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Economy

San Diego County Gets Three Of Five Stars For Childhood Well-Being

This undated photo shows a mother and children reading at Traveling Stories in the San Diego Farmers Market.
Traveling Stories
This undated photo shows a mother and children reading at Traveling Stories in the San Diego Farmers Market.

San Diego County Gets Three Of Five Stars For Childhood Well-Being
San Diego County got a three out of five-star rating for childhood well-being from the children’s advocacy group Children Now.

San Diego County got a three out of five-star rating for childhood well-being from the children’s advocacy group Children Now. The nonpartisan, nonprofit group examined the educational and economic welfare of children in every county in the state of California.

The group posted the study on its website Wednesday. San Diego got mixed results.

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“Five-star rating means you're at the top in all the indicators in education,” said Jessica Mindnich, research director for Children Now. “San Diego has three stars, so it’s not doing poorly but it's not where we’d like to see it.”

San Diego County has 726,020 children, with 46 percent Latino, 33 percent white, 10 percent Asian and 5 percent African-American.

The group reports that 19 percent of the county's children live below the federal poverty line. But the Children Now report says 51 percent of the county's families are not able to afford basic living expenses.

“We all know it costs more to live in California and it costs more to live in San Diego than in other places in California,” said Mindnich, who added that in San Diego County a family of four needs to earn about $70,000 a year to make ends meet.

But it’s not all bad news. The county did well when it came to childhood literacy.

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“For young children, who are read to every day, San Diego ranked 12th (among California counties), and it's above the state average at 69 percent,” Mindnich said.