Thursday, February 23, 2012
Breaking News Child Poverty Surges in Tennessee
Posted by Jonathan Meador on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 3:29 PM
A new report issued by the Annie E. Casey Foundation has found that the number of children living in "high-poverty communities" in the state of Tennessee has grown by nearly 100 percent over the last decade.
According to the latest Kids Count survey, the number of children living in high-poverty areas in the United States is 8 million — a nationwide surge of roughly 1.6 million kids under the age of 18 "living in areas with 30% of residents or more living below the poverty threshold" since 2000. In Tennessee, that number increased by 91 percent over the same time period, with 26 percent of children in the Volunteer State now living in poverty.
The foundation describes "high-poverty areas" thusly:
Research indicates that as neighborhood poverty rates increase, undesirable outcomes rise and opportunities for success are less likely. The effects of concentrated poverty begin to appear once neighborhood poverty rates rise above 20 percent and continue to grow as the concentration of poverty increases up to the 40 percent threshold. This report defines areas of concentrated poverty as those census tracts with poverty rates of 30 percent or more because it is a commonly used threshold that lies between the starting point and leveling off point for negative neighborhood effects. The 2010 federal poverty threshold is $22,314 per year for a family of four.
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Comments (20)
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What? I thought with the focus on keeping sidewalks from being named after former First Ladies and discussion of the evils of contraception or restricting teachers from saying the three-letter-word-that-shall-not-be-named, we had long since solved this problem!
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Too bad all of these so called "Pro-lifers" and anti contraception nuts don't take on the responsibility of a concept some call "Pro Whole Life". You want to take away a woman's right to contraception or right to choose, you make sure you have dollars to take care of that child until it is old enough to take care of itself. Put up or shut up.
What the hell did you expect when so many babies are born out of wedlock?
@Rorohonda: What's wrong with women not fucking every guy that walks through the door? That would pretty much take care of the problem. With 73% of the black babies being born to single mothers they must be looking at the baby as a meal ticket. How are you going to fix that?
Oh, lovely, you want to take control of "these women" particularly black women, NOT the guys, incidentally, and determine that if a woman gets herself pregnant, she ought to be forced to bear the child and raise it in poverty. (That's till your child achieves that amazing feat and "gets herself pregnant" and you suddenly start feeling different.) So now you want the government to volunteer as the "(*&^% ing police? Heaven save our civil liberties from this attitude.
Oh, yes. They _must_ be looking at the baby as a meal ticket. Gast, have you been a black single mother before? You must've been since you're speaking on condition of authority like that.
..Sigh..
All the bashing of unwed mothers aside, having children in this state born into poverty is _bad_. It's a very very _bad_ thing. And make no mistake about it, children _die_ from poverty. It doesn't matter whose womb they came from, whose sperm provided half the genetic code, or what color they are. These are innocent children. They should have a whole lifetime ahead of them to become jaded internet trolls.
Somebody please alert the Williamson County GOP. They seem to think this isn't their problem.
There are NO hungry children, I've been assured by gast. He hasn't seen any hungry children so there aren't any. Take that liberal rag!
Abstinence is far preferable to contraception and education because it doesn't cost gast anything. And, he gets to demonize the poor. That's a win - win for gast.
And again I ask Ron Ramsey, "What is Tennessee's highly touted business-friendly reputation doing for actual Tennesseans?"
This is one of those times on is reminded of Mercutio's malediction "A plague on both your houses."
Gast, many of these poor mothers are children. They do not make decisions based on considerations such as potential income but rather in order to have someone in their lives to love and love them. Combine that with a toxic peer pressure from popular culture that venerates sex and older men who do not fear any legal consequences and you have serious problems with girls of all races and incomes getting pregnant.
It is going to take serious investment in money and community support and other actions to reduce the problems related to child poverty. If it makes you feel better, think of it as undoing move than 50 years of mostly misguided liberal social policy and liberal values.
But it is unacceptable to have this level of child poverty {or even a much lower level} which is related to adult poverty and poor education and economic opportunity and other factors. For poor mothers to improve their situation requires them to work at change but it requires us to help them have the support they need to make that change.
Also, we need to do a better job of being realistic about teaching contraception. Abstinence programs are effective only as long as children are abstinent. After that, abstinence is generally unsuccessful so we need to provide students with instruction in effective methods of contraception if their parents won't.
