Child Poverty and Inequality... and Budget Cuts at State and Federal Levels
"When children grow up in poverty, they are more likely, later in life, to have low earnings, commit crimes, and have poor health... There is significant evidence that poverty has lasting consequences for kids, including educational achievement, cognitive development, and emotional and behavioral outcomes." —John Irons, economist, Economic Policy Institute: "Economic Scarring: The Long-Term Impacts of the Recession," September 30, 2009
Children, unable to support themselves, count on their families, their communities, their states, and their nation to ensure their well being. Taxes are the way we have historically provided quality education, safe and vibrant communities, healthy families, and broadly-shared prosperity, especially when families are unable to provide economic security for children.
Although the federal government can borrow in hard times, states and localities must balance their budgets every year. In order to balance their books, states have been slashing programs including many that provide essential services for children and youths. Early in 2009, the federal government stepped in with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the huge federal stimulus that made large grants to stabilize state and local programming. However, this infusion of funds has run out, and state governments continue to eliminate or seriously reduce services we all take for granted.
The UCC’s General Synod 25 declared, “that societies and nations are judged by the way they care for their most vulnerable citizens; that government policy and services are central to serving the common good; that paying taxes for government services is a civic responsibility of individuals and businesses; and that the tax code should be progressive, with the heaviest burden on those with the greatest financial means…”
Although the economy has begun to recover, states find themselves in the midst of a serious and continuing economic recession. One impact of the recession is that tax revenues have declined along with the decline in the overall economy: foreclosures have reduced revenue from property taxes; job losses have decreased revenue from income taxes; and the economic slowdown itself has diminished revenues from inventory and sales taxes.
Poverty, Inequality and Public Education
March 25, 2013: What Will the Sequester Mean for Public Education?
March 13, 2013: Reuters reports, Waiting for Recovery: U.S. Public Schools Continue to Lose Jobs.
February 16, 2013: Here is Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz writing about declining social mobility, growing inequality, and the danger of losing the American Dream and a related Economic Justice Note from Edie Rasell, the UCC's Minister of Economic Justice. Also related is a recent UCC Witness for Justice column, American Fantasy.
February 19, 2013: A Congressionally appointed Equity and Excellence Commission that has been meeting for two years released its report, For Each and Every Child. Acknowledging that test-based accountability has not sufficiently improved public schools in America’s poorest communities, members of the Commission declare that our society must address what is a deplorable 22 percent child poverty rate, highest in the industrialized world.
January 23, 2013: How best to help children living in poverty surmount their sometimes overwhelming circumstances? Education writer Mike Rose considers that question.
December 22, 2012: Research documents that widening income inequality has become the most daunting factor undermining the American Dream. In this extraordinary and nuanced article Jason DeParle explores what this means in the lives of three students from Galveston, Texas: For Poor Strivers, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall.
Sean Reardon, an education sociologist from Stanford University, has recently documented that children growing up in extreme wealth and children growing up in extreme poverty are more and more likely to be segregated in very wealthy or very poor communities and much less likely to live in mixed income communities than was true forty years ago. Reardon also documents a growing income-inequality school achievement gap that tracks this growing segregation.
October 2012: Here is an important new article from education writer and respected researcher David Berliner, Effects of Inequality and Poverty vs. Teachers and Schooling on America's Youth. This is a plea to our society to address the devastating impact of family poverty and economic inequality on the life chances of too many of our children. Child poverty in the United States remains 22 percent, far higher than any other industrialized nation, and economic mobility has declined in our society that has become increasingly stratified along economic lines.
The 2012 Justice & Witness Ministries Message on Public Education, "Why the Conventional Wisdom on School Reform Is Wrong and Why the Church Should Care," examines school achievement through the lens of two issues of particular importance as the economy lags: family poverty and racial isolation.
Check out these resources posted as part of the National Council of Churches' Poverty Initiative.
Budget Cuts Threaten Public Education
January 24, 2013: In his state-of-the-state address, Governor Jerry Brown addresses California's failure to fund schools adequately and equitably.
November 29, 2012: Jeff Bryant of the Campaign for America's Future reflects on What Progressives Can Learn From Public Education’s ‘Fiscal Cliff’.
November 16, 2012: In the Washington Post, Valerie Strauss explores What the 'Fiscal Cliff' Means for Public Schools.
November 15, 2012: Motoko Rich in NY Times warns: School Districts Brace for Cuts as Fiscal Crisis Looms.
September 4, 2012: Here is a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: New School Year Brings More Cuts in State Funding for Schools. The numbers are pretty shocking.
Cuts to Pre-Kindergarten and Early Childhood Programs
February 13, 2013: In his State of the Union message, President Obama proposed expanding government subsidized pre-Kindergarten for children in poor and moderate-income families. Expanding access to early education should be a priority, as it is known that the achievement gap widens well before children enter Kindergarten.
November 2012: William Mathis, at the National Education Policy Center, University of Colorado at Boulder, briefly summarizes the research and makes a strong case for expanding Preschool Education to make it universally available across the states. Mathis warns, "However, in inflation adjusted dollars, overall funding per child served is lower than a decade ago."
The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) State of Preschool 2011, an annual report, describes cuts in funding, for the second straight year, in 26 of the 39 states with public prekindergarten programs. These cuts are due to state budget shortfalls.
Writing for The Center on Law and Public Policy, Hannah Matthews reports Recent Child Care Growth to Fade; Startling Drop in Assistance Projected.
Data
Twenty-two percent of children in the United States live in poverty. This means that our society tolerates the highest child-poverty rate among in the world's industrialized nations. Here is data and a commentary from the Children's Defense Fund.
June 2012: Here is an interactive map of the United States. As you scroll over the states, you can track the poverty rates for all people and for children.
June 6, 2012: More Young Americans Out of High School Are also Out of Work, says a new research report.
May 13, 2012: The New York Times exposes Degrees of Debt: A Generation Hobbled by the Soaring Cost of College.
