Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. June 14, 2024.

Editorial: Kids Count data gives Indiana an opportunity to do better

If the health of children and youth is an indication of how a community cares for its young people, then Indiana is struggling to meet that measure.

The national 2024 Kids Count Data Book, a state-by-state report on child well-being published annually by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, ranks Indiana 27th among the states – three places lower than last year. In specific categories, Indiana came in 15th for economic well-being and 17th in education, but 31st in family and community and 32nd in health.

Some of the statistics keeping the Hoosier State on the lower end of the national scale continue heading in the wrong direction:

• 40% of children ages 3 and 4 in Indiana attend preschool, 4 percentage points worse than in 2019. Nationally, that number is 46%.

• 30% of Hoosier eighth-graders were proficient in math in 2022, 7% worse than five years ago.

• 32% of children and teens between 10 and 17 years old are overweight or obese, a 2% increase since 2017. Indiana’s 32% rate was the same as the national number.

Tami Silverman, president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute, said the data shows opportunities and challenges ahead in improving children’s health and well-being.

“We should celebrate the progress we have made, such as parental employment rates and housing affordability, in the 95% of teenagers engaged in school or work, and a 29% improvement in the number of Hoosier children with health insurance,” she told The Journal Gazette on Thursday. “However, disparities persist for many of our kids. Every child in Indiana should have access to quality education, low- or no-cost meals, reliable internet, a place to study, and time with friends, teachers and counselors.”

In particular, the state of young Hoosiers’ mental health should be of immediate concern to state and local leaders. According to the Indiana Kids Count data book released in February, 35.7% of Hoosier kids “felt sad or hopeless for more than two weeks,” a 1% increase. The percentage of youths who considered suicide and planned suicide was down slightly, but still troubling: 17.4% and 12.8% respectively.

In northeast Indiana, the state data book revealed an awful trend. The region – which includes the counties of Allen, Adams, DeKalb, Huntington, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wells and Whitley – had the highest percentage of mental health problems in the state. The Indiana report found 39.7% of respondents experienced more than two weeks of hopelessness and 19.3% had considered suicide.

Hoosier families seeking mental health care can wait weeks, even months, for an appointment with a mental health professional, causing some to skip treatment, according to the Indiana Youth Institute. It’s difficult for many parents to secure such care for their child due to its cost, the required time and effort involved in getting an appointment, and a lack of insurance coverage.

But local health departments like Allen County’s are more proactive in combating health problems among children this year, due to the $225 million, two-year increase in public health funding that state lawmakers passed in 2023, Allen County Health Department Administrator Mindy Waldron told The Journal Gazette.

Student health is among nearly two dozen state-required public health services, and the Allen County Health Department has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding this year to community partners working in those areas.

“Several of our grant initiatives center around reducing violence in schools, increasing obesity prevention and nutrition education in schools, as well as in various populations,” she said Tuesday. “Internally, for the first time, we also have in place a public health school liaison to work with schools on programs, education, training, and plans to get and keep kids healthy.”

Last year, Indiana Senate President Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, promised more mental health spending beyond the $100 million allocated through 2025. And Hoosiers should hold him to his word.

Lawmakers and local leaders should use the information from Kids Count in the same way they consult data for economic or quality-of-life investments, because there’s nothing more valuable than our children.

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Jeffersonville News and Tribune. June 15, 2024.

Editorial: Celebrate, learn from Juneteenth holiday

Imagine, if you can, being shackled and enslaved, separated from your family and forced into hard physical labor. Think about what it would be like to never own anything, to live in subhuman conditions, to be treated like a piece of property.

Then think about how you would react if one day, you were freed from your captors. Surely you’d want to celebrate that day, and mark its anniversary for the rest of your life. Certainly those who truly believe in freedom would also celebrate that day.

We can’t truly imagine such a horrific life, but it was the reality for millions of enslaved people through the Civil War-era. Even after the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery continued in the U.S. as it had for more than 200 years leading up to the war between the North and the South.

June 19, 1865, marked the official end of the barbaric practice of slavery in our country. It was on that day that Union troops arrived in Confederate-controlled Galveston, Texas, and announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in the state were free.

And that is why we celebrate that anniversary, which is known as Juneteenth. It’s still new as far as federal holidays go, and much of the Juneteenth history is still unclear among the masses. That’s why it’s important to celebrate Juneteenth and to educate ourselves not just about the holiday, but also on our history and what occurred after the end of the Civil War.

That history isn’t good for most states, including Indiana. The Hoosier state supported the Union during the Civil War, but Indiana is also noted for its ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

Jeffersonville resident Miguel Hampton recently wrote in a column for CNHI News Indiana that “Juneteenth has evolved beyond a mere commemoration of Black liberation from the institution of slavery; it has become a celebration of the resilience, solidarity, and culture of the African American community.”

Hampton has organized a Juneteenth celebration in Jeffersonville, and similar events are occurring throughout Indiana this week and next. They provide opportunities to learn about the holiday, to acknowledge past wrongs and to connect with other cultures.

We should embrace Juneteenth as we do other holidays. Such as with Memorial Day, where we recognize the sacrifices of those who died for our country, many also lost their lives in the name of freedom before, during and after the Civil War. The effects of slavery carried on long after the war was won, and there are more battles to fight in the name of equality and equity.

There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that our country’s past included a dark chapter where Black people were enslaved. And we should embrace Juneteenth as an anniversary where this terrible wrong was righted.

Thankfully, we don’t know what it’s like to be enslaved, but we do owe it to those who suffered from that practice to ensure that such cruelty never happens again. We do that, in part, by celebrating Juneteenth.

END