The non-partisan Annie E. Casey Foundation has released the 2010 edition of its annual Kids Count ranking, which measures each state on 10 key indicators of children’s welfare and educational opportunities. Unsurprisingly, states with Democratic legislatures dominate the 2010 rankings.

Eight of the top-ten overall states have Democratic legislatures – New Hampshire, Minnesota, Vermont, Massachusetts, Iowa, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Wisconsin. Only one Republican-controlled state and one state with a nominally non-partisan legislature made the top ten.

More impressively, states with Democratically-controlled legislatures outnumber Republican-controlled states in the top-ten* of every single subcategory. The breakdown of each subcategory is:

• Fewest Low-Birthweight Babies: 6D-3R-1Split

• Lowest Infant Mortality: 9D-1R-0Split
• Fewest Child Deaths: 10D-0R-0Split
• Fewest Teen Deaths from All Causes: 10D-0R-0Split
• Fewest Teen Births by Age Group: 9D-1R-0Split
• Fewest Teens Ages 16-19 Not in School and Not H.S. Graduates: 9D-1R-4Split*^
• Fewest Teens Ages 16-19 Not in School and Not Working: 7D-4R-2Split*^
• Fewest Children Living in Families where No Parent has Full-Time, Year-Round Employment: 6D-5R-2Split*^
• Fewest Children in Poverty: 9D-2R-2Split*^
• Fewest Children in Single-Parent Families: 6D-4R-1Split*^

*Because of ties in the subcategories, some top-ten lists contain more than ten states.
^We counted Nebraska’s non-partisan legislature as being under split-control.

The release of the Kids Count ranking comes on the heels of CNBC’s “Top States for Business” ranking, in which not a single state in the top ten of the education subcategory had a Republican-controlled legislature.

Both rankings reinforce the larger argument we make each and every day: that the states that are moving forward and working to provide opportunity for future generations, by and large, are states with Democratic leadership.