I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I have some bad news, Oklahoma. We are not the best state in which to raise a family. Not by a long shot.
How can that be? Most everyone I know always says, “Oklahoma is a great place to raise a family.” In the National Basketball Association there is a saying, “Ball don’t lie,” which means roughly “you get what you deserve.” So, for us in Oklahoma, “ball don’t lie” about the state of our families.
Don’t get me wrong. I raised my family here and, overall, found it to be a great place to raise my kids and pursue a marital romance with my wife. But my life isn’t everyone’s. Here’s how the folks at Wallethub.com said they crunched the numbers in January 2020:
A state might offer a low income-tax rate but have a subpar education system. However, families do not need to make these kinds of tradeoffs. They can avoid such problems by knowing which states offer the best combination of qualities that matter most to parents and their kids. To help with the evaluation process, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 50 key indicators of family-friendliness. Our data set ranges from median family salary to housing affordability to unemployment rate.
So, the WalletHub researchers rated all 50 of our United States on a variety of factors, and guess where Oklahoma came in?
44th.
As in 6th from the bottom.
How can this be? Well, ball don’t lie.
We ranked dead last in “child health and safety,” and sadly, we were 47th in infant mortality rate. We were rated 37th in “family fun,” 40th in “education and child care” and 42nd in “affordability,” while inching up to 33rd in “socio-economic” ratings. This overall rating of 44 closely mirrors the findings by the Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count annual survey. In the 2019 version, Oklahoma ranked 42nd in overall child wellbeing.
If “ball don’t lie” means “you get what you deserve,” our families are not getting what they deserve.
Even if you think Oklahoma has been a good place to raise your family, you have to open your eyes and heart to the fact that your story is the exception, not the rule. We’re in trouble, and it’s up to each of us to do something, small or large, to turn around this embarrassing and threatening situation. In the coming weeks we’ll tackle the “what can I do?” question. So stay tuned. With hearts and eyes and arms wide open.
Jim Priest can be reached at okcpriest@yahoo.com.
![<strong>In WalletHub's ranking of all 50 states for the best place to raise a family, Oklahoma didn't fare well. [METRO CREATIVE CONNECTION]</strong>](http://cdn2.newsok.biz/cache/large960_blur-1304d1aac6fdbe7088e1c9ddcc080a4f.jpg)
![Photo - In WalletHub's ranking of all 50 states for the best place to raise a family, Oklahoma didn't fare well. [METRO CREATIVE CONNECTION]](http://cdn2.newsok.biz/cache/r960-1304d1aac6fdbe7088e1c9ddcc080a4f.jpg "In WalletHub's ranking of all 50 states for the best place to raise a family, Oklahoma didn't fare well. [METRO CREATIVE CONNECTION]")
"ball" - Google News
January 27, 2020 at 03:01PM
https://ift.tt/2vj23Zg
Family talk: Ball don’t lie about our family - Oklahoman.com
"ball" - Google News
https://ift.tt/39CKzGV
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment