The Children's Defense Fund released The State of America's Children 2014 report yesterday, coinciding with the 50th Anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 State of the Union Address in which he declared a War on Poverty.

The report, which includes a comprehensive compilation and analysis of the most recent national and state-by-state data on children’s outcomes, reveals how far we have to go to finally declare victory against the poverty, hunger, homelessness, sickness, and violence that President Johnson rightly called a danger to our nation and our people.

For example, in California:

• Nearly 1 in 4 California children – 2.2 million – were poor in 2012
• Nearly 250,000 public school students in California were homeless in 2011-2012, 40 percent more than before the recession
• 73 percent of all eighth grade public school students could not read at grade level in 2013, and 72 percent could not compute at grade level
• Only 65.4 percent of Black students and 71.7 percent of Latino students graduated on time in 2010, compared to 83.9 percent of White student
• 730,000 California children were uninsured in 2012
• More than 180,000 children were arrested in California in 2010 – a rate of 4,384 per every 100,000 children between the ages of 10 and 17

Our continued prosperity depends on all our children having an equal chance to succeed. Join us in helping to eliminate poverty once and for all by raising awareness of this report and calling on your policymakers to #FightPoverty.

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Protect Children in the State Budget

Earlier this month, Governor Jerry Brown released his budget proposal, which laid out his priorities for the coming year. The proposal makes promising strides towards the establishment of an equitable public education system; however, it falls drastically short of meeting the needs of the whole child by failing to restore the five years of recession-era cuts to social programs that left our safety net in tatters and our most vulnerable families without a life line. Learn more » 

As the State Legislature begins reviewing the details of the Governor's proposal, we need to call on our representatives to make sure they understand the importance of restoring and strengthening the social programs that support families when they need it most. 

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Nominate a Student who is Beating the Odds

We are accepting nominations for the 2014 Beat the Odds® Scholarship program! The final day to submit applications is Friday, February 14th.

The Beat the Odds Scholarship recognizes outstanding Los Angeles-area high school sophomores who have succeeded as students and community leaders despite tremendous personal obstacles.

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