This is how we want our children to be                    Not This

Children are our most precious resource. Unfortunately children are the victims of abuse from the very people who are supposed to be their protectors and are abused in many different ways. At times the perpetrators are their own parents and in many instances it is not deliberate or the fault of the parents who are doing the best they can in these hard economic times. Abuse comes in many different forms and I will talk about many different types of abuse or neglect. There are over 800,000 children in the State of Oregon. A child is abused or neglected every 45 minutes. And one child dies before his or her first birthday every day.

Oregon ranks second of having the lowest percentage of babies born with a low birth weight among states. Only Alaska ranks higher in normal birth rates over Oregon and the worst state is Mississippi who has the highest percentage of low birth weights in the nation.
Infant mortality rate is the lowest in Washington State while the highest death rate for newborns is the District of Columbia .While school expenditures for school age children is the highest in New Jersey the state of family values Utah is the last on the ranking. Funny how a state that spews family values likes to make children don't like to provide the necessary funds to educate them.

Child poverty in Oregon is about 19% while extreme poverty is around 9%. The number of children living in Oregon without health insurance is approximately 11%. The number of children enrolled in the CHIP program is over 62,000.There are 267,878 children who receive Medicaid this is about 75% of the total number of children who participates in both of the programs. Over 50% of children comprise the total Medicaid program and 26% falls under the cost associated with the total expenditures of the Medicaid program. 35% of Children under two years of age lack the proper immunizations that are required for protection against childhood diseases.

Oregon spends more on prisoner's yearly than they do for education. Oregon spends over $26,000 per year per prisoner while education trails to the tune of $8,600 per student. The lack of funds for education is reflected in the reading and math scores, 69% of fourth graders read below 4^th grade level while they fair little better in math with a 67% of fourth graders who are not up to their grade level.

Studies done on 8th grade students show that 67% of students are below 8^th grade standards and the same for math 63% are below the set standards, and the yearly drop out number for high school kids is over 12,000.

As parents, as grandparents, aunts, and uncles and as a community we should be outraged with these compiled numbers associated with our children. As a community, a state, and a nation we need to approach these problems with a determination that would hold a positive outcome, until not one child was living in poverty, going hungry lacking basic healthcare, and an education system that would achieve the goal of our children being educated at appropriate levels which would make them competitive in the world. It is shameful that in this day in age that our children are still falling behind other countries who are poor nations compared to the USA.
As a country we can support other countries, fund several wars that have nothing to do with the protection of the United States, but many of us continue to vote against public school education and basic health care. It is shameful. Education is for all not just for the rich and health care in my opinion is a basic right of every person in the country no matter what race, gender or how big a person's bank account is.
There are many different kinds of child neglect and I think I have described in this letter many examples that could be simply prevented.