Now for those on the left, until you are also willing to accept that some of your sacred cows need to head to Outback, we cannot make meaningful progress.
For example, when underage girls become pregnant, regardless of their choice to keep the baby or to abort, require her to name the father. Mandate DNA testing and find the father. If the father is over 18, prosecute him for statutory rape and pay for child support. Let some guys do time for statutory rape of 13 year-old girls and much of this will cease.
I would favor establishing day care centers in middle schools and high schools. A few days on diaper changing duty ought to be a highly effective form of birth control.
Beyond that, the left needs to realize that all the public dollars and community support in the world are not enough unless the poor mothers, their families and their neighborhoods all work together to help break the cycle of poverty. Instead of behaving as if they are powerless victims, they need to use the assistance provided to improve their parenting skills, their educations and job skills. Girls and boys need to be encouraged to not be sexually active, if not on moral grounds, then based on the potential results.
Both the left and right bear considerable responsibility for the current level of poverty in general and child poverty in specific. Instead of whining, why not find some common ground and work together?
Herbert,
Since the dawn of man, people have been having lots of children to survive, well before the advent of American liberal political policies. It goes on all over the world even now, without the benefit of liberal politics. This is a prime example of why no one COULD POSSIBLY take you seriously. You're just looking for any opportunity to bloviate, to quote a Greek tragedy or an obscure stanza from a lyrical-burlesque of Aristophanes so the innocent bystander will think you are intellectual. Malediction... you are a hyperbolic sack of wine.
Your party won't fund education or contraception, won't admit that government can do anything effectively, and you think they'll fund a whole new investigative, judicial initiative to DNA test every pregnancy for paternity? How many tests can they burn through before they identify the culprit? Who's gonna pay for that? The same party that has opposed every dollar ever spent on education, contraception, family planning, head start, affirmative action, any meaningful social policy since the New Deal. You couldn't possibly believe that scenario is remotely possible. Not even on the moon... with Newt. All you want is your tax break, you big balloon.
The Republican prescription for the poor is "fuck you." It has always been so. Your party's policy is scorched earth. You want to make government small enough to "drown in a bathtub." There are a few dumbasses out there like Tony Paredes that you can get to vote against his own interests by punching his hot buttons, but not enough. More and more struggling people are recognizing Republican social and economic policy for what it is. Bullshit.
Lets break the cycle of poverty with tax breaks for the 1%. More deregulation. More Wall Street shenanigans. Keep banging that drum Herbert. Obama 2012.
@Mark Rogers: I'm fully cognizant of the problem. In the distant past, being an unwed mother was something to be avoided (something to do with the stigma of bastard children) but no longer is thanks to liberalization of societal acceptance. I see no acceptable solution to the problems caused by bastard children, who will be the doom -at least economically and morally (and what else is there?) of our society. The surest solution to stem the tide to oblivion would be to require women of child bearing age who receive government subsidies to have their tubes tied and for fathers of bastard children to undergo vasectomies. However, these requirements would be deemed loathsome and neanderthal by many and become a political football as it's to the liberal's advantage to breed as many underprivileged children as possible. But, whatever the future, I'm still inclined to believe our descent began with Madalyn Murray O'Hair's victory at SCOTUS when God was told his blessings were no longer needed.
Speaking as the bastard child of an unwed mother, Gast, I don't require your particular brand of societal acceptance nor your version of Christian love to know that I'm not what ills us economically and morally.
Apparently God's blessings are no longer needed for Christians to denigrate unwed mothers and force medical procedures on people whose sexual morays differ from their own... they appear to carry on with this just fine without God's divine oversight within our political arenas.
And here I thought that Jesus taught us to love our neighbor, all while including tax collectors, Romans, gentiles, and women described as "sinful" among his closest disciples. I thought he might have done that as an example for us to follow, rather than ignore.
Or perhaps you're not talking about _Christian_ morality, but something else entirely. Could it be... rank hatred? I gotta say, it's hard to tell from where I sit.
