Poverty and Children in the United States
Poverty and children in the United States Poverty by definition means: “State of being poor. The state of not having enough money to take care of basic needs such as food, clothing, and housing.” (Encarta dictionary) That is a word that many of us ignore, yet poverty among children in the United States is problem that is not going to solve itself. People today are not concerned with the troubles of others like they were in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Communities back then looked out for each other. When one family was lacking the community pulled together to ensure the family had what they needed. Today communities are not that way. People only look out for their own well being. With modernization there comes social change and sometimes those changes are not for the better when it comes to today’s children living in poverty. There have been many different studies to determine the percentage of children living in poverty. The United States Census Bureau’s estimate of children living in poverty increased from 13 million to 13.4 million from 2004 to 2005. This is “according to the latest report from the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, a division of the U.S. Census Bureau that calculates annual income for states, counties, and school districts. The report based its calculations on federal tax returns from families in each of the nation’s 14,000 school districts, and also looked at Food Stamp participation.” (Breaden, 2008) In this study the most salient was the how many more children under the age of 5 that live in poverty. In 2004 it was 4.1 million and increased to 4.2 million in 2005. “The highest percentages of children in this age group living in poverty were found in Louisiana, Mississippi, and the District of Columbia.” (Breaden, 2008) “The Atlanta-based Southern Education Foundation released a study with grim news.” (Hing, 2008) Fourteen states were studied and a majority of the public school children are considered in the poverty level.
References: Breaden, M. (January, 2008) Child Poverty. Education Week. Retrieved May 17, 2008 from http://findgalegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodld=IPS May 17, 2008 from http://findgalegroup.com/ips/start.do?prold=IPS Hing, J 17, 2008 from http://findgalefroup.com/ips/start.do?prodld=IPS Who is poor? (n.d.) Institute for research on poverty