Children Called Key Political Issue : Report: Advocacy group urges voters to back candidates who focus on youngsters’ needs. Problems in education, safety and health detailed.

SACRAMENTO — A nonpartisan children’s advocacy group on Saturday urged voters to select political candidates who make the interests of California’s children their top priority.

Children Now of Los Angeles issued its fifth annual report outlining various critical problems many children face in education, safety, health and economic security. The report will be submitted to the Wilson Administration and the Legislature.

“We must elect leaders who will create policies that put the interests of children first by investing in the right start for every child,” said Lois Salisbury, executive director of the nonprofit group.

“Only then will we get the return on the investment that California needs to remain a thriving and unique state.”

The organization, which consists of educators and business leaders from throughout California, urged voters to ask candidates at the local, state and national levels where they stand on children’s issues before going to the polls Nov. 8.

Among the report’s statewide findings, which were mostly based on 1992 statistics collected from various state and federal agencies that track the well-being of children in California’s 58 counties:

* Twenty-four percent of fourth-graders could not fully understand a basic reading assignment, while 20% of eighth-graders could not write a basic essay. In Los Angeles County, the percentages were 29% and 26%, respectively. They were 17% and 14% in Orange County, and 18% and 15% in Ventura County.

* Although the high school dropout rate has fallen in recent years, fewer than one-third of students who finish high school are adequately prepared for college.

* The largest number of children killed by guns die in the seven major counties where gun sales are the highest. The counties are Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Alameda, San Bernardino, Riverside and Sacramento. A total of 432 children were killed by guns in Los Angeles County in 1992. In Orange County, there were 37 such deaths, and there were five in Ventura County.

* Every year more than 4,000 California babies die before their first birthday, including at least 1,421 in Los Angeles County, 280 in Orange County and 72 in Ventura County. The group blamed many of these deaths on the lack of proper prenatal care.

* Nearly 1.7 million California schoolchildren cannot afford to buy lunch and are enrolled in the school free lunch program, including 616,711 in Los Angeles County, 96,325 in Orange County and 27,541 in Ventura County.

“The picture for all children is grim, but it is particularly disturbing for African American and Latino children,” said the report, noting that California is the first state to have a majority of its children, or 56%, be African American, Latino, Asian or Native American.

Although mostly critical, the document cited signs of improvement in some areas.

“We are heartened by the improvements that we can identify,” said James P. Steyer, president of Children Now. “Although they are not as extensive as we would like, they prove that good programs do exist and conditions can be turned around. But it requires constant pressure from the public to demand that our elected officials do right by our kids.”

Improvement was in the decreasing high school dropout rate and in the number of students who are prepared for college on a statewide basis, Steyer said.

The group’s political platform calls for proper health care for every child and family, early childhood education, quality care for needy children, economic security for all children and their families, quality education, and a safe and nurturing environment for all children.