The Census Bureau made official what we've seen anecdotally for months: America is deeper in poverty today than it's been in more than a decade. According to the Bureau's report, 43 million Americans are now living in poverty, up from 39 million the year before.
Incredibly, the age group with the highest rates of poverty are children under 18; their ranks increased by 1.4 million kids this year to a total of more than 15 million American children.
We can have a robust debate about the role of government for adults living in poverty but children can't work and they can't vote. If we all agree that every child deserves a fair chance in life, our best hope for reversing this tragic trend is to make the kind of investment that gives every child a quality education and proper nutrition, providing a path to lifelong success.
Unfortunately, we simply haven't made that investment and our kids are paying the price, threatening the future of America.
Four-year-old kids living in poverty are 18 months behind their peers and only 15 percent of fourth graders from poor homes are reading at levels considered proficient by the U.S. Department of Education.
These gaps in early childhood stay with these kids for rest of their lives, leading to increased high school dropout rates, teenage pregnancy and unemployment.
Equally alarming, almost half of kids living living in poverty -- where one might think hunger is an issue -- are in fact obese or overweight. Indeed, the obesity crisis puts kids at risk for "adult" diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, stunting their productivity and straining our health care system.
Now is the time to act. Congress should immediately work to pass the Child Nutrition bill and get it to the President's desk. As Members of Congress continue working to finalize the FY2011 budget, they must ensure that essential funding for Head Start and Early Head Start, the Child Care and Development Block Grant and the Early Learning Challenge Fund is signed into law.
Unless we reverse these trends, the poverty crisis will continue to threaten American families today and America's promise tomorrow.
Hawaii is #50-----I know to some of you "good ol folks" are still quibbling about Hawaii being a foreign country, because its the birthplace of a certain US President.
Last time I checked Hawaii was a state in the union.
Anyway apologies for my ignorance.
EngChina
The real good news is that our armed forces will continue to have an abundant supply of "machine gun fodder" should these kids survive puberty and turn 18.
These survivors will be poor, hungry, marginally illiterate and totally expendable for next neoconservative corporate middle east war,which will begin once the neoconservatives have celebrated buying the election of 2012 .
Then the State of Alaska and “the lower 49” will celebrate their first female US President.
My questions are as follows:
1. what would be contained in said bill?
2. What are the goals?
3. How is are the goals measured?
4. If the goals are not attained can we sunset the program?
5. What are the unintended consequences of said bill?
6. If this is truly a dire need, then what do you say we cut in order to fund it?
7. When the authors (legislators) screw up the bill, how many will say, "this was my fault, I should be fired"?
Just wondering.
I can afford to care for another child in my house but it costs me a min. of 5-10k to adopt. Yet, a single mother on welfare has an incentive to have another child. She actually gets paid more!
Here's an idea. Stop giving people who can't afford children incentives to have more and then I'll support the govt when they want to pass legislation that tells me what my kid should eat.
And when these kids grow up they will be blamed for their lack of success. Lazy...unable to pull themselves up by their bootstraps....ignorant....living off the dole....not pulling their weight or contributing to society. The children of poverty are doomed. Shouldn't all of our children be given a fair shot at the "American Dream"?
Children having children. Single parent families. Unemployed and therefore unable to take care of their kids having kids. All of these things contribute to the cycle of poverty - as long as people don't have to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions, the cycle will continue.
When parents come to our pediatrics office we give them what we call "anticipatory guidance". This includes advice on nutrition, sleep, safety, etc. I also talk to parents about the importance of reading to their children, limiting TV and video games and making sure that kids do their homework.
Poor kids are also punished by having poor parents in other ways too. Since public schools are largely funded by property taxes, poor children end up going to the worst schools. We don't have to fund education this way but we do. If we really want to break the cycle of poverty we need to start with education.
Before we can preach personal responsibility we need to insure that every child has a chance.
Kids are sunk if their parents don't value the education they are given.