Children in Poverty -- More Every Day

At My Rural America, we value

• Family – Children, good neighbors, friends helping friends, working together to solve problems … teamwork.

In recent months, we have strongly supported children's health care ... or SCHIP as passed by Congress and consistently vetoed by the President. It's a veto supported by most conservatives in Congress, and it's a veto we don't understand since Democrats and also key Republicans like Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa have actively worked as a team to support it.

Meanwhile, our nation's children have been slipping deeper into poverty. "Poverty Mars Formation of Infant Brains," screamed a recent headline in the Financial Times.

If you care about children, this news story is must reading since in plain language it explains the results of a recent study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, e.g.,

• Martha Farah, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s centre for cognitive neuroscience, said: “The biggest effects are on language and memory. The finding about memory impairment – the ability to encounter a pattern and remember it – really surprised us."
• Jack Shonkoff, director of Harvard University’s centre on the developing child, said policymakers had to take note of the research because “the foundation of all social problems later in life takes place in the early years ... The earlier you intervene [to counteract the impact of poverty], the better the outcome in the end, because the brain loses its plasticity [adaptability] as the child becomes older.”
  

New York Times op-ed writer Paul Krugman put it another way on Monday, saying "Poverty is Poison." Krugman reminds us that statistics prove that Lyndon Johnson's "war on poverty" reduced the poverty rate from 23% in 1963 to 14% in 1968. In 2006, this rate has increased to the point that 17.4% of America's children are living in poverty.

Krugman continues, " ... American children born to parents in the bottom fourth of the income distribution have almost a 50 percent chance of staying there -- and almost a two-thirds chance of remaining stuck if they're black."

Well, poverty strikes a lot of ways -- hunger, neglect, embarrassment, shame, the feeling of being an outcast ... of knowing that there is no hope, that you're just stuck and miserable and angry. This is a tough list, so for today, let's just start with one goal -- food for the kids. They can't learn if their stomachs are empty.

The Farm Bill awaits President Bush' s signature. By not signing it, he endangers free and reduced school lunches for poverty stricken children. Our recommendation: Call the White House today and tell him your patience has run out ... he must sign the Farm Bill immediately. Here are the numbers:

Phone Numbers Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461

TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213 Visitors Office: 202-456-2121