This article is particularly apposite, as the anniversary of the 1990 World Summit for Children - at the UN in New York City - is fast approaching on 30 September.
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/30/us/world-summit-for-children-world-s-leaders-gather-un-for-summit-meeting-children.html
This is some of the Declaration from it - https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/01/world/world-summit-for-children-excerpts-united-nations-declaration-children.html
This is one NYT reporter's reflection:
"At a World Summit for Children, the requisite prop for every world leader was a child. They were all given the opportunity to pose for cameras hand-in-hand with a tiny, winsome constituent from their own country.
President Bush kept his arm around the shoulders of 13-year-old Justin Lebo........"
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/01/world/world-summit-for-children-reporter-s-notebook-for-each-leader-there-was-child.html
At that Summit, world leaders agreed to put children first for resources. They eventually signed up for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, where Article 38(4) remains relevant:
"4. In accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect the civilian population in armed conflicts, States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are affected by an armed conflict."
Especially in Afghanistan. Upon reflection.
Mr. Edsall covered this indirectly in his op-ed two weeks ago.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/opinion/trump-white-voters.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
White voters have voted majority Republican in EVERY election since 1964. The main issue is they object to any social welfare programs for the poor. We already have a post in Times picks defending the mentality of the selfish.
Selfishness and racism are destroying our society.
3
Americans don't seem to care about other people's children.
5
Attend your local We the People March in your area Sept 21.This is an international move to let the world know about this administration's atrocities toward children, and other atrocities of this administration.
Stop posting for a day and SHOW UP. These are dangerous times.
3
Of course our children deserve better, but they won't receive better until the powers that be address the root of the problem, the main obstacle to families having the means to provide better. The root cause, the moose on the table is a taboo subject. It's not possible to solve a problem if you won't use logic and reason to discuss it.
Hacking at the leaves, the symptoms, will not serve. Yet, as Thoreau noted, at most one in a thousand pays attention to the root.
1
We are behind in Internet access, healthcare access, education, gun violence....so many things to count.
The Republicans don't care about poor children, they only care about how much money they can make. Trump thinks everyone can inherit "a small amount" of a million dollars.
3
Just wondering how Mr. Kristoff feels about former Mayor Bloomberg’s legacy of leaving the most segregated public school system in the country - in New York City! Further compounding the negligence and problem are charter schools. With the likes of Eva Moskowitz, founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, and the only person who benefited from its creation - her salary was half a million dollars - and no results, it’s it any wonder that “our children ‘is’ being left behind?”
1
"a 2-year-old Guatemalan boy had trouble staying silent" Do you mean that he was noisy and disruptive?
Of course the judge was out of line and should be reproved.
But I am bothered by the fact that you report the truth in a deliberately misleading way.
But if we do go down that path then instead of saying that some politician lied, we could say that she had trouble staying with the truth. Or even, "the US had trouble staying peaceful in its relations with Iraq". A killer could be "someone who had trouble respecting life".
Let us please have the truth, unvarnished? The boy probably was noisy and disruptive. The judge's reaction was out of line, but I suspect he had cause.
4
Trump rolling back every environmental law is brutal towards children and everyone. The pull-yourself-up-from-the-bootstraps people are just as likely to get cancer from pesticides as anyone. The conservatives are just as likely to get lead poisoning as anyone else.
First, enact laws and regulations that can make children (and society) as healthy as can be. If a few pesticide and gasoline CEO fat cats see their stocks rise, tough break ... and good.
My God, people, quit electing clowns like Trump.
1
Excellent article, thank you. Marianne Williamson is the only candidate recommending a cabinet level Department of Childhood and Youth.
https://www.marianne2020.com/posts/a-cabinet-level-department-of-childhood-and-youth
Ms. Williamson is a gifted communicator who has a firm grasp of history, politics and real solutions. I suggest everyone check out her website to listen to her speeches and read her platform. See what you think!
If the NYTimes and Mr Carranza have their way, we we will shut down G&T programs and we would have already shut down the SHSAT schools.
Then there's yesterday's by Paul Tough suggesting that colleges should not be about education but they should be about economic equality.
