Children in Poverty: Educating the Parents

In 2001, approximately 11.7 percent of the U.S. population lived in poverty. This number was a slight increase from 2000, after the poverty rate had steadily declined during 1993 through 2000 from 15.1 percent to 11.3 percent (National Poverty Center 1). Thus, after a relatively steady decline during the 1990s, the number of children living in poverty in the United States has been on the rise since the year 2000 (NCCP "Low-Income Children" 1).

Today, there are approximately 70 million children in the United States (National Poverty Center 1). More than one-third of them live in families that are considered to be low-income or poor. Specifically, in 2002, more than 26 million children - 37 percent of America's children - lived in low-income families (NCCP "Low-Income Children" 1). Eleven million of these children - 16 percent of the country's child population - lived in poverty. This paper addresses the relationship between a lack of education and child poverty in the United States and proposes that the federal government implement more sector-based educational and training opportunities for parents of low-income and poor children as a means of alleviating their poverty.

A parent's lack of education can be a significant contributing factor to whether a child in America grows up in a low-income or impoverished family. Essentially, inadequate education is one of the l

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- 4.2 million - do not have a working parent (NCCP "Low-Income Children" 1). The problem, therefore, is not so much that these children live in families with parents who choose not to work, but that their parents work in jobs that do not pay a wage above poverty and low-income levels. One reason why parents work in poverty and low-income level employment is simply that they do not have the education and training to get higher paying jobs. Twenty-six percent of children in low-income families ù 6.9 million ù live with parents who have not completed high school (NCCP "Basic Facts" 1). Thirty-six percent of low-income children - 9.6 million ù have parents who have only completed high school, and the parents of thirty-nine percent of such children have education beyond the high-school level (NCCP "Basic Facts" 1). Research has demonstrated that the children of welfare recipients who become employed experience improved well-being due to increased household income and the parents' improved self-esteem (Cherlin 1). In particular, such studies have found that children in families who move from welfare as the sole income source for the family to a combination of welfare and income from employment demonstrate reduced behavioral problems
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Approximate Word count = 1581
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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