KIDS TOPIC OF PANEL DISCUSSION AT SEMO

Citing the pluses and minuses of the lives of Missouri's children, the director of Citizens for Missouri's Children said improvements have been made but continue to be needed.

The director, Ruth Ehresman, spoke to 75 people gathered Friday at Southeast Missouri State University to hear her and other panel members including Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau.

Ehresman's topic was, "Kids Count: Current Issues in Missouri," which was followed by comments from Kasten and other panel members from the university and community.

The mission of Citizens for Missouris Children is to gather ideas from people representing many different disciplines who deal with children and using that information to form public policies, Ehresman said.

What the group has done since its inception is to profile the lives of children county by county and use that information to develop policy recommendations."We know that 40 percent of the poor in Missouri are children," Ehresman said, "that 14.5 million children live in poverty."She said the current state economic trend looks bleak for children already below the poverty line. Income for lower and middle classes in Missouri has decreased relative to inflation while the upper fifth income level of the population has increased, she said."In no time in American history has there been greater differences between the haves and the have nots," she said.

To be poor and be a child, the potential health, education and future success will be adversely effected, Ehresman said.

Kasten said in her presentation that the public mind set needed be changed from dependency on government and government programs to striving for independence from government."The government is not a good parent," Kasten said. "We need to empower the people to be independent. "Dysfunctional families are the greatest crisis we have."She said the most notable legislation coming out of this years session would eliminate co-payments for families seeking immunizations for their children.

Also participating in the panel were university faculty members Larry Hamilton and Michael Parker and Frances Gould with the Division of Family Services.