Millions More US Children In Poverty: Generation Of
Capitalist Return
14 January 2010By Tom Eley
The “Great Recession” of 2008 and 2009 has spread
poverty to millions more US children, according to a
recent report by the Brookings Institute. The report,
“The Effects of the Recession on Child Poverty,”
estimates that a large number of states witnessed
marked increases in child poverty in 2009.
In 2008, one in five US children under age 18 lived in
families below the official poverty level, according
to Census Bureau data released in September 2009. The
figure now is significantly higher, according to
Brookings researcher Julia B. Isaacs. The census
poverty statistics for 2008 “lag considerably behind
current economic conditions,” Isaacs writes. “Job
losses and wage reductions occurring in 2009 were
obviously not captured. In addition, many adverse
events in 2008 were only partially captured.”
The report’s estimates are based on the rapid increase
in the use of food stamps, or the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is taken as
a fairly accurate predictor of poverty growth.
Between August 2008 and August 2009, food stamp use
increased by a staggering 24 percent, and monthly
caseloads increased by 7 million—from 29.5 million to
36.5 million people—a 24 percent increase. “This
extraordinary increase means that roughly 3.4 million
more children were receiving SNAP benefits in August
2009 than a year earlier,” according to Isaacs.
The report states that eight states were likely to
have experienced a “particularly high risk” of poverty
in 2009, “reflecting a combination of high child
poverty in 2008 and very high increases in use of
nutrition assistance between 2008 and 2009.” These
states, all in the US South or Southwest, already had
child poverty rates greater than 20 percent in 2008,
even prior to the surge in food stamp use. They are:
Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico,
South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. The report warns
that both “public agencies and private charities” will
“face significant strain” in providing aid to these
children in the near future.
The “very high” increase in poverty in these states
spells Depression-level misery for their populations.
In Mississippi, for example, the child poverty rate
was 30.4 percent in 2008, or nearly one in three
children. The Brookings report also relies on low
federally-determined official poverty levels. In 2008
this meant an annual income of $22,000 for a family of
four. A more reasonable measure would doubtless show
that the majority of children in states like
Mississippi live in poverty.
Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma, and
West Virginia also had child poverty rates greater
than 20 percent in 2008, and saw “high” increases in
food stamp use in 2009. Florida, Idaho, Maine,
Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, and Oregon had child
poverty rates of 15 to 20 percent, plus a “very high”
increase in food stamp use. Washington, Wisconsin, and
Vermont had child poverty rates of below 15 percent,
but also saw “very high” increases in SNAP use.
Twenty other states, including the populous states of
California, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
and Michigan, had child poverty rates of 15 to 20
percent prior to 2009, but saw “high” increases in
food stamp use.
“There is little doubt that poverty is on the
increase,” Isaacs writes, citing a study demonstrating
the “particularly strong impact” of unemployment on
child poverty rates.
Isaacs told the World Socialist Web Site that if the
current recession follows the pattern of other recent
recessions, the child poverty rate will increase for
several years. Another Brookings study released
earlier in the year estimated that the national child
poverty rate could climb as high as 25 percent, or one
in four, by 2012.
“Such predictions are sobering,” Isaacs concludes,
“since child poverty rates were higher in the United
States than in most other rich nations even before the
onset of the recession.” Isaacs was referring to a
UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) report that
found the US next to last—ahead of only the United
Kingdom—in a ranking of child well-being, falling
behind countries such as Hungary, Poland, Portugal,
and Greece.
There had already been a dramatic increase in poverty
among US children even prior to the economic collapse
of 2008 and 2009. This is confirmed by a new report,
“Kids Count,” on living conditions among children in
Michigan, once one of the wealthier US states.
The report, compiled by the Michigan League of Human
Services (MLHS), includes data up until 2007 and 2008.
Among other findings, it shows that in 2008 more than
40 percent of Michigan public school children came
from families whose income was low enough to qualify
them for reduced-cost federal lunches, an increase
from 30.7 percent just seven years earlier.
Statewide, 19.3 percent, or about one in five children
was poor in 2007, in line with the US national average
and an increase from 18.3 percent in 2005. The
increase in childhood poverty took place statewide. In
Wayne County, the child poverty rate rose to 31
percent in 2008. In Saginaw County, 25.8 percent of
children were poor. In sparsely populated Baraga
County on the Upper Peninsula, the child poverty rate
increased to 21.3 percent. Even in suburban Oakland
County, the wealthiest county in the state, the
childhood poverty rate increased to 11 percent in 2007
from 8.6 percent in 2005.
Increasing poverty correlates to an increase in both
confirmed and investigated cases of abuse and neglect
of children, according to the report, noting a
deterioration of 16 percent in confirmed cases of
neglect and abuse in Michigan between 2000 and 2008.
“Kids in Michigan are bearing the brunt of our
economic crisis,” Judy Putnam of the MLHS told the
WSWS. “We know this is only going to go worse as the
data becomes available,” citing the rapid increase in
unemployment in Michigan beginning in 2008.
Putnam noted that the state government is pushing its
fiscal burden onto children at a moment of acute need.
“We’re cutting funding from education, preschool, and
mental health right when children need the most help,”
she said.
Putnam fears that in the coming years social services
in Michigan could face drastic funding cuts after
stopgap funding from the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act expires. “The funding cliff is in
2011, and it doesn’t look at all certain that Congress
will make new money available” to the states, she
said.
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