An editorial from The Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT, W.Va. — Perhaps Margie Hale said it best: “I’ve become tired of being at the bottom.”
Hale, the executive director at West Virginia KIDS COUNT, was referring to data from the 2015 National KIDS COUNT Data Book, which monitors economic well-being, education, health and family and community and reveals that 13,000 more children in West Virginia are living in poverty than in 2008.
That means one in every four children in West Virginia lives in poverty.
One in four.
Twenty-five percent of the state’s children are living in poverty.
That ranking puts West Virginia at 43rd in the country when it comes to child well-being, which is a drop from last year when West Virginia ranked 37th.
It also means West Virginia was one of six states that saw the biggest increase in children living in poverty from last year to this year.
And those are just the grim statistics in West Virginia…
