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Summit aims to help end childhood poverty
Published 11/18/2011 in Local News
By SHAJIA AHMAD
sahmad@gctelegram.com
Childhood poverty is a subject that can easily be overlooked because though those who are afflicted are everywhere, they're also "invisible."
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Brad Nading/Telegram Ron Haskins, a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program and co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., talks about poverty in America Thursday at Garden City Community College.
That, according to Robert de Leon, who spoke to a crowd of more than 100 attending a childhood poverty summit hosted by Social and Rehabilitation Services — better known as SRS — at the Dennis Perryman Athletic Complex at Garden City Community College.
In his address, de Leon attempted to paint a picture of the socioeconomically disadvantaged to those gathered Thursday at the governor's town hall meeting, one of three held across the state this week.
"They're dressed, they're fed — at least at school, and they seem to be happy," the Salvation Army community center director said. "But it's that second look — that's when you notice the hand-me-down clothes ... and the look of unhappiness in their eyes."
Community members from health and educational agencies, those from the social service sector, and local and state-elected leaders, convened Thursday to develop a framework and offer their ideas to combatting poverty.
De Leon, who also serves as board chairman for the recently-formed Kansas Hispanic and Latino American Affairs Commission, said to Thursday's crowd that extreme situations are created by poverty and "push adults to the edge," make them more "prone to violence," and cause them to lose the sensitivity that is "vital to a child's normal development."
"It's a miracle so many kids aren't damaged," he said, adding that many kids who are poor face inadequate nutrition, difficulty learning and concentrating, lack of stable living situations, and less access to both their friends and local services.
"The things they need the most are the things least available to them," de Leon, who directs the youth activity center at the faith-based social service agency at 203 N. Eighth St. in Garden City, said.
According to the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, nearly 15 million children in the United States — 21 percent of all children — live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level: $22,050 per year for a family of four.
In Kansas, that figure is about 17 percent, or 116,735 children.
Another 23 percent of Kansas' children live just between the national poverty level and twice the level, still constituting them as poor.
According to the NCCP, research shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice that level just to cover basic expenses. Using that standard, the report indicates that 42 percent of children live in low-income families nationwide, and a total of 40 percent of Kansas children.
To combat the widespread humanitarian problem, Ron Haskins, a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program and co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., attempted to give a bird's eye view of the problem.
Haskins told Thursday's crowd that the greatest solution to solving childhood poverty — and all levels of poverty for that matter — is raising individuals' earning power by enabling them to make good decisions.
"Government programs are important, but the most important thing we can do is to get young people to make better decisions," Haskins said, adding that finishing high school, getting a job and getting married and having kids only until the other two hurdles are crossed at the age of 21 were the strongest indicators of avoiding poverty.
"If you just want to play the odds, just follow these three complicated rules — it does more (to combat poverty) than public police," Haskins added.
It's a bird's eye view message that has come under some fire since the Gov. Sam Brownback's series of summits started in Kansas City on Monday and continued Wednesday in Wichita.
Haskins, like a counterpart keynote speaker at both previous forums, also spoke to the need to combat poverty by encouraging marriage.
"If we could do that, the poverty rate would go down," Haskins, a message similar to Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "Family composition is huge. ... Single parenting and divorce are driving the poverty rate up."
Following the earlier forums, some Kansas politicians publicly said that pushing marriage to end poverty is a simplistic and potentially dangerous way to approach the problem.
At least one protestor of the marriage message was arrested at Wednesday's Wichita forum, the Wichita Eagle reported Thursday.
"I am particularly concerned that the governor opened his child poverty town hall meetings this week with a speaker who declared that encouraging marriage is the most effective tool policy makers can use to fight poverty," Joan Wagnon, Kansas Democratic Party chairwoman and former state revenue secretary, said in a statement released Thursday. "Ending childhood poverty is a laudable objective, but we can only reach that goal by creating more jobs, improving our schools and guaranteeing high quality and affordable child care, among other things. I applaud the idea of encouraging marriage, but complex problems like poverty require real solutions."
State Rep. Reynaldo Mesa, R-Garden City, Garden City Mayor John Doll, GCCC President Herb Swender and SRS Secretary Rob Siedlecki also addressed Thursday's crowd.
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