Providing Solutions to End Poverty in Children

Photo taken from: http://billmoyers.com/2015/01/19/12-days-12-things-can-fight-poverty/

The problem is that children are falling behind in their education and they are not able to gain access of resources that they need to enhance their developmental and learning skills. Poverty is one of the main causes that hinders education to these children. A solution that I came across on is to invest in providing federal subsidized resources to families and children who are dealing with poverty. Some examples of resources would be: the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), SNAP (food stamps), health care coverage, housing subsidies, subsidized jobs, the Child Tax Credit, and child care subsidies for families (Children's Defense Fund, 2015). Also, through resources such as having quality early childhood education, school programs, tutors, and educators, children can find aid in gaining back the skills that they weren’t able to develop due to being in poverty (cognitive, developmental, critical thinking, fine and sensor motor skills, etc.). Providing these resources to children and their families, will not only stop poverty from happening, but also help children to continue on with their education without falling behind. The children and family will be affected by this positively because they are receiving resources that'll help them both go through life without having to live in poverty any longer. However, the federal and state government would be affected by this negatively because they would have to worry about providing different subsidizing resources to all families who are in poverty, which makes it a burden due to the US going into more debt. Another stakeholder that will be burdened from this is taxpayers because they will have to pay higher taxes for investing more into education. However, I believe that this is a reasonable burden to bear because education is the core foundation for children's lives. Without having the core skills that they need, children will not be able to adapt to society well (ex: being able to problem-solve), or receive the learning and knowledge that'll be used later on in their lives. The government will also be helping families and children live a better life instead of being in misery (poverty), which makes the inequality now justified.  

A second solution to ending poverty that will help children further their education is to invest more into affordable, high-quality child care and early education. "Boosting investments in Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant, as well as passing the Strong Start for America’s Children Act—which would invest in preschool, high-quality childcare for infants and toddlers, and home-visiting services for pregnant women and mothers with infants—will help more struggling families obtain the child care they need in order to work and improve the future economic mobility of America’s children" (Rebecca Vallas & Melissa Boteach, 2014). Not only will children have access to quality early childhood education now, but they will also receive benefits from it such as retrieving back the skills that they weren't able to receive due to being in poverty. Both of these solutions will help stop children from being in poverty and instead, live with having resources that'll help aid them into having a better life and having better education. 

References:

Children's Defense Fund. (2015). Ending Child Poverty. Retrieved from: http://www.childrensdefense.org/policy/endingchildpoverty/?referrer=https://www.google.com/

V, R. & B, M. (2014, September 17). The Top 10 Solutions to Cut Poverty and Grow the Middle Class. Retrieved from: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/news/2014/09/17/97287/the-top-10-solutions-to-cut-poverty-and-grow-the-middle-class/

How Children Are Affected By Being in Poverty

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There has been research on child poverty and that poverty makes a negative impact on children's well-being, academic performance, and even both physical and mental health. According to the American Psychological Association (2015), "Poverty is linked with negative conditions such as substandard housing, homelessness, inadequate nutrition and food insecurity, inadequate child care, lack of access to health care, unsafe neighborhoods, and underresourced schools which adversely impact our nation’s children." Consequently, children and teens who are in poverty, also have a greater risk of dropping out of school, being abused and neglected by their peers or people around them, doing poorly in academic performances, health problems, behavioral and socioemotional problems, and are behind on their learning and developmental skills than their peers. "Some behavioral problems may include impulsiveness, difficulty getting along with peers, aggression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder" (American Psychological Association, 2015). Not only that, emotional problems can occur which leads to depression, anxiety, chronic stress, and having low self-esteem on themselves, which is a problem because "Chronic stress associated with living in poverty has been shown to adversely affect children’s concentration and memory which may impact their ability to learn." 