@Don'tAsk: Sexual morays(sic) are slippery bastards I don't know enough about, but I do know for most of us having an effective father in the house to provide discipline and advice is a distinct advantage in becoming responsible adults. You want to make the debate about loving your neighbor, but it's more than that. It's about honesty and responsibility and contributing positively to society without being a burden, which was my mother's thing - not being a burden. The thing is, were you raised without the use of tax payer's money? Have you managed to stay out of jail? If you answered yes to both questions then you're one lucky bastard and congratulations to your mother. You'd be wrong to think I'm judging your worth or status because of your mother's marital status, but your family situation multiplied by the millions will be the downfall of this country; the children are and will be a bane to school teachers because of discipline problems and eventually will fill our jails. Right now our labor force is competing with Asian countries where semi-skilled workers make less than two dollars an hour and engineers not much more. How is a nation of undereducated, clueless, entitled young people - which is what our fatherless children are becoming - who can't make change in their heads, going to compete?
Back to religion: Jesus did tell the sinners, "Go and sin no more." And he told the disciples to wipe the dust from their feet and leave those who would not listen. Somehow people keep forgetting those things when they start preaching to me about God's love.
We argue all the time about different things but I'm not going to dislike you or anybody else who wants to argue; or be angry with you unless you cheat, lie, or take advantage of other people. Or unless you're a basic asshole like Prattlecat.
Was I raised without taxpayer money?
No. My adoptive father was Navy and worked for the U.S. Public Health Service for many years. Afterwards, I was raised on proceeds from his VA check and took advantage of government-sponsored programs for the children of veterans. To be honest, you could probably say that my upbringing was in fact financed by the Feds.
Have I managed to stay out of jail?
By hook or crook, yes. So did my other adoptive brothers, for the most part, but even then one of them has had his issues -- what large family doesn't? But then, as much as I was able to keep my nose clean, so have thousands upon thousands of children of single parents as well. Just having a single parent or being a bastard child doesn't automatically mean you're doomed to a lifetime of crime and incarceration -- so asserting that the issues we have are compounded by the "millions" is simple hyperbole.
How is a nation of undereducated, clueless, entitled young people going to compete?
By becoming better educated, informed, and ethical. Parenting has a great deal to do with the latter, but the former can be greatly assisted by making better educational options available to a wider number of people -- just like one would attack poverty. Raising oneself out of adversity can be done by the bootstraps as is the Republican mantra, but helping one's neighbor with their bootstraps gets the job done a little quicker. There's a role in that for parents, church, AND government. I like to think that I'm proof of that.
I'm not a minister, but I like to think I am a decent student of the Bible. The parables and stories therein tell me that although Jesus admonished people to "sin no more", he refused to cast out sinners from his own presence and -- in Mary Magdalene's case -- admonished his own disciples from wanting to throw her out of his presence due to her sin. We should be as gracious and understanding; proposing to subject unwed mothers to forced medical procedures demonstrates a lack of both.
I agree with your last point. I don't dislike you at all... despite disliking some the views you hold. Besides, I bet over a beer we could find plenty of common ground. Especially as the number of beers goes skyward.
We should not forget that we have all been given certain qualities by God and we are expected to use the gifts and abilities given to us to the best of our ability. To do less is to dishonor God. In light of that philosophy, the problem with the poor is that in so many instances they are not using their abilities. Also, those of us to whom much has been given are not sharing as we should. This is a problem that requires thoughtfulness, caring and consideration for God's principles not looking at it as how it benefits us, but looking at it as how it benefits those to whom not much has been given. I certainly think we all should adhere to certain behaviors - having babies out of wedlock no matter the color when one cannot adequately support that child should be discouraged - actually having babies out of wedlock in any instance should be discouraged. Robbing, lying and murdering are not acceptable behaviors nor are sitting in classrooms and failing to do one's best and not providing the best teachers available to help students. There are so many ways we all fail in this area but throwing stones won't solve the problem. Remember that we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and figure out how that translates into our everyday experiences. Motivation is key to solutions. Those who are only interested in how much money it costs have missed the point as are those who say "well poor things - they just don't know any better". Enabling bad behaviors is not the answer either.
@elizabeth: Very good, you will be vilified as hateful because of your common sense.
Jesus loves gast when he calls me an asshole. Think about it.
No one dishonors God more frequently in this forum than gast.
Jesus told gast to denigrate others - ESPECIALLY IF THEY'RE POOR. Jesus and gast advocate the death penalty, bullying homosexuals and sterilizing women on welfare. gast is full of "ultimate solutions."
He doesn't think he sounds like a Nazi at all.
I think gast eats babies, just the fatherless ones though. I think his head swivels a full 360 degrees and he wants to eat your soul.
