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We can learn from our allies about facing up to child poverty
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Location: Blogs Jim's Blog |
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| Posted by: Jim Hansen |
4/3/2006 |
What would happen if Congress made reducing child poverty a prioity the way our allies in England have? The current Congress has refused to take the lead and hold itself accountable to a tough standard like that. As a result, more and more children are being left behind each year.
My wife and I have two children. Our family budget revolves around them. We make sure they have healthy food, decent cloths, regular check ups with the doctor and dentist. We try keep in touch with their teachers at school, their coaches and the parents of their friends. It is a no-brainer (or "duh" as my daughter would say) that children are a priority in our family. We also get a lot of help from other adults in accomplishing our goals of helping our kids become healthy, happy adults who will in-turn contribute to the well-being of others.
So, why is it our leaders in Congress and the Administration tolerate increased child poverty? They use are a lot of fancy words like "no child left behind" but each year it children are being left behind, and being left in poverty. Healthy families and the communities where we live measure our success based on how we raise our kids. As a nation, we cannot claim success if the number of children living in poverty increases rather than decreases.
It is interesting that our ally England, made a firm commitment several years ago to end child poverty by the year 2020 and set benchmarks between now and then. It has framed how it approaches virtually every other domestic policy including health care, job creation, wages and working conditions, clean water and air, education and
It also creates a way to unite people across race, gender, class and religion. Everyone - whether they are a parent of a child or not - has a stake in a healthy community and the community is not healthy if children live in poverty.
I wonder if Congress would have the courage to stand up to the special interests that fund their campaigns if they set as a goal the elimination of poverty. Things like raising the minimum wage and ensuring families have health coverage would become obvious priorities over pork-barrel projects. Maybe all the tax breaks that Congress has given away over the years could be linked to the reduction in child poverty?
Check out the analysis in the articles section of this website.
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