Please, let's hope that the Democrats don't come up any more "solutions" for improving schools. The Democrats ideas are already sure to decimate schools.
3
The statistics show that American children are NOT falling behind other countries as a whole, but that there is a binomial distribution of how they are doing. Children of parents who get married, finish high school, and wait until age 21 to have a child as a couple are doing just fine. It is the children of high school dropouts, who are born to unmarried children (or at least, not old enough to order a legal beer), that are failing. You can't fix stupid, but if our schools taught those three simple rules for life, instead of that there were 51 genders, we'd be a whole lot better off. Kamala, Pete, Amy, Beto, who dares to make the point?
4
Comparing the population of the US to that of Europe is like comparing Apples to Oranges. European countries are filled with....Europeans, ie. white people. The US isn't. So in effect what these studies are doing are comparing black kids in America to white kids in Europe. This cross ethnic comparison can't be made. Perhaps the studies should have compared the kids in the US to the performance of kids in Europe by ethnicity.
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I don't know why we haven't taken proper care of our children in the past but I can tell you one reason we don't now:
We live in a me-first and often me-only world. Everyone's a victim of SOMETHING - racism, homophobia, misogyny, sexism, ageism, white privilege, white males, hurtful words, micro-aggressions, drug companies, quotas, the government, cops, China, BAKERIES!! I could go on.
Many of those issues are legitimate problems but when so many spend so much time hyper-focused on their status as victims, who has time to take care of the kids?? Focusing on oneself is so much more satisfying!
2
Marianne Williamson has been advocating for a change in governmental policies toward children and offering plans to address this issue, among many others, from the start of her campaign.
https://www.marianne2020.com/issues/plan-for-a-u-s-department-of-children-and-youth
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One can only hope that shaming USA...as this column does...will at least generate a couple of questions from debate moderators. But I won't hold my breath.
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You want unbridled capitalism with corporations directing public policy, this is what you get.
3
As the long as the U.S. keeps importing masses of impoverished people from countries with bad statistics, our statistics will look bad also.
5
Half a million American kids suffer lead poisoning each year and the youth suicide rate is at its highest ever. Says it all really. Teaching critical thinking in schools and looking inwards and being critical of your own nations lack of government policies to change these STATISTICS is one small step forward.
2
Why is he called a Guatemalan boy and not a USA boy? Maybe the Immigration laws are there for a reason. If you don't speak English then how can you go to school and learn. Lots of their parents fled their own nations and once in their new nation don't speak English in the home, so the kids are disadvantaged when they go to school. Also, if a child can't speak or write English when they start school that disadvantages the rest of the class. Do these children start school in rich neighbourhoods; I think not so the rich have an advantage over the poor as all the kids read and write English.
Maybe these subjects should be taught at pre school day care centres if the parents fail to do their job and teach their kids the ABC's before they start school and the parents don't speak English in the home.
2
Marianne Williamson has been advocating for a change in governmental policies toward children and offering plans to address this issue, among many others, from the start of her campaign.
https://www.marianne2020.com/issues/plan-for-a-u-s-department-of-children-and-youth
Thank you Mr. Kristof for your advocacy on behalf of children.
1
America's children,American Parents,and America in general..are all falling behind many other nations esp. our Allies !!
1
Really Trump and the GOP only care if you are the unborn and if your child can be molded to vote Republican. In the meantime your child will have to survive dirty air and water, carbohydrate loaded lunches, rickety roads for buses and schools that DeVos hasn’t defunded for her Charter schools and childhood diseases that will be booming because of the lack of healthcare. Don’t forget with the ever expanding national debt there really isn’t much hope for them in their retirement years either. Wake up America...look and see what the GOP is doing to your families.
2
America, the richest nation in the world, is bursting with poor people. The rich don't really care about the poor in America and few of them are really Christian. Christ would vote for Elizabeth Warren and push trump' money lending tables over. Until we help the poor in America, we will be cursed for future generations, just as we are now with the txic legacy of slavery.
