Family Well Being Commentaries
"House Republicans have hit upon a noxious scheme to help pay for an extension of the payroll tax cut: a tax increase on millions of poor working families."
"One in eight children in Michigan lives in a household grappling with job loss and one in every 20 has had his or her life disrupted by a home foreclosure. This year, as in previous years, creating an economic climate that leads to more jobs remains the top priority for our governor and lawmakers. An emphasis on educating kids and putting their parents back to work is the best weapon for fighting poverty."
Posted January 9, 2012
Posted August 8, 2011
Posted July 18, 2011
Posted June 27, 2011
Posted May 31, 2011
"During Bill Clinton's presidency, Democrats and Republicans stopped fighting over whether poverty is caused by irresponsible behavior or social and economic injustice. They agreed that both were implicated in the explosion of out-of-wedlock births and single-parent families, and they tried to do something about it."
"'Remember, tonight is the night we've got the thing at church,' she said. 'What thing at church?' I said, exasperated. In my mind, I had already made a date with ESPN. 'The thing with the homeless families,' she said."
"Even so, evidence is overwhelming that children of single mothers -- particularly teen mothers -- suffer disproportionately high poverty rates, impaired development and low school performance."
"For many teens in the District, pregnancy means an unstable life in the underclass. The DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy describes teen pregnancy as 'a one-way ticket to persistent poverty.'"
"When it comes to poverty - a contributing factor for dropping out of school - the majority of those affected are single parents. Thirty-seven percent of single moms and 17.5 percent of single dads are in poverty, whereas just 6.7 percent of married couples are in poverty."
" With 40 percent of children born to unwed mothers today, and a growing marriage gap between wealthy and poor, we can't afford to go on pretending that strengthening marriage is a conservative or liberal cause."
"Except the extra hours bumped Fajardo's pay over the income limit for a child-care voucher, which subsidizes her son's care while she's at work. Child care is the single most expensive item in the budgets of low-income mothers."
"Children with engaged dads are half as likely to experience depression, and only 25 percent as likely to drop out of school as children without dads. And single mothering is the greatest cause of childhood poverty"
"Some capable women manage to do a good job raising a family, but statistically the odds are stacked against them as they are victims of the second major threat to the family: poverty"
"There's a law that some experts say contributes mightily to the destruction of low-income African American families and neighborhoods"
"[W]e have seen growing legions of children raised in unimaginably awful circumstances, not because of marginal poverty but because of dysfunctional families"
"So a public policy that concentrates on lifting them out of poverty can help those children succeed, no matter the choices their parents made"
"Many parents are plagued by poverty or unemployment that can make it particularly difficult for them to balance parenting with job searches or work"
"Children who grow up without their fathers experience more poverty, have more problems at school, more trouble with the law"
"I don't want to see any more abortions in lieu of contraception. I don't want to see any more pregnant teens drop out of school. I don't want to see a perpetuation of poverty"
"As Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears has noted, children born to unmarried women and to those in cohabiting relationships 'must often overcome increased risks of poverty'"
"They face high rates of incarceration, homelessness, poverty and early childbirth. Less than 47% of foster kids graduate from high school, and less than 4% of those go on to college"
"[C]hildren from single-parent households are more at risk for poverty, academic failure, teen pregnancy and incarceration"
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