Despite the good news John Baldacci said efforts are under way to make improvements.

AUGUSTA (AP) – A report released Monday that rates the 50 states in social issues ranging from infant mortality to elderly suicide places Maine near the top at No. 4 overall.

“Wonderful news,” said Gov. John Baldacci, adding that Maine was also one of only seven states that did not receive an “F” grade on any of the 16 indicators measured.

It’s also the second consecutive year Maine has won a No. 4 ranking. But Baldacci also acknowledged low ratings in some areas and said efforts are under way to make improvements. “More work remains to be done,” he said.

Maine gets A’s

The report by the Fordham Institute for Innovation in Social Policy, an independent, nonpartisan research group based in New York, released the 2003 report through Maine’s Katahdin Institute, a public policy organization.

The second annual report uses statistical data from 2000, the last year for which complete data were available.

In infant mortality and high school completion rates, Maine scored A’s while receiving the No. 1 national ranking in both. Maine also did well in Food Stamp use per eligible households, ranking third, and in homicides, with the fifth lowest rate nationally.

But the state rates poorly in such areas as teenage drug abuse – No. 36 – and elderly suicides, No. 37 among the 50 states. Maine ranked No. 18 in the percentage of people under 65 with health insurance.

Addressing some of the lower rankings, Baldacci said the state has applied for a Centers for Disease Control grant to improve schools’ ability to intervene and prevent teenage suicides. He also mentioned the Dirigo Health program that has been created to ensure all Mainers have health coverage over the next several years.

“Too often we speak about the tensions between social interests and business or economic interests. But they are not mutually exclusive,” said House Majority Leader John Richardson, D-Brunswick. “Healthy people make for a healthy economy.”

Senate President Beverly Daggett, a former social worker, said the statistics reflect the Legislature’s “commitment to invest in its citizens, and we will be continuing to do that.”

“Where public policy has invested, there has been a return,” said the Augusta Democrat.

The national leader in the report, Iowa, scored A grades on eight of the indicators, compared to six A’s for Maine. At the other end of the scale, No. 50 New Mexico scored a dozen F’s.

After Iowa, Minnesota and Pennsylvania scored ahead of Maine, while the other northern New England states of Vermont and New Hampshire ranked 9th and 11th respectively.

“This document reveals that, like the nation’s geography, there is great variety in the social health of the states,” the Fordham Institute says in its report.

It notes that the states have gained increased authority to set fiscal policy, and in order to do so legislatures need knowledge of social conditions, such as those spelled out in the report.

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On the Net:

Fordham Institute for Innovation in Social Policy: http://www.fordham.edu/general/Graduate-Schools/The-Fordham-Institut 7298.html

AP-ES-11-24-03 1545EST