Count Data Book, which measures child well-being and ranks states accordingly.
North Carolina came in 38th in the nation for child well-being. Our low ranking is in large part due to childhood poverty and factors often related to poverty, like teen pregnancy, inadequate health care and violence.
To be fair, children in North Carolina have champions in the N.C. legislature. Many work doggedly to improve the economic well being of children and their families by pushing for policies like a living wage and paid sick days so that workers may care for their families.
Many legislators fight for greater access to health care for children and their parents while others champion legislation that will make schools safer by standing up against bullying.
North Carolina has made great strides in child well-being. In 2006, our state ranked 41st in the Kids Count Data Book. To make greater dents in childhood poverty, legislators must tackle some of the issues they avoid out of fear of controversy.
Take teenage pregnancy for example. National studies show that 33 percent of girls and 19 percent of boys who drop out of high school do so because they become a parent. The N.C. General Assembly has made clear their commitment to do something about North Carolina’s alarming high school drop out rate. Nearly one-third of all students who start high school in North Carolina do not receive a diploma.
A Joint Legislative Commission on Dropout Prevention and High School Graduation was convened to make recommendations. They spent months hearing about the root causes of this problem, including the need for teenage pregnancy prevention, teenage parenting support programs and medically accurate sex education.
Their final report included mention of teenage pregnancy prevention services and comprehensive sexuality education. Unfortunately, when the state House rolled a portion of the recommendations into the budget, all mention of teenage pregnancy prevention was deleted. Additional funds for supporting parenting teenagers were also cut.
In North Carolina, 53 teenage girls become pregnant every day. We have the 9th highest rate of teen pregnancy in the country. Almost thirty-percent of teen pregnancies in North Carolina involve teenagers who are pregnant for a second time. Yet, “abstinence until marriage only†is the standard healthy living curriculum in our schools.
At some point, legislators must grapple with the fact that medically accurate sex education is needed because young people deserve the information necessary to make responsible, life-saving decisions.
No one wants teenagers to have sex but many do. If we’re going to convince more of them to delay having sex, then we need to be honest with them about the odds they are up against. We need to engage in difficult conversations that include giving them the skills necessary to say no but also the information necessary to protect them when they say yes.
Teenagers who have babies are more likely to live in poverty. Their children are more likely to live in poverty. Standing up for the health and well-being of teenagers is never going to be as easy as kissing babies. But North Carolina will never reach the national rank we aspire to until we face the challenges facing teenagers.
Paige Johnson is the Director of Public Affairs at Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina.
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