Joe Guzzardi
June 24, 2003

As a teacher at the Lodi Unified School District in the San Joaquin Valley, I’m a first hand witness to the many social changes that are transforming California. Many of those changes have their genesis in the Valley

Those not familiar with the California geography are always surprised to learn that "the Central Valley” stretches from Shasta County in the north to Kern County in the south. That stretch represents a distance of 450 miles---about the same as the distance from Chicago to Pittsburgh. To drive from Redding to Bakersfield would take nearly 8 hours.

In other words, the San Joaquin Valley is huge. And although the Valley is widely acknowledged to have the most fertile agricultural land in the world, another type of fertility---human—threatens to alter California forever. In a region with a high population of Mexican migrant farm workers and Hmong and Lao Southeast Asian refugees, birth rates are soaring.

A new report released by the Public Health Institute titled “No Time for Complacency—Teen Births in California” revealed alarming—to put it mildly-- trends. According to the study’s findings, the 2000 teen birth rate in some parts of the Valley was 94.8 births per 1,000.

To help you put that in focus, consider the following: The national rate is 48.5 per 1,000. Traditionally high southern states like Texas and Mississippi have birth rates per 1,000 of 68.5 and 66.7. According to the most recent international data, the birth rate in Haiti and Cambodia per 1,000 is 81 and 71 respectively.

Looking out over the next five years, the study projects that teen birth rates in California will increase by a staggering 23%.

These raw numbers are hard to digest. But they tell only one part of the sad story.

The annual cost to beleaguered California taxpayers in terms of lost income and productivity and medical benefits is about $3.3 billion according the Public Health Institute.

For the most part, these young mothers are poor. Very few, if any, of those fecund teenagers have insurance. So the costs for their prenatal care and child delivery are passed on to you and me. You pay directly through your state taxes and indirectly through your ever-increasing insurance premiums.

California is in a real dogfight for survival. The budget deficit exceeds $35 billion, the schools are a mess, the governor will most likely be recalled, and by 2025 our population will be 50 million. And as long as the federal government ignores California’s immigration woes, the state (which openly supports illegal immigration actively through various legislative measures) will proceed merrily along the same path that has taken us to the brink.

Californians for Population Stabilization has just issued a new report by demographer Leon Bouvier and environmentalist Dick Schneider titled “California’s Population Growth, 1990-2002, Virtually All From Immigration.”

Using statistics from the California’s Demographic Division of the Department of Finance, the US Census Bureau and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly the I.N.S.), the report found that 98% of California’s population growth is caused by immigration and the children of those immigrants.

Immigration directly accounts for 57% of population growth and their children (often deceptively referred to as “natural increases”) make up the remaining 41%.

A finding of major significance is that net domestic migration to California from other states is no longer a factor in the state’s population increases.

With no public official or organization willing to speak out about the consequences of continuing to look the other way at immigration, the outlook for California is bleak.

Diana Hull, Executive Director of Californians for Population Stabilization, hopes that the new report will help enlighten the average citizen about the need for activism regarding immigration reduction.
Said Hull, “Change in immigration policy requires the involvement of a better informed public and these studies were undertaken with that mission in mind.”