No Quick Fix Exists to Help the Children : * Education, Commitment Needed to Reduce Problems

The recently issued 76-page compilation of statistics and commentary that was titled “First Annual Report on the Condition of Children in Orange County” is a valuable tool. It dramatically shows us how much more must be done to help those under 18, who are, after all, our future.

The report offers grim reading in each of its four categories: health, education, wealth and safety conditions in the last five years. For instance, in health, only 32% of those eligible in Orange County took part in the federally funded program that provides supplemental nutrition for pregnant women and nursing mothers, care that can spell the difference between health and malnutrition in a child. Why such a low percentage? A lack of sufficient federal funding.

Births to teen-agers have also been increasing annually, though fortunately the county’s rate is still below the statewide and national rates. The report correctly notes that when children give birth to children, the risks for both go up. The mother is less likely to finish school, which increases her chance of being poor or on welfare. The baby is less likely to receive needed prenatal care, and more likely to be born prematurely or with a low birth weight.

Education provides a bright spot in the report, though there are patches of gloom there as well. The number of high school dropouts has decreased sharply in recent years. However, the report notes that much of the decrease came among the category labeled “white” students; for Latinos, the number stayed much the same. The majority of dropouts in grades seven and eight are Latino, so much work remains to be done.

The figures also point up an increasing danger in the county of a permanent division among the haves and the have-nots.

It should be noted that on the same day the report was issued, the state released data showing that Orange County’s best and brightest students continued to outperform colleagues elsewhere in California. The tough advanced placement tests--which follow special courses in 16 subjects, including calculus, history and English, and which usually result in college credit--showed the alarming disparity. More than 80% of the Irvine students who took the tests passed; only 16% of Santa Ana students and 15% of those in Garden Grove passed.

A common theme running through all parts of the report is the effect of poverty on children. Though easy to overlook in a county long considered a bastion of wealth, poverty exists and its effects are devastating. Poor parents are more likely to abuse their children. Parents working two or three jobs too often neglect their children, who turn to drugs or gangs. Seeking love, teen-age girls have their own children.

The report suggests solutions: more money and material support, jobs, low-cost counseling, substance abuse treatment, training for parents.

And its main emphasis is on education at school and on the job.

The Board of Supervisors did a good job in ordering compilation of this report, but its tougher tasks remain ahead. It must find money to implement the recommended actions during a time of shrinking resources. County officials were right to urge parents to spend more time with their children. The report was also correct in urging a “community commitment” to our youth.

None of these problems will be solved quickly. It has taken years for the gang problem in the county, for instance, to reach such alarming proportions. But increased concern, education and commitment can start to reduce the problems.