Examination_of_Children_and_Poverty_in_America

Poverty and Children in the United States Shaloea James-Harrison Axia College As the recession persists across the United States, communities confront reduction in proceeds to fund several programs that assist in providing families with shelter, food, employment, education, and healthcare. The impacts of the decrease of funds in these types of programs are increasing the number of children who will live in poverty in the United States in 2010. Some might be asking the question, what actually does poverty mean' Poverty is food shortage. Poverty is deficiency of housing or refuge. Poverty is acquiring an illness and not having the ability to pay a visit to a physician. Poverty is not possessing entrée into an adequate educational institute and not having the ability to understand school material. Poverty is not obtaining fair employment, which is panic for individuals who live day-by-day, unaware of how he or she will support his or her family. Poverty is helplessness, lack of significance and independence. As employment in the United States decreases, leaving families without homes, health care and food, children are severely impacted and forced into the system of poverty. Many people assume poverty is the lack of food or living on the streets; however as I mentioned above there are several factors that should be considered when examining the poverty issue of children within the United States. In this essay, I will examine some of the causes, characteristics and the impacts of children living in poverty and possible solutions to decrease and eventually terminate poverty within the United States. One of the major factors of poverty is lack of or decrease in employment within the United States; this factor is what is causing families to lose their homes and move into shelters or even onto the streets. According to the Journal Current Events, (2009), “Poverty is most concentrated in urban areas. According to the 2008 report by the U.S., Conference of Mayors on the status of poverty in the U.S., cities reported a 12 percent increase in homelessness from 2007 to 2008, with 16 cities citing an increase of homeless families. Poverty, unemployment, and the lack of affordable housing were reported as the reason for the increase in homelessness for families. According to Amy K. Glasmeier, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, the number of U.S. jobs that do not pay a living wage has increased dramatically in the past 30 years. In the U.S., she says, as many as 25 percent of all jobs pay less than a poverty-level income, in some states, more than 30 percent of jobs pay below the poverty level.” (Journal of Current Events, 2010) “The median household income reported in 2007 and 2008 decreased on average of 1.2 percent from $52,673 to $52,029 in states across the country,” (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). While that particular statistics might not appear significant, here is one fact that I think should raise the veracity for everyone, “Fourteen million American children live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level, which is $22,050 a year for a family of four. The number of children living in poverty has increased by 21 percent between 2000 and 2008 in the United States. There are 2.5 million more children living in poverty today than in 2000.” (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2010) People who have lost jobs prior to and during the recession that were brining in median household income of $52,000 per year and above, are currently working for minimum wage at fast food restaurants or receiving supplemental income and benefits through welfare. When parents lose a well-paying job and can not locate another one in the same area, many move his or her families to lower-income neighborhoods in which the schools most times are inadequate, employment is scarce and crime is elevated. Once in this cycle and because of the sluggish change in employment, parents begin moving his or her children from one low income area to another deprived area, impacting the child’s educational comprehension; eventually from all the moving the child will desert school and if old enough might take a low paying job to assist in family contributions. The child taking on a job to assist in paying bills, will more than likely not return to receive a proper education, which will increases his or her chance of living in poverty as an adult. The second major cause of poverty of children in the United States is actually being born to parents who are poor or immigrants. These types of class of children are known as the lower class, which actually means extremely poor in our society. The factor that I believe contributes to this particular cause of children in poverty is how the parents raise his or her children such as in work ethics, education and beliefs. For example, a parent that is poor might not stress the fact of getting an education so that he or she might be able to find a job one day. This parent might stress the facts of survival of getting money and things you need by any means necessary. Not all poor people think that way, but I am confident that some, who have been down on their luck for a long time, might not furnish the proper resources and tools so that his or her child does not become a statistics of poverty. Some other reasons that poverty is high with children in the United States are because of teenage pregnancy, race and geographic locations. Minority children tend to have an elevated amount of living in poverty due to single family homes. Children of immigrant parents and teenage parents tend to lack education and employment training and geographic locations are extremely neglected because lack of funding and representation for these places. The geographic segregation of poor citizens has introduced concerns about the materialization of the American lower class. With intense neighborhood deprivation, evident by job loss, family unit ineffectiveness, corruption, and added societal pathologies that may perhaps is a sign of denunciation of conventional American standards. Economist has encouraged the study on the harmful results as a child and adult in economically underprivileged areas within the United States. “Historically, America's poorest groups, such as immigrants, female-headed families, and racial and ethnic minorities, have been concentrated in cities rather than in suburbs. Whites and privileged groups have high rates of out-migration from cities to suburbs, often leaving areas with heavy concentrations of minorities. The suburbs, rather than inner cities, are more likely to attract people moving out of rural areas.” (Population Reference Bureau, 2010) The characteristics of children who are on the record as poor children in the United States are mainly minority children of African American and Hispanic American descent. Basically, Black and Hispanic children account for the highest amounts of poor children within the United States. “35 percent of black children live in poor families. In the 10 most populated states, rates of child poverty among black children range from 26 percent in California to 51 percent in Ohio. 31 percent of Hispanic children live in poor families. In the 10 most populated states, rates of child poverty among Hispanic children range from 19 percent in Florida to 40 percent in North Carolina. While white children only account for 11 percent of poor children and Asian children account for 15 percent of poor children in the United States, minority children definitely make up the majority.” (NCCP, 2010) According to the National Center for Children in Poverty (2010), “22 percent of children less than age 6 live in poor families; 18 percent of children age 6 or older live in poor families. In about half the states, 20 percent or more of children less than age 6 are poor, whereas 17 states have a poverty rate for all children (less than age 18) that are as high.” Children's growth suffers