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They Say: US Scores Poorly on Child Welfare
Is the U.S. “Doing Better for the Children”? According to a new report with that name, we aren’t. An organization called the OECD -which is a watchdog group for industrialized nations based in Paris – has deemed Switzerland, Japan and the Netherlands as outperforming us even though we spend more per child. Although the US spends an about $140,000 per child (the average is $125,000), we are outspent by France, Germany, Britain and Belgium. The United States is “among the industrialized world’s worst victims of infant mortality, teenage pregnancy and child poverty”. Bummer.
The OECD does have a suggestion saying that the United States should spend more on kids especially to improve the education and the health of children under six. Although the US spends more on kids aged 12-17 then most countries, we spend way less on the under six set. This results in a high infant mortality ranking the U.S. as the fourth worst right above Mexico, Turkey and Slovakia. Other sad rankings were that our 15-year-olds are seventh from the bottom in education and child poverty rates are double the OECD average.
Do we need to spend less or just spend ‘better’?
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