Oklahoma ranks 46th in nation for child well-being, 49th in education

After ranking 40th in the country last year, Oklahoma ranked in the bottom 10 for two major categories and in the bottom 20 for all four categories in the 2023 report. Only one category improved its ranking from last year.

The 2023 Kids Count Data Book, published annually by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, reviews recent household data from every state to look at how children and families are doing and determines rankings in four major categories: economic well-being, education, health, and family and community.

Oklahoma ranked 38th in economic well-being, 37th in health, 43rd in family and community, and 49th in the country for education, ahead of only New Mexico.

In 2022, the state ranked 45th in education.

The 2023 report found that 58% — up from 56% — of Oklahoma children 3 to 4 years old were not in school and that 19% — up from 15% — of high schoolers did not graduate on time. The report also found that 76% of Oklahoma fourth-graders were not proficient in reading.

Oklahoma eighth-graders lack of proficiency in math rose 10 percentage points this year to 84% of students not proficient.

Carly Putnam, policy director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, the state’s host agency for Kids Count, said the report is discouraging for Oklahomans, especially looking back on the state’s 2023 legislative session.

“It’s disheartening to take these numbers and then think back to the prior legislative session and think in the face of this much help that Oklahomans really need, lawmakers chose to prioritize tax credit vouchers,” Putnam said.

School vouchers, strongly pushed by Gov. Kevin Stitt and Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, would allow parents to use their child’s state education dollars to pursue educational options other than public school, such as private or home schooling.

An alternative was included in the Oklahoma Legislature’s 2023 education package, with tax credits intended for the families of students who attend private school or are home schooled.

Putnam said Oklahoma’s rankings will not improve if Oklahoma lawmakers continue to legislate “solutions in the search of a problem.”

Health, which rose to 37th from 41st last year, improved in the state’s rate of children who are overweight or obese and the rate of children without health insurance. The state’s rate of low birth weights and child and teen deaths per 100,000 both worsened.

Out of the 16 metrics used for the survey, Oklahoma ranked in the top half of states for one: the percentage of children living in households that spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Oklahoma ranked 20th, whereas it ranked 19th in 2022.

According to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, the state still sees one in four Oklahoma families affected by this issue.

This year’s report focused on child care in America, finding that much of the country lacks access to affordable child care and that Oklahoma parents frequently miss work or quit jobs due to child care issues.

The report found that women in the U.S. are five to eight times more likely to experience negative consequences at work related to child care than men.

Putnam said the majority of single-parent households are single-women households, and she said the child care struggles across the nation and in Oklahoma will lead to more unemployment for single women with children.

“We want them to be working; we want them to be getting ahead and prioritizing their children,” Putnam said. “But if we can’t help set them up in this most basic way going forward, then a lot of it sort of seems to come out in the wash.”

Putnam explained that if Oklahoma wants to present itself as a business-friendly state, then it needs to look beyond basic necessities for employees and families. She said businesses and their employees won’t want to invest in Oklahoma if the state doesn’t prioritize child care and child well-being.

The report found that 12% of Oklahoma children ages birth to 5 had a family member who quit, changed or refused work due to problems with child care. The national average was 13%.

The state’s typical cost of center-based child care for a toddler was $8,399, 9% of the median income for a married couple and almost 30% of a single parent’s income.

Going forward, Putnam said she doesn’t know whether the state’s ranking will continue to go down, but she said she believes child well-being will not improve until policy makers decide to focus on making changes to education and child care.

“There’s two ways of looking at this (report),” Putnam said. “We can see it as, ‘Oh, here’s another gloomy report and we’re just gonna stick our heads in the sand and not do anything.’ Or there’s a way to really use it as a focal point to see clearly where opportunities for change are.”