Poll: Fewer opportunities seen for minority kids
WASHINGTON — Minority children have fewer opportunities than their white peers to gain access to high-quality health care, education, safe neighborhoods and adequate support from the communities where they live, according to a nationwide survey of professionals who work with young people.
Of the professionals surveyed, 59 percent said young white children in their communities have "lots of opportunity" to play in violence-free homes and neighborhoods, while only 36 percent said the same about Hispanic children, 37 percent about African-American children and 42 percent about Native American children.
The survey refers to young children as within the 0-8 age range.
Fifty-five percent of respondents viewed young white children as having good access to high-quality health care, while 41 percent said the same of Hispanic, Arab American and American Indian/Alaska Native children and 45 percent said the same for African-American and Asian-American/Pacific Islander children.
The survey shows that children of all ages from low-income families, regardless of race, are at a greater disadvantage, in the view of the professionals who work with them.
The Kellogg Foundation survey, conducted in April, was set for release on Thursday. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the findings, which Kellogg said is the first known national assessment of health, educational and economic opportunities for minority children by adults who work with them at the community level.
Researchers with C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan conducted the poll of 2,028 adults from all 50 states and the District of Columbia who work as teachers, childcare providers, health care workers, social workers and law enforcement officials.
Whites made up 71 percent of the poll's respondents, African-Americans 12 percent, Hispanics 7 percent, Asian-American/Pacific Islanders 3 percent, and other racial or ethnic groups the rest. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Gail Christopher, a Kellogg Foundation vice president, said those in jobs engaging children can
