Child Poverty

Former Sen. Bill Bradley challenged the nation yesterday to eliminate child poverty within a decade, likening his proposals to John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon. Speaking in the low-income neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Democratic presidential candidate laid out what he called a "down payment" toward solving what is "perhaps the most intractable American problem of this century. " Bradley's proposal - which he said would cost taxpayers $9.8 billion in its first year and an undetermined amount after that - would provide a series of tax credits, child-care subsidies, minimum-wage increases and educational programs to cut the number of poor children from 13.5 million now to 6.5 million after eight years.

By 10 a.m. Saturday, at least 75 people had lined the sidewalk outside St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Glassboro. Some held infants, some waited in wheelchairs, and some helped the elderly carry canvas bags or push small carts. They had all come for food. Asked what was left in his kitchen at home, Tim, 13, giggled. "Carrots," the Elk Township teen said. Not a favorite. "Good morning, everyone," Vivian Hanson, the archdeacon's wife, shouted as she opened the door of the Gloucester County church.

Nearly half of Camden's children live in poverty, a rate that makes it the highest in New Jersey, surpassing Asbury Park and Newark, according to a study released yesterday. Camden Kids Count, a profile on child well-being, offers this statistic and others that portray a mostly bleak picture of the waterfront city. But the report also shows progress in reducing the number of low-birth-weight babies and increasing prenatal care. "The importance of [the study] is that we now have a baseline from which to judge and address program services data," said Mary Coogan, assistant director of the Association for Children of New Jersey.

The child-poverty rate declined in Philadelphia during most of the 1990s, but it climbed slightly in some suburban counties amid the economic expansion, according to a U.S. Census Bureau estimate being released today. From 1995 to 1997, the poverty rate rose in Montgomery, Delaware and Bucks Counties, and in New Jersey's Camden, Burlington and Gloucester Counties. During that period, the only suburban county to show improvement was Chester County, in which it fell slightly. The uptick - which took place after a decline in the first half of the decade - comes despite steadily falling poverty rates nationwide and in Pennsylvania, according to previous census reports.

If you were to set out, as Stephen Shames did in 1984, to photograph an American social malaise, you couldn't help but get it right, especially if you looked in cities. Traveling around the country for five years, Shames, a former Inquirer photographer, compiled a series of pictures of children who live in poverty. He found the condition so widespread, involving 20 percent of American children, that he has become a crusader against it. Shames' photographs have been turned into a book, Outside the Dream (Aperture, $29.95)

Robert Rector is a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation Let the hyperventilating begin. Expect critics of the Bush administration to seize on the U.S. Census Bureau's annual report on poverty. Look, they'll say, poverty's up. They'll blame tax cuts. Or the war in Iraq. Or the gap between rich and poor. Heck, they may try to pin it on SUVs. They're right about one small thing: Child poverty did rise - very slightly - in 2002. But the increase is minimal compared to prior recessions.

If the political exploitation of children were a crime, most of our political leaders would be doing hard time. Put 'em away, I say. Three "do it for the childrens" and you're out. At the Republican and Democratic conventions, children were trotted out to sing, deliver slogans and represent the supposedly compassionate policies of both parties. A group of children at the Democratic convention even had to take the stage to recite lines like "When I grow up, will innocent kids still be wrongfully touched?

  NEWARK, N.J. - New Jersey ranks among the top states in children's health and education even as the number of children living in poverty in the state continues to grow, according to an annual survey released Wednesday. The Kids Count data book for 2012 ranked New Jersey in first place for the high percentage of young children attending preschool. The state also made a strong showing in children's education overall, ranking second in the nation behind Massachusetts. But the survey found increases in child poverty in 2012, with New Jersey ranking 19th for the economic well-being of children and families.

Attention, American Taxpayers! You Are Being Robbed! That's the conservative message from the Children's Defense Fund in "Wasting American's Future," a study that for the first time pins down the cost of child poverty to the nation - and the cost to eliminate it. Focusing on the most measurable effects of child poverty - such as reducing educational attainment and limiting economic productivity - CDF reached some startling conclusions....

