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American children are worse off than people realize

American children are worse off than people realize

Skye Gould

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private philanthropy working to help families, recently released their annual KIDS COUNT Data Book.

The report measures the educational, social, economic, and physical well-being of American children.

According to the most recent data available, 22% 0f children are living in poverty. The official poverty line for 2015 is $24,250 for a family of four - it was $23,624 in 2013 when the data was last collected.

While there are hopes this number will drop for 2015 based on a lower national unemployment rate, there are many other obstacles children are facing.

Furthermore, a shocking 66% of fourth-graders in 2013 were not proficient in reading and the same percentage of eighth-graders were not proficient in math. These numbers are slightly lower than in 2007, but the inequalities among races remain heavily present.

The following charts display some of the economic and educational challenges children are facing, broken down by ethnicity.