Racial disparities the reason for Louisiana's ranking in poverty

Race and location are still the strongest factors in determining whether a child lives in poverty in Louisiana, according to a recent report on the status of the state’s children.

In Louisiana, black children are 3.5 times as likely to live in poverty as white children.

Poverty rates are highest in rural parishes in northeast Louisiana, along the Mississippi River.

However, 2000 census data also show that a majority of black children in every one of the state’s eight largest metropolitan areas lived in a high-poverty neighborhood.

Social service experts say government programs have not been expansive enough to fill in the economic and educational gaps.

“We have not had comprehensive supports in place to help move our poverty population out of poverty,” said Cecile Guin, director of the Office of Social Services Research and Development in the LSU School of Social Work.

The state report was compiled by the nonprofit Agenda for Children in New Orleans.

The Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, which collects data for an annual national report on child wellbeing, funded the report. Louisiana has consistently ranked poorly in the national report.

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