A comprehensive new analysis shows that child poverty has fallen 59% since 1993, with need receding on nearly every front. It has fallen in every state, and has fallen about the same amount for white, Black, Hispanic and Asian. In 1993, nearly 28% of children were poor, meaning their households lacked the income the government deemed necessary to meet basic needs.
Millions fewer children are considered poor today than they were 25 years ago. In 1993, 19.4 million children were considered to be living in poverty. In 2020 there are 8.4 million children living in poverty. Deep poverty is likely to effect Black and Latino children about three times more than white children.
The decrease in child poverty has coincided with profound changes in the safety net, which has become more generous. Starting in the 1990"s tough welfare laws shrank cash aid to parents without jobs. Subsidies grew, and total federal spending on low-income children roughly doubled. Multiple forces reduced child poverty, including lower unemployment, increased labor force participation among single mothers, and the growth of the minimum wage. But a dominant factor was the expansion of government aid.
The plunge in child poverty is the opposite of what most liberal experts predicted a quarter century ago when President Bill Clinton signed a law to "end welfare as we know it." Conservatives say the landmark law pushed more parents to work and call it the main reason child poverty declined. Progressives say many working families would still be poor without the expanded safety net. Whatever the reason, the result is more children are out of poverty and have a better chance for a bright future. Isn't that what we want for all Americans?
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