Note: the following was published in the Opinion section of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on June 9, 2025.

It’s summer, and schools are out. When I think about what it means to be a kid in Arkansas, my thoughts first go to the immense beauty of our Natural State. It’s so easy to imagine kids using all of their newly found free time to enjoy riding bikes, splashing around in a pool, lake or even a creek, or visiting local libraries and museums during these summer months. It’s idyllic.

Every summer, the Annie E. Casey Foundation releases the KIDS COUNT® Data Book, which uses data to examine how kids are faring and how states compare to each other. This year Arkansas ranks 45th in overall child well-being. As the executive director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the state’s member organization for the KIDS COUNT network, it’s my responsibility to sound the alarm that the reality for our youngest Arkansans is graver than what we would want for our children.

The data presented in the report are clear: kids in Arkansas are far more likely to be born at low weights, grow up in poverty, struggle in school, experience teen pregnancy, and die before adulthood than in almost any other state in the nation. And while this op-ed started by lauding the beauty of our state, no amount of hiking trails or waterfalls can bridge the gap between where the outcomes for Arkansas kids are now and where they need to be.

Looking at the raw data in the report, it shows that Arkansas has 144,000 children living in poverty; more than 3,000 low-birthweight babies born each year; 50,000 children without health insurance; roughly 300 children ages 1 to 19 dying annually; and nearly 2,500 teens giving birth. Not included in the Data Book, but essential to mention are the 53,000 Arkansas children who live in food-insecure households.

Through a partnership with the Children’s Funding Project, Arkansas Advocates has created a fiscal map of child and youth funding in the state. What we have found is, in comparison to states where children are thriving, Arkansas is underinvesting in our children. And this lack of investment is manifesting itself in the problematic data noted in this report.

In addition to our lack of state investment, we are also potentially facing the largest funding cut to critical programs in our nation’s history. Budget cuts under consideration by Congress would gut essential services for low-income people and have a devastating impact on tens of thousands of Arkansas’s children and families. Should these federal cuts occur, costs will shift from the federal government to Arkansas to maintain our Medicaid, SNAP and other important programs. With our state budget already stretched thin, Arkansas lawmakers will be forced to choose between taking away benefits, reducing eligibility, raising taxes, or cutting funding for other state programs.

Arkansas stands to lose considerably, and Arkansans with the lowest incomes, and their children, will pay the price. What will it look like when 240,000 Arkansans, including children, lose food assistance? In addition to increased child hunger, thousands of our state’s retailers will lose income. What will it look like when more than 100,000 people lose their Medicaid health insurance? In addition to Arkansans skipping preventative care and choosing between paying for medication and putting gas in the car to get to work, we can expect rural health clinics and hospitals to be greatly impacted or even close as the number of uninsured patients that need their services rise.

While Arkansas Advocates is urging Arkansas’s Congressional delegation to block these devastating cuts, we also urge our state lawmakers to start planning. Currently, Arkansas’s children are lagging compared to their peers in states that have made necessary investments to improve the lives of children. If we now lose federal funding at the levels currently projected, and we don’t have a plan to use our state’s public dollars to address budget shortfalls, we could put an entire generation of children on a downward trajectory.

The figures I listed above are dismal. If Arkansas does not prioritize investing in programs and solutions, these numbers will only get worse. Public policies are always about tradeoffs, but the stakes have rarely been so high. Arkansas cannot afford to leave our children behind.