THE DILEMMA OF CHILD POVERTY

America is a rich nation. The economy is booming. Unemployment is exceptionally low. Per capita income continues to gain. And, the number of children facing lives of poverty is increasing daily. According to a report from the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University, 4.4 milllion children lived under the conditions of poverty in the early 1980's. By 1996, there were 5.5 million children under the age of six, living in poverty conditions. This approximates nearly one out of every four pre-school aged children.

The report showed that in 1996, the official poverty standard for a family of four was an income less than $16,000 per year, for a three person family it was $12,500. Nearly half of all young children living in poverty were living in families earning less than half of the standard amount. The purpose of the report was to "...challenge researchers and policy-makers to come up with reasons for this--and solutions," stated Neil Bennet, co-author. A similar study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation released in 1998, found that 21% of our nation's children were living in poverty according to 1995 statistics.

Many of the factors contributing to this are well recognized. Single parent homes; the high divorce rate; the increasing disparity between those that have and those that do not; parental, educational, and social deficiencies that abound; the exploitation of the disadvantaged; political and economical agendas that serve discriminant sections of the populations, federal programs that do not succeed, etc. Different solutions have been advanced in a number of forms. Legislation has been offered to attack the problems. Better enforcement of child support payment by absent fathers and education and re-training programs to improve the employability of parents have been encouraged.

The intent in this writing is to cut through the chaff and look precisely at the wheat. The one major reason that children live in poverty is that impoverished people conceive and have the children. Until the emphasis is one of decreasing the birth rate of children for this population, not much change can be expected to occur. We refuse to consider this a solution because begetting children is sacrosant in our American freedoms. One does not have to know anything, have anything, or be resposible for the economic conditions in which their children will live, in order to produce a child. That is the travesty of childhood. Until public policy and the enlightened human mind come to this determined end, we will not meet the conscionable, compassionate, improved goal needed for our children's more complete welfare.