TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY

Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash. (TNS)

Washington state this month received mixed reviews on how our children are faring academically. While there are some bright spots in the annual Kids Count Data Book, the annual assessment by the Annie E. Casey Foundation verified the state’s schools continue to wrestle with a number of key issues.

The good news comes from the health care front. Washington, which has embraced the Affordable Care Act more enthusiastically than most states, also ranks among the highest at providing health insurance to children – doing better than 45 other states, according to The Seattle Times. Advocates of the ACA, also known as Obamacare, point to the expansion of Medicaid for the good scores, especially for high rates of insurance coverage for minority children.

Another encouraging sign: Teenage birth rates have dropped to record lows. Washington’s birth rate of 18 to every 1,000 teenage girls is markedly better than the national average of 22 per 1,000.

And now the rest of the news: The state’s marks in areas more directly related to academics aren’t nearly as strong. The foundation reports that in 2015, about 22 percent of students who had started ninth grade four years earlier had not graduated – significantly above the national rate of 17 percent. Also, 60 percent of the state’s 3- and 4-year-olds were not in preschool, compared with the nation’s 53 percent.

Within the classroom, 60 percent of the state’s fourth-graders were not reading at grade level, and only 61 percent of eighth-graders were achieving grade level in math – in one of the most technology-heavy states in the nation. Taken as a whole, the state ranks a decidedly middling 28th for public education.

This information jibes with data released in the spring by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Its numbers for 2015-16 found 16.7 percent of the state school population missed 18 or more school days out of 180 – or 1 in 6 students absent for 1 in 10 days. Students aren’t going to learn – or graduate on time – if they’re not in class.

Of course, the ACA right now is the subject of serious congressional debate, and legislation could dramatically change the health insurance landscape in this state and across the nation. The prospects are very strong that the federal government will cut back money for Medicaid expansion – assuming legislation eventually passes muster with Congress and the president.

As the Legislature continues to debate school funding issues, the Kids Count assessment tells us pretty much what we know: We’ve still go work to do in this state in many areas of education.

. Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Bob Crider and Frank Purdy.

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)2017 Yakima Herald-Republic (Yakima, Wash.)

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