Education scores weigh down Arizona in ranking of underprivileged children

PHOENIX — Arizona ranked 10th in a study to find which states have the most underprivileged children.

The study by a personal finance website, places Arizona one spot better than neighboring Nevada and nine spots better than neighboring New Mexico, which led the survey.

States were ranked based on 27 different indicators among three categories: education, health and socio-economic Welfare.

Arizona was ranked No. 4 in education, No. 16 in health and No. 15 in socio-economic welfare.

Although Arizona did not stand out in the individual indicators, the low ranking in education has been an issue in the state for years.

The Red for Ed movement in 2018 and 2019 helped create legislation to give teachers a 20% raise in pay by 2020.

Protests were staged in 2018 at the state Capitol when the National Education Association released data that showed Arizona elementary teachers ranked 50th among all states in earnings.

Only New Mexico, Alaska and Idaho had worse education scores than Arizona.

“The U.S. has the seventh-highest rate of child poverty — over 29% — among economically developed countries,” according to the study.

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