What about the children and the country's future?

Stacy Garfinkle in her On Parenting blog in the Washington Post references a report about which countries do the best job in raising children. According to the report the U.S. and Britain are 20th and 21st. Here are some of the money quotes:

"The U.S. has the largest percentage of children living in households with equivalent income less than 50 percent of the nation's median. It has the largest number of 11-, 13-, and 15-year-olds living in single-parent households and in step-families. More U.S. teens give birth than their peers in any other country on the list. The U.S. has one of the worst infant mortality rates and low birth-weight rates."

and then there was this real money quote:

"While there were some interesting conclusions, such as that the study's authors found no obvious link between a country's wealth and the well-being of the country's children, many of the results point to one key difference between the Northern European countries and the U.S. -- diversity."

But, Ms. Garfinkle continues to ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room with the following statement:

"Though they have their strengths, the Northern European countries listed in the report are much more homogenous in race and culture than the U.S. I, for one, am not ready to say that my family would be better off living there. Our kids gain more than they lose by living in a country of diverse culture, race, religion, language and backgrounds so long as we keep their minds open to learning from each other."

Certainly a diverse culture from various ethnic groups can nourish the country. But, Garfinkle puts on the liberal blinders with such statements "as long as we keep our minds open". That's fine but, we can't allow our borders to be as open as they are now either. Because the "diversity" Garfinkle extols can also drag the country down as the statistics regarding the dropout rate of Hispanic immigrants show that 44% drop out of high school. For native born Hispanics the rate is 16%. Garfinkle and many others in the country fail to realize that the United States will not easily move forward if we continue to allow more illegals into the country only to become part of an increasingly uneducated workforce.