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Education in an early childhood setting is crucial because it's the core foundation in a child's life. Without education, children will not be able to have the cognitive and learning abilities to carry on in their lives, or be able to finish school along with their peers. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, the Virginia and Leonard Marx professor of child development and education, and is director of the Center for Young Children and Families at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Greg J. Duncan, a professor of education and social policy, and is a faculty associate at the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, stated that "Low income during the preschool and early school years exhibits the strongest correlation with low rates of high school completion, as compared with low income during the childhood and adolescent years. Poor-quality schooling, which is correlated with high neighborhood poverty, may exacerbate this effect." (The Effects of Poverty on Children, 1997, p. 14). Having the lack of access to quality ECE for low-income children, affects on how children are receiving the knowledge and resources to help them transition to higher education. Being homeless or having an unsafe environment are some of the examples on how children and families are not able to have the access to quality ECE or able to do well in school. For an example, being homeless leads to health problems, and not having a home or food affects a child's well-being which then affects how they act or interact in both the classroom and with other children. It's harder for them to interact with other children as they feel neglected and abused of being homeless or not having the same access as those who are not poor and are able to do well in school.

References:

American Psychological Association. (2015). "Poverty". Effects of Poverty, Hunger and Homelessness on Children and Youth. Retrieved from: http://www.apa.org/pi/families/poverty.aspx

Gunn-Brooks, J. and Duncan, J. G. (1997, Summer/Fall). The Effects of Poverty on Children. Retrieved from: https://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/docs/07_02_03.pdf

Poverty in Early Childhood Education

Early Childhood Education (ECE) is the solid foundation in a child’s life. It is how a child is able to gain learning, developmental, and thinking skills, and also be able to see different aspects of the world through different lens. However, poverty makes an impact on the children if their family is in poverty. “Social scientists have posited that education can make a significant and long-lasting difference on the lives of children who experience poverty” (Anna D. Johnson, n.d.). Children who are in poverty do not have access to quality ECE, which leads to lower scores in math and reading than children who are not in poverty. They also have a disadvantage and have a harder time catching up in class. Therefore, they are behind on their math and reading subjects and are struggling with them.

Shows the poverty gap between children with no ECE versus children with ECE. Picture taken from: http://www.slideshare.net/akudasov/fifiko-box-innovative-approach-to-early-childhood-education

Poverty affects children negatively. According to Laura Bornfreund, a deputy director of New America's Early Education Initiative, and Conor Williams, a senior researcher at New America's Early Education Initiative, stated, "But there's now growing research showing that growing up in poverty even affects children's development...This has real consequences for academics outcomes: the Department of Education's Early Childhood Longitudinal Study found that children from families below the federal poverty line scored over 10 percentage points lower (on average) on kindergarten math and readying entry assessments than their peers from families at or above 200 percent of the poverty line" (Early Childhood Education: Lots of Talk, but Not Much Action (Yet), 2014). This is crucial because grades preschool-third are the main foundation for early education. "The extensive body of developmental research suggests that school readiness is a key foundational element and indicator of later life success" (Johnson, n.d.). With poverty involved, these children will be having a difficult time adjusting and getting ready to move on to higher education due to the fact that they are behind in their learning skills, which will affect them later on in their future.

Even though there has been various talks on early childhood education, not much action have been taken place. Therefore, more and more children are falling into poverty and not having the access to quality ECE. "We've long known that students from low-income backgrounds face extraordinary--and unfair--educational challenges" (Bornfreund and Williams, 2014). As a result, "researchers have posited that the proportion of kindergartners who enter school without  basic literacy and numeracy skills could be substantially higher in poor and minority communities than that of children from middle-class backgrounds" (Johnson, n.d.). Children and parents who are in poverty struggle in school and end up having to face dropping out because they don't have the financial support to keep these children in school, causing the poverty gap to expand more than usual. "Moreover, because of unequal educational opportunities, failing public schools and the inability of many poor families to pay for a higher quality private education, children of poor and minority parents are more likely to struggle in school" (Johnson, n.d.). Having the lack of access to quality ECE, parents struggle with keeping their children and helping them with developing learning and developmental skills in school, which affects both the parents and children in an overwhelmingly negative way.

References:

Bornfreund, L. & Williams, C. (2014, January 30). Early Childhood Education: Lots of Talk, but Not Much Action (Yet). Retrieved from: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/01/early-childhood-education-lots-of-talk-but-not-much-action-yet/283448/

Johnson, D. A. (n.d.). The Effects of Early Education on Children in Poverty. Retrieved from: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/sie/journal/Volume_4/Johnson_Website%20Final.pdf