Alaska ranked 47th in the nation in a recent analysis of children's overall well-being, after dropping seven places since the last report.
The nationally recognized survey is part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Kids Count data book. It looks at four key aspects of children's well-being, including education, health, economic well-being and family and community.
While the overall ranking for Alaska's children was not good, the state's rankings for education and economic well-being were particularly low, at 49th and 48th respectively.
Trevor Storrs, president and CEO of the nonprofit advocacy group Alaska Children's Trust, says the Kids Count ranking is a dire warning.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Trevor Storrs: This is a further sign that our state is facing some real challenges when it comes to our children and families. To be ranked 47th in the nation should be a red flag, and we should be asking the questions, "Why are we 47th, and what does it mean to be 47th?"
We need to step back and really have the honest conversations around what do we need to ensure that our children and families are not just safe but thriving.
Casey Grove: What contributed to Alaska dropping seven places in that ranking?
TS: Well, I think the biggest thing is other states are investing differently and more. So one of the things to recognize is our 2025 budget. We just passed a '26 (budget). If the governor approves it, that's yet to be decided.
So, one, we're investing less. When you invest less, you get less return on your investment. And then when you speak of return on investment, it's about where you put your money, so if you put your money in something that has high return, you're going to see better impact and progress, right?
Well, the example is, this year, if I'm correct, the only budget that really saw a major increase was (the Department of) Corrections. They walked in and said, "Hey, we need 25 million more dollars," as our schools are closing. We had conversations, although it didn't happen, people were going, "Well, we don't have enough money if we pay them, so maybe we need to cut early childhood (education). Early childhood provides a $7 to $13 return on investment, depending on the specific activity.
Corrections, there's no return on investment, or very little. It usually costs us more, and there's no return. So, where should we put our dollars? But yet we continually put our dollars after the fact, versus upstream primary prevention.
CG: Specifically, drilling down on education, we were 47th overall in these rankings but 49th in education, right? Can you tell me more about that?
TS: Well, and I think this is a topic that everybody knows, we are not 49th because we don't have good schools (or) we don't have good teachers. It's the system and the way we invest, and, or more importantly, what we haven't (invested in).
And kudos to the Legislature last year, they stood up and made sure that schools got more dollars, so that negative impact was less. But it was not enough, and those are the conversations that we need to have. The idea of the Kids Count (data book) is not to shame anybody orpoint fingers, but we as a state need to own them, and really have a conversation going, "Is this what we want to be?"
And I will promote and remind people, in 2026, it's a huge election, not only the federal, Senate and Houses (seats)up, we're guaranteed a new governor and 50 of the six state legislators. We need to make sure that they're not just voting for the development of oil and all of our other resources, but more importantly, are investing in our most important and future asset, and that's our children. They might only make up 25% of our population, but they make up 100% of our future.
CG: Have there been more recent improvements on some of these things that you've seen here in Alaska that that give you hope?
TS: Oh, absolutely. So one, I think there's improvements in the system. I will say our state has really done well with the Rural Health Transformation (Program) funds that, under the commissioner of the Department of Health, really, it's been challenging, and they're still facing challenges, but through our SNAP program and Medicaid and dealing with the backlogs, they still have them, they still have challenges, but they're working so diligently in doing that.
Our maternal health program, they do an exceptional job, and at times we might lose some of our ranking in that, our percentage, they show (might show a) decrease, but when you compare us to the other states, we're doing good. So there are some bright spots, and they're bright spots because of how we invest in it and how we're being strategic with it. I want to take that and enlarge it on the state level, like, let's work off of those and be, not just successful with that, but with all the other areas as well.