when he or she is showed only the standards and actions of other insolvent disadvantaged people, when he or she attends an educational institute that is under funded and short-staffed in a low-income neighborhood, where adult management is inadequate, and when neighborhoods do not contain ample law enforcement. Children making an effort to live a normal life in poor neighborhoods are more predisposed of lower learning accomplishments, poorer quality of health, and more developmental issues than children residing in privileged neighborhoods. Neighborhood consequences on children’s development and security appear most powerful in the early childhood and late adolescence stage of physical and psychological development. The deficiency household income caused by separation, for instance, might signify that children are moved into underprivileged areas, reinforcing the unconstructive outcomes of family volatility. In order to decrease and eventually end poverty of children in the United States, the government must continue funding of these types of programs that assist families in training and obtaining of employment, health care, housing and educational resources. Programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, and Volunteers in Service to America are providing underprivileged families and communities with financial services to procure food, health care and training for impoverished people to obtain better paying jobs. Furthermore, the Job Corps is providing poor children under the age of six with educational resources such as “Head Start to better prepare disadvantaged children for kindergarten.” (Current Events, 2009) With more people out of jobs, the United States will continue to observe more children below the poverty line, resulting in more homeless people, more hungry children and more people who will require financial service assistance. “Both Democrats and Republicans agree that ending the recession and bringing back economic growth will be a major step forward; however both the parties strongly disagree on how to do that.” (Current Events, 2009) With the conditions that poor children have to endure, many American’s take for granted the privilege to have access to proper education, employment training and access and financial security to purchase food, housing and healthcare. American’s must begin to volunteer in homeless shelter and food banks, donate old clothing to someone less fortunate. Privileged American’s ought to step into deprived communities unlike their own, to start lending their services to rebuild these types of communities, tutor children or just merely help out where assistance is required. Although, millions of America’s are experiencing several hardships, there are solutions that can assist in aiding to the poverty of America’s poor children, everyone that can help, needs to take a stand; consequently our government is at odds on how to manage this epidemic that is depriving millions of children in the United States. In several rural communities, the issue of depleted family income is established by physical segregation, inadequate housing and transportation, and restricted institutional resources and social support programs. “Many impoverished rural areas lack safe drinking water, public transportation, and good schools with qualified teachers, and quality child care. Residents in such areas may be exposed to environmental toxins or face longstanding traditions of race discrimination and economic oppression.” (Population Reference Bureau, 2010) Evidently the “War on Poverty” began in the early 1960’s during the Presidency of John F. Kennedy, which set the foundation for President Lyndon to begin the program that assisted children in poverty. I mentioned this because poverty, I am sure has existed way before the now and the 1960’s, so why are the numbers of children living in poverty still increasing presently' This issues needs to be addressed immediately by society and government, people cannot just ignore this epidemic at this present time, nor our future, if we are not providing these children with productive and safe homes, adequate education and job training, the future for American’s will become bleak. “Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has been described in many ways. Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape. So poverty is a call to action -- for the poor and the wealthy alike -- a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.” (Poverty Bank, 2010) I have examined some of the causes of why families and children are living in poverty the causes included: lack of employment, education, single family homes headed by a females and immigration. The characteristics of poor children living in poverty in the United States tend to be more minorities, especially Blacks and Hispanics children. Poverty takes place in isolated areas around the country that are deemed, uninhabitable low-income areas that lack adult and law enforcement supervision, where homes look like shacks, and were schools are unattended due to the lack of financial services to provide books and obtain personal The impact that poverty has on children is poor quality of health, physical and psychological disorders and lower academic achievements. While certain government funded programs better the lives of millions of families that reside in these rural areas; the fact still remains that the conditions for poor families have changed barely for these underprivileged inhabitants residing in such segregated environments. While countless of Americans believe that underprivileged minorities mainly reside solely in inner-city ghettos, Americans must remember that some of the majority of underprivileged minorities live in secluded, economically disheartened rural locations, which require funding and help from the American government and society. This passage from my text, I believe clearly explains why millions of children live in poverty in the United States because of the views and attitudes of America’s society today. “In the United States, our cultural emphasis on individual responsibility encourages us to see successful people as personally worthy and to view poor people as personally lacking. Such attitudes go a long way toward explaining why our society spends much more than other high-income nations on education (to promote opportunity) but much less on public assistance programs (which directly support the poor).” (Axia College, 2006, p.220). That statement demonstrates the social stratification within our society, which is driving a wedge between social classes, instead of brining communities together of all races, ethnic backgrounds, social classes and gender, to assist in healing this epidemic that plagues the entire world. References: Axia College. (2006). Social Stratification. Retrieved from Axia College, SOC120 website. CURRENT EVENTS TEACHER'S GUIDE . (2009). Weekly Reader, 109(10), p. 1-7. ISSN: 00113492. Retrieved February 15, 2010, from EBSCohost database. Litcher, D. T., Crowley, M. (2002). Poverty Rates Vary Widely Across the United States. Population Reference Bureau. Retrieved from http://www.prb.org/Articles/2002/PovertyRatesVaryWidelyAcrosstheUnitedStates.aspx Poltenson, N. (2009). War on Poverty turns 45. Central New York Business Journal, 23(38),. ISSN: 00113492. Retrieved February 16, 2010, from EBSCohost database. The World Bank: Poverty Net. (2010). Overview: Understanding, measuring and overcoming poverty. Retrieved from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/0,,contentMDK:20153855~menuPK:373757~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:336992,00.html U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). Median Household Income for States: 2007 and 2008. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/acsbr08-2.pdf Wright, Vanessa R., Chau, Michelle. (2010). Who are America's Poor Children'. National Center for Children in Poverty. Retrieved from http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_912.pdf