Why is Birmingham considered one of the worst places in America to raise a child?

Birmingham was recently ranked as one of the worst places in the country to raise a child, but an Alabama analyst says the city’s problems are a reflection of problems statewide.

“Regardless of the methodology of any individual study, I would say what we want to do is build a society where people really have an opportunity to thrive,” said Dev Wakely, a labor policy advocate and former policy analyst for the political nonprofit Alabama Arise. . “And our state government, unfortunately, has a pattern of not representing the needs and wants of the people of Alabama. And this manifests itself in centuries of economic exploitation and the separation of working people and the state”.

According to the financial website WalletHub, Birmingham ranks as the 176th best place to raise a child in a list of 182 large U.S. cities the site recently analyzed. That makes it the 6th worst place to raise a child in the country, according to WalletHub’s methodology.

The methodology involved comparing cities on five key metrics — family fun, health and safety, education and childcare, affordability and socioeconomics, according to WalletHub. For more information on the methodology, see the story below.

The site added that only the city itself was evaluated in the study, not the surrounding metro area. It also contained a disclaimer regarding the accuracy of WalletHub’s rating.

“While not perfect — given personal preferences and the limitations of publicly available data — our findings will hopefully give movers a better idea of ​​their options,” the paper says.

Birmingham’s overall score was 39.30/80, with secondary rankings of 134 for family fun, 151 for health and safety, 147 for education and childcare, 151 for affordability and 174 for socioeconomic rank.

Wakeley said three of those categories: socioeconomic ranking, access to education, and health and safety, were absolutely vital to a family’s existence.

Socioeconomic ranking

Birmingham’s socioeconomic ranking, which received the lowest spot among its secondary scores, may be related to the city’s racial demographics, according to the New York Times.

“One thing was clear in the (ranking’s) results: the effects of income inequality,” said a NYT story about the ranking. “Cities at the top of the list had high median incomes and predominantly white or Asian populations, while those at the bottom had low median incomes and predominantly black or Hispanic populations.”

According to the latest census results, just under 69% of Birmingham’s population is black. And Wakeley said the negative impacts of historical issues like redlining are still being felt by the city’s black neighborhoods today.

“I think that’s an important point to raise,” he said. “In Birmingham and Mobile (which ranked 116th on the list and 151st in socioeconomic ranking), even in those metros, there are communities where there have been historically divisive practices that have caused serious consequences.

“If you look at Birmingham and Mobile, if you break it down further, black neighborhoods have historically faced practices like rendering or building an interstate through the middle of a thriving neighborhood that have long-lasting consequences, even generations ago. road,” he continued. “The consequences of those past decisions don’t go away unless we actually fix them. In this respect, clearly, in terms of quality of life metrics across all demographics, we still have a long way to go.”

In a 2015 AL.com article, John Colin, former director of Birmingham’s Department of Community Development, said it’s easy to see the continued impact of redlining in areas of the city like the Fairfield and Ensley neighborhoods of west Birmingham.

“We take that map today and overlay it over the destruction and damaged communities in our city, and they’re in the exact same places,” he told reporter Jared Downing.

Education

Lack of access to education is another problem, one that has been exacerbated by recent legislative decisions, according to Wakeley.

He said the state’s recent passage of the CHOOSE Act (Creating Hope and Opportunity for the Education of Our Students) will “result in bad outcomes for everyone in the state of Alabama.”

The CHOOSE Act, set to take effect by the start of the 2025-26 school year, will allow parents to give up to $7,000 in income tax credits for private school tuition or up to $2,000 for home education.

“When you do things like blow $7,000 holes in the education budget and subsidize private education, you build a worse state,” he said.

Alabama Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, previously told The Birmingham News that the bill’s passage was a step forward in the state’s approach to education.

“Educational models and strategies are evolving,” he said. “And it’s important in our state to be at the forefront of these positive changes.

“There are too many people in the state who are being failed by our current approach,” he continued. “So I think public education will continue to be a priority for the legislature. We must also seek to find ways to produce and deliver better results.”

Rep. Jim Hill, R-Odenville, told The Birmingham News that using such a large portion of the state’s education trust fund for the policy is a risk, but he said lawmakers should just wait and see what benefits it could bring it results from this.

“I doubt we’ll see a lot of public-to-private transitions because of this, but it’s one of those things that remains to be seen,” he said.

Health and safety

One of the biggest barriers preventing Alabamians from getting the health care they need is states’ refusal to expand Medicaid services, according to Wakeley.

“Without access to Medicaid, mothers and their children are without vital health care, and this has cost lives,” he said.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Alabama has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. A maternal mortality review board found 24 deaths in 2018 and 2019 in Alabama from pregnancy complications, as AL.com’s Amy Yurkanin recently reported. Infections caused the highest number of deaths, followed by heart problems and bleeding.

As a result, Alabama officials are expanding a program that provides free autopsies in cases where women die during pregnancy or within a year of giving birth to gather information. These autopsies are performed in Baldwin, Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Mobile, Montgomery, Shelby and Walker counties.

AL.com’s Anna Claire Vollers previously found that black mothers are up to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than mothers who are white. So the racial disparity in maternal health care could negatively impact Birmingham’s population more than other predominantly white cities, according to the article.

Alabama Arise is not the only group advocating Medicaid expansion. Alabama’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee has recommended expanding and expanding Medicaid coverage for new mothers in 2022.

Hill told The Birmingham News this week that he was “disappointed” that a bill that would have established a statewide lottery and licensed seven casinos for electronic gaming failed to pass in the most recent legislative session .

“I think it probably would have brought in some money that could have been used to expand health care,” he said.

Improving Birmingham’s score

Despite state-level policies influencing many of Birmingham’s quality-of-life metrics, Huntsville’s 36th-place ranking shows that impact can be made at the local level.

“Huntsville has a more modern, contemporary feel,” Wakeley said. “And it will make a measurable difference to the well-being of everyone in the area. And that’s the main reason why Huntsville is so good for some of the measurable aspects of quality of life.

“They have a lot of federal infrastructure and really vibrant industry there,” he added. “And largely Birmingham and Mobile, while they’re making progress, they’re still dealing with a larger part of the legacy of the Alabama economy, which has been a problem for anyone who’s not at the top for a very long time.”

Rep. Rolanda Hollis, D-Birmingham, acknowledged the work that needs to be done, while saying that rankings like WalletHub’s aren’t the be-all and end-all of a city’s values.

“First, let me say that Birmingham is a great place to live, work and raise a family, but we also recognize the many challenges we face in our community,” she said. That’s why, as a representative, I supported legislation to expand access to affordable health care, especially for women and children.

“Of course, we have a lot of work to do, especially given our partisan political climate, but progress is being made,” she continued. “I think it’s important to look at rankings like this in their proper context, while identifying and recognizing the areas we need to work on and improve.”

And Wakeley went on to stress the importance of not leaving the responsibility for improving the quality of life in the state’s cities to municipal leadership alone.

“We want to make sure we don’t put too much emphasis on the local solution,” he said. “Many of these are issues that result directly from state government policy. So when legislators make decisions that hurt the people of Alabama, we want to see people pressure those decision makers.

“And that comes from building relationships with the people who make these choices. And giving examples of what better results look like,” he continued. “And to show what in Alabama really works for everyone when you invest in communities.”

Wakeley said it’s critical the state changes its approach to policymaking.

“We’ve seen a lot of ‘What’s good for business is good for Alabamians,'” he said. “But what’s good for one person in Alabama is actually good for Alabama as a whole. When you train people who are already forced to live on the fringes of our current operations, everyone benefits. The trickle doesn’t work, but a rising tide does.”