Editor’s note

Here’s a statistic we need to work on: The child poverty rate in Sangamon County rose from 13 percent in 1999 to 23 percent in 2011. This is from Illinois Kids Count 2013, the annual statistical report of Voices for Illinois Children, the statewide advocacy group. During the same period, median income for families with children, adjusted for infl ation, declined by 14 percent in Sangamon County. While the report notes Illinois has made progress in early childhood education, health care coverage for children, child care assistance and mental health services, the overall picture is of two steps back. Legislators need to hurry up and deal with pensions for state workers and retirees so they can work on problems of a bigger and more important group – Illinois children. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher