Child poverty at 30-year high, says CDF - Children's Defense Fund

Christian Century, May 10, 1995

Child poverty reached its highest level in 30 years during 1994, with one in four youngsters living below the poverty line, the Children's Defense Fund, a children's advocacy group, reported March 28. Moreover, the Washington-based private, nonprofit lobbying group stated that one in three children can expect to fall below the poverty line at some time before age 16. The poverty line for a family of three is an annual income of less than $12,590, according to the federal Health and Human Services Department.

Marian Wright Edelman, president. of the Defense Fund, predicted that efforts by the Republican-controlled Congress to dismantle existing welfare safety nets will likely exacerbate the problem. The CDF's latest criticism of Republican policy coincided with the release of its State of America's children Yearbook 1995, an update of the group's annual review of the condition of young people in America.

"These shameful numbers have small, individual faces and feelings and suffering," said Edelman. "It is un-American that millions more children will be left behind if the House leaders succeed in ripping apart federally guaranteed child protections." The CDF, which often works with liberal and mainline religious groups, estimated that legislation approved by the House of Representatives will cut about $46 billion from cash, housing and food subsidies for needy and disabled children.

Under the new system in which states would make welfare allotments, some children would lose benefits when additional youngsters become needy in times of recession or natural disaster, the CDF contends. In Alabama, for example, 48,500 children would lose federally subsidized school lunches by the year 2000 if that state were to cut its welfare distribution by the same percentage that the House bill reduces current national welfare spending. In California 200,000 children would lose school lunches, while in Michigan the figure would be 65,300. Some 44,600 children in New jersey, 21,650 in Oregon, 188,000 in Texas and 21,700 in Utah would also lose lunches, according to the CDF.

The study notes that the number of children reported abused or neglected in 1993 (the last year for which figures were available) was almost 3 million - triple that of 1980 - and that one in four homeless people in 1994 was a child under age 18. Some 14.2 million children - a record, according to the CDF - received food stamps in 1993. That represents an increase of 51 percent over 1989.

In addition, the study reports that 5,379 children and teens were killed by gunfire in 1992 - one every 98 minutes - and more than 9.4 million children were without health insurance in 1993, a jump of about 800,000 over the previous year. "We cannot allow these millions of children to get lost in the shuffle of politicians in Washington who talk only about [state] block grants and state flexibility without talking about the harmful effect their decisions will have on millions of children and families," Edelman said.