Ominous news on child poverty

A new report on child poverty [PDF] by the research organization Child Trends makes for disturbing reading. Its findings—among them that child poverty has been on the rise since 2000—are especially ominous in the current economic crisis.

If one in five U.S. children were poor in 2007, and 8 percent were in deep poverty (below 50 percent of the poverty level), how many more children are now suffering all the consequences of poverty documented in the report? If a society accepts such high levels of child deprivation in good times, how much child misery will it tolerate as times worsen?

Even as poverty was rising and deepening (and as elements of the social safety net, such as welfare, were being dismantled), families were becoming less likely to use the social programs for which they were eligible. Maybe there’s a silver lining in that. The solutions seem clear—more outreach to inform families about safety net programs and streamlining of the application processes. Also, as the economic crisis ripples out to affect more and more people, perhaps awareness of safety net programs will grow.

Given its shocking findings, the solutions Child Trends advocates are tepid. Though the report notes that childcare is a major drain on poor families’ income (23 percent of low-income two-parent families and 40 percent of families headed by single mothers spend more than half their income on childcare), its suggestion is merely to continue existing childcare subsidies and “assess whether more funding is needed.” Other suggestions (such as encouraging marriage and discouraging single motherhood or redoubling efforts at child-support enforcement) ring of last century’s political debates (the child-support enforcement proposal seems particularly tin-eared in this economy—can you squeeze blood from stones that have already been laid off and foreclosed on?). Nor is there mention of current proposals to transform the conditions that make childhood (and parenthood) such a predictor of poverty—such as paid family leave or federally mandated paid sick leave.

While the report concludes that its findings “underscore the need to resume efforts to reduce child poverty,” readers will have to seek elsewhere for systemic proposals to reduce child poverty, let alone eliminate it.

For more warnings about what the economic downturn may mean for children, go to the Center for Budget and Policy Priority’s page on poverty and see especially the graphs about children at the bottom of the page.