There are 16.4 million poor children in rich America, 7.4 million living in extreme poverty. A majority of public school students and more than three out of four Black and Hispanic children, who will be a majority of our child population by 2019, are unable to read or compute at grade level in the fourth or eighth grade and will be unprepared to succeed in our increasingly competitive global economy. Nearly eight million children are uninsured. More children were killed by guns in 2008-2009 than U.S. military personnel in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to date. A Black boy born in 2001 has a one in three chance of going to prison in his lifetime; a Latino boy a one in six chance of the same fate. Millions of children are living hopeless, poverty- and violence-stricken lives in the war zones of our cities; in the educational deserts of our rural areas; in the moral deserts of our corrosive culture that saturates them with violent, materialistic, and individualistic messages; and in the leadership deserts of our political and economic life where greed and self interest trump the common good over and over. Millions of our children are being left behind without the most basic human supports they need to survive and thrive when parents alone cannot provide for them at a time of deep economic downturn, joblessness, and low wage jobs that place a ceiling on economic mobility for millions as America’s dream dims. Unemployment, underemployment, and economic inequality are rife and will worsen if massive cascading federal, state, and local budget cuts aimed primarily at the poor and young succeed. Homeless shelters, child hunger, and child suffering have become normalized in the richest nation on earth. It’s time to reset our moral compass and redefine how we measure success.
Source: commondreams.org
Unemployment Problem Includes Public Transportation That Separates Poor From Jobs
On top of the most catastrophic economic downturn since the Great Depression, the continued impact of automation, and the shift of domestic production to lower-wage nations, here is a less dramatic yet no less decisive constraint that limits opportunities for many working-age Americans: The bus does not go where the paychecks are.
Nearly 40 million working-age people now live in parts of major American metropolitan areas that lack public transportation, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. The consequences of this disconnection fall with particular severity on the poor. One in 10 low-income residents relies on some form of public transportation to get to work, according to the report.
In the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, nearly half of all jobs lie more than 10 miles from the downtown core, according to a prior study by Elizabeth Kneebone, a Brookings researcher. For the typical resident, more than two-thirds of the jobs in the 100 largest metro areas are beyond range of a 90-minute commute using mass transit. A separate Brookings study released this week finds that the typical job in major metro areas is accessible to only 27 percent of all working age adults within an hour-and-a-half commute on public transportation.
Out of School and at Risk: The Drought's Hidden Impact on Mali's Children
A recent survey of drought-hit communities conducted by the International Rescue Committee and partner agencies across four districts of southern Mali revealed the perception that issues like child labor, low school attendance, and sexual abuse — all of which existed before the drought — have been exacerbated by the current crisis.
According to UN estimates, in a normal year, one in five school-aged Malian children doesn’t attend school — three quarters of them being girls. While there’s no comprehensive new data or statistics, families interviewed in the regions of Kayes, Koulikoro, Segou and Sikasso report that more children in their villages have stopped attending classes. The reasons cited were threefold. As found in Segou district, many families said their children were too frail from hunger to leave their homes. Others said they are no longer able to afford school fees. But the factor most widely mentioned was that families are sending their children to work in order to cope with the effects of the drought.
As work opportunities in rural villages are scarce, girls tend to move to big towns, Bamako in particular, where they can easily find jobs as housemaids in well-off households, while boys are more likely to join the labor-hungry industry of southern Mali: gold mining. Far from the protection that a family structure affords, the vulnerability of these children spikes. Child maids are often confined to their employer’s house, at risk of exploitation and sexual abuse, yet hidden away. And working conditions in artisanal gold mines can be extremely dangerous. Crushing physical labor, exposure to toxic substances such as mercury, frequent accidents and sexual abuse are all well-documented threats to child miners.
Weightlifter Sarah Robles is an incredible athlete, but outside the world of squats and snatches, barely anyone knows her name. And even though she’s the U.S.’s best chance at an Olympic medal, she’ll never get the fame or fortune that come so easily to her fellow athletes — in part because, at 5 feet, 10.5 inches and 275 pounds, she doesn’t fit the ideal of thin, toned athletic beauty.
(via girlwithalessonplan)
Source: BuzzFeed
Being Poor in the US Shortens Life Expectancy By 5 Years
A recent survey revealed that the US ranks poorly among industrialized nations as far as health care and economic opportunities for women. Another new study makes another strike against the US: For all that the US spends on health care, wide disparities exist for Americans. Life expectancy for poorer US citizens is five years less than that for affluent citizens, say researchers from Rice University and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Another trend that Denney notes is that, in those times when life expectancy has increased, the disparities between more and less advantaged groups have also grown. That is, “the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, inequality grows and life expectancy is dramatically impacted.”
When you live in a poor neighborhood, you are living in an area where you have poor schools. When you have poor schools, you have poor teachers. When you have poor teachers, you get a poor education. When you get a poor education, you can only work in a poor-paying job. And that poor-paying job enables you to live again in a poor neighborhood. So, it’s a very vicious cycle.
Malcolm X (via warriorsrise)
EXACTLY EXACTLY EXACTLY.
(via sapphrikah)
This is why tying education funding to local property taxes is one of the most brutally f-ed up policies in modern America.
(via paxamericana)
(via forgottenvanburen)
Source: shedsumlight
What Causes Chronic Hunger?
Chronic hunger affects more than 800 million people in the world and is, in and of itself, a potentially deadly condition. You may be surprised to learn that it has little to do with food shortages. Global supplies of food far outstrip demand.
Far more people die from causes related to chronic hunger than to famine. Chronically hungry people are exceptionally vulnerable when famine strikes. They have fewer resources to protect themselves and their families and are already living on the margin of survival.
There are five things that do contribute to most of the world’s hunger:1
Poverty. Poor people do not have the resources — whether land, tools or money—needed to grow or buy food on a consistent basis.
Armed Conflict. War disrupts agricultural production, and governments often spend more on arms than on social programs.
Environmental Overload. Over-consumption by wealthy nations and rapid population growth in poor nations strain natural resources and make it harder for poor people to feed themselves.
Discrimination. Lack of access to education, credit and employment — a recipe for hunger — is often the result of racial, gender or ethnic discrimination.
Lack of Clout. In the final analysis, chronic hunger is caused by powerlessness. People who don’t have power to protect their own interests are hungry. The burden of this condition falls most acutely on children, women and elderly people.
