by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
“The status of our children is pretty appalling,” were the strong words delivered Monday to the Rotary Club of Jacksonville by Dr. Jeff Goldhagen. He is the former director of public health for Duval County and currently associate professor of Pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine/Jacksonville and Chief of the Division of Community Pediatrics.
Goldhagen backed up his strong statement by listing statistics related to America’s children, Florida’s children and the children who live in Duval County. He cited data gathered for a survey of the 25 richest countries in the world that revealed the United States is “tied with the United Kingdom for last place” when it comes to caring for its children.
In terms of individual categories, Goldhagen said the survey showed The U.S. is at the bottom of the list when it comes to health and safety, poverty, infant mortality and teenage pregnancy and second-to-last in risk-taking behavior.
“We are essentially in last place in the world among developed countries,” said Goldhagen, who added in some regions of the United States the problems are particularly prevalent.
“The South, the area along the border with Mexico and Indian reservations are worse than most second-world nations and even some third-world nations.”
He also said surveys indicate only Oklahoma does a poorer job as far as health care for children is concerned.
On the local level, Goldhagen said the results are equally disturbing.
“In Jacksonville, 50 percent of children live in single-parent families and 50 percent live in poverty. Forty percent qualify for the free or reduced lunch programs in the public schools. More than 30 percent of public school students start the school year in one school but finish in another and many aren’t prepared to read when they enter school. In addition if you combine the number of Jacksonville’s children who are homeless, near homeless, in foster care or incarcerated, it’s the majority of the community’s children,” he said.
After delivering the bad news, Goldhagen said he doesn’t believe those statistics have to be Jacksonville’s legacy for its youngest citizens. Research and scientific studies conducted in the past decade have identified the fundamental causes of children not performing well in school and having health issues.
“We understand genetics, physiology and neurology as well as the impacts of racism and chronic stress. Ironically, the more we have learned about the genetics, it’s not the genes, it’s the environment in which the genes are transcribed.
“I think Jacksonville has the leadership and capacity to make a difference in these statistics. We have no place to go but up but we have to understand and accept the science,” he said.
Goldhagen suggested creating something similar to the “Better Jacksonville Plan” to benefit the community’s children. “I believe we also need an ombudsman for children similar to what the Riverkeeper does for the St. Johns River. We’ll never program or pay our way our of this but we can change our culture to recognize the value of our children,” he added.