New Jersey's poorest workers haven't had a raise in three years. But Gov. Christie and the Legislature still refuse to join 18 other states in raising its minimum wage. In New Jersey, the minimum wage sits at the federal level of $7.25 an hour. That's about $15,000 a year in a state that draws the poverty line at $44,700 for a family of four. Christie called Senate President Stephen Sweeney's proposal to amend the state constitution to include an automatic minimum- wage hike a "truly ridiculous idea.

By 10 a.m. Saturday, at least 75 people had lined the sidewalk outside St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Glassboro. Some held infants, some waited in wheelchairs, and some helped the elderly carry canvas bags or push small carts. They had all come for food. Asked what was left in his kitchen at home, Tim, 13, giggled. "Carrots," the Elk Township teen said. Not a favorite. "Good morning, everyone," Vivian Hanson, the archdeacon's wife, shouted as she opened the door of the Gloucester County church.

That New Jersey ranks highly as a good place to raise children isn't surprising. After all, its residents are among the wealthiest per capita in America.   But the makers of public policy in the state must address shortcomings in combating child poverty that the Annie E. Casey Foundation's annual Kid's Count report says have gotten worse since the recession. New Jersey ranked fourth overall in the report — below New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Pennsylvania was 14th.

  NEWARK, N.J. - New Jersey ranks among the top states in children's health and education even as the number of children living in poverty in the state continues to grow, according to an annual survey released Wednesday. The Kids Count data book for 2012 ranked New Jersey in first place for the high percentage of young children attending preschool. The state also made a strong showing in children's education overall, ranking second in the nation behind Massachusetts. But the survey found increases in child poverty in 2012, with New Jersey ranking 19th for the economic well-being of children and families.

Pennsylvania ranks 20th overall among 50 states in child health and well-being, a slight improvement from recent years, but the recession continues to take a painful toll on the state's children and families, according to the latest Kids Count national survey released Wednesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The state ranked 23rd for several years before the latest bump up in the annual study monitored by policy makers across the nation. It looks at 10 key indicators from sources including the Mortgage Bankers Association, National Delinquency Survey and U.S. Census Bureau.

In 1983, the British Labor Party, under the hard-left Michael Foot, issued a 700-page manifesto so radical that one colleague called it "the longest suicide note in history. " House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan has just released a recklessly bold, 73-page, 10-year budget plan. With 37 footnotes, it might be the most annotated suicide note in history. That depends on whether (a) President Obama counters with a deficit-reduction plan of equal seriousness, rather than just demagoguing the Ryan plan until next Election Day, (b)

America is failing its most vulnerable children. The United States does not provide a level playing field for all children and does not protect all young lives equally, says a recent report by the Children's Defense Fund. Poor children and children of color, in particular, "already are in the pipeline to prison before taking a single step or uttering a word," the report states. Many youth in juvenile detention facilities have never been on the track to college or a successful life.

Mayoral candidate Chaka Fattah wants to lease out Philadelphia International Airport and use the proceeds to fund an ambitious initiative to slash the city's child poverty rate. Fattah, a U.S. congressman, is to unveil the idea, part of a plan he calls his "opportunity agenda," this morning. He said in an interview yesterday that the agenda would also include proposals to reduce business and wage taxes, as well as details about how to pay for the many new programs he has promised on the campaign trail.

Nearly half of Camden's children live in poverty, a rate that makes it the highest in New Jersey, surpassing Asbury Park and Newark, according to a study released yesterday. Camden Kids Count, a profile on child well-being, offers this statistic and others that portray a mostly bleak picture of the waterfront city. But the report also shows progress in reducing the number of low-birth-weight babies and increasing prenatal care. "The importance of [the study] is that we now have a baseline from which to judge and address program services data," said Mary Coogan, assistant director of the Association for Children of New Jersey.