Ending Child Poverty Now Summary

The Children’s Defense Fund on “Ending Child Poverty Now” is powerful because it identifies why child poverty is an issue and provides a comprehensive solution to greatly reducing child poverty in the United States. The report starts off by reporting on the negative impact that poverty has on children and the country as a whole. The report goes on to list ways that the Children’s Defense Fund believes the United States can reduce poverty in this country. However, the report notes that in order to reduce child poverty, the United States will have to increase its spending on public assistance programs, although the report notes that in the long term, these costs will be offset by the increased productivity in the workforce when these children

It says that out of the top 35 developed countries, “America ranks 34th in relative child poverty — ahead only of Romania whose economy is 99 percent smaller than ours.” (Ending Child Poverty Now, 2015). This relates to the ABC News piece that we watched on being poor in America because that piece clearly noted the large percentage of Americans who are living below the federal poverty line. This is also relates to a Washington Post article we read which pointed out that one in five American school children are living below the federal poverty line. It is interesting to note that this report points to the need for the minimum wage to raised because that is something that we have continued to hear all semester. This need for the minimum wage to be raised was brought up in the video that we watched on poverty at Vanderbilt and was also brought up in the profile that we read on the working poor. This report and class has shown me how possible it is to work full time and still come in below or near the poverty

This relates to the concept of the Achievement gap which was brought up in our assigned reading, Healthier Students are Better Learners: A Missing Link in School Reforms to Close the Achievement Gap by C.E Basch, which pointed out that black students are less likely to have access to basic medical needs such as eyewear and therefore more likely to fall behind in school because of easy to solve issues such as not being able to see the board (Basch, 2010). In class, we also discussed how African American children are often extremely behind in reading and other academic subjects. This was represented by that powerful image that we saw of the African American child having to be lifted up higher to have an equal chance as the white child.

The fact that so many African American children are born into poverty and then go on to struggle in school relates to our in class discussion of Maslow's Hierarchy of Need because it shows how many African American students are not getting their basic needs such as food and shelter met and therefore cannot focus on things that are higher up in the pyramid such as academics, achievement, and self-esteem. Maslow's Hierarchy of Need supports the Children’s Defense Fund’s assertion that meeting the basic needs of children in poverty needs to be a priority over other agendas such as state