Solutions To Child Poverty In The United States
Every child in the United States should be able to reach their goals and dreams in life, whether they are born rich or poor. Education has always been the traditional pathway to success and a bright future, however low and middle class families have been and continue to meet a dead end in the road with the lack of opportunities that are available and/or attainable to their families. In the article, How to End the Child-Care Crisis, written by Shael Polakow-Suransky, he states that “families pay more for child care than for mortgages” which by no means is considered affordable (Polakow-Suransky 3). It is known that children’s brains are growing and developing intensively during their first few years, and making sure that they are in a high-quality education system, starting with early on child-care, can make all the difference in the world to how their futures will turn out.
One way to attack and/or eliminate this childhood poverty crisis is by investing in affordable but high-quality child care. Investing in preschools, infants and toddlers daycares, and home-visiting services for first-time parents will help struggling families obtain the childcare their children need in order to improve the future economic mobility of their children and soon enough, America’s as a whole. Another way to help get this under control is by increasing the pay of early-childhood educators. In Polakow’s article he mentions how 86% of toddler and infant teachers are making less than $15 dollars an hour which by no means would drive them to perform to the best of their abilities or attract high-quality and trained teachers in the first place (Polakow-Suransky 8). We also need public financing of advanced training for teachers in order to make sure they have a deep understanding of child development and how critical the first few years are to get them on the right track for when they attend a higher level education.
Lastly, I believe another way to combat this problem is by enhancing affordable housing choices and taking away systematic barriers so that middle and lower-class households are able to have access to quality but affordable housing in high-opportunity areas. The surroundings in which a child grows up in such as libraries, stores, and schools that are available in the area have a direct affect on the future jobs and potential earnings they may receive when they are older. This means that giving these low-income children access to high-opportunity neighborhoods with high-quality schools can greatly improve life outcomes and break these cycles of generational poverty.