3
We need a Nobel Laureate to tell us that, yes, treating children like throwaways costs society in the longer run. (A lot.) Really?
We just keep getting more and more pathetic. Kristof, too, has crossed the shamelessness boundary. Banal, fatuous statements passing as news or wisdom or both.
We just keep getting more and more pathetic.
This has been true for over three decades. Why write an article now. It took 40 years to get to this point. Do we think writing an op ed now will fix this problem?
1
China graduates 4 times as many STEM graduates per person as the US does -- not including the fact that >30% of our STEM graduates are from China. Even self-interested capitalists recognize this as a self-defeating strategy.
The problem is not the value, but the weak feedback: education won't deliver the votes that race or taxes will, not least because kids don't vote.
The whole point of *representative* democracy is for the *representatives* to be able to take the long view, while they satisfy short-term needs. If we owe any allegiance to parties, it should be because they manage this balance.
This is why the Republicans and Putin getting people to distrust those is charge is so evil; it restricts governance to servicing immediate political winds.
We need candidates and parties that are reliable in the long term, so they can continuously cultivate long-term interests (including climate and peace with allies).
1
Our nation is falling behind other countries. Our health care, housing, child care, education, pensions, life expectancy, maternal and infant mortality; our vulnerability to epidemic gun violence and drug addiction... you name it, and quality of life for the vast majority of Americans is on the decline and already far behind virtually all other ‘advanced nations.’ Yet our military budget and expenditures on military adventures around the globe, from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and beyond, dwarfs that of all other nations on the planet.
We have the resources to make this a great egalitarian nation, to provide opportunity for all Americans. Instead we have squandered our wealth and human capital; and we have implemented public policies that enrich the few to the detriment of the many.
It need not be this way. But it is and will remain so, as long as the American right maintains its stranglehold on our politics, our electoral process and our government.
Simple as that.
2
The reason children "never get mentioned in presidential debates" is because the media hosts are too busy competing with the candidates. Too often I witnessed a candidate just beginning to get into his or her answer and they would be brusquely and peremptorily cut off. The central preoccupation of the questioners' was to stage their authority, as they battled with the candidates for their star turn.
Kristof's approach is very flabbly. No one is particularly interested in the subject of kids because the children who "count" (I am being sarcastic)--the children who are going to shake and bake--are doing just fine.
The US still remains a powerful draw for international students, although more and more of them are opting for Europe, Canada, or Australia, mostly because of cost. I infer that it is also easier to get into some professional programs (medicine) in Ireland and Scotland that in North America.
This is the way it has always been, which is not to defend the status quo, but simply to note that there are many more children to support today than in 1950, when the US population was less than half what it is today.
Inattention to kids--nutrition, health care, education, environmental pollution--is very expensive, but people generally are uninvested in issues that do not affect their own children and because they assume affected kids are not going to amount to much anyway.
Just ask Baron, Malia, and Sasha if they are struggling.
The problem is not lack of interest by the candidates. After all, Hillary Clinton had been working on child poverty, healthcare and education for much of her adult life.
The problem is lack of interest on the part of the media, which, for example, asked Clinton a year and a half of the same email questions over and over again, but does anyone remember a reporter ever asking Clinton about childhood poverty?
2
I wonder what the states look like if you flush out the data from Red States. These so called Trump MAGA states lead in every negative social metric. We send the billions in tax money every year and they still humiliate the nation in their complete indifference to peoples social well being. Blue States should ask why are we wasting out money. Good money thrown at badly administered GOP states. We need new laws in any given year no state can receive more than 110 percent of the money they send to Washington. These states refuse to raise state taxes instead they live off the federal largess.
@GUANNA
Blue State residents who support welfare in general but are are tired of subsidizing Red States should start sending Libertarians to DC and Socialists to their state Capitals.
We are falling behind due to a multiplicity of factors: poverty, lack of family cohesion, underpaid teachers, laziness, cell phones, drugs, classroom disruptions, no homework, no consequences. Ours is a country in decline.
1
Which of our children are dying at higher rates than the rest of the developed world?
I'll bet it isn't all of our children equally. In that, you'll find the answer to why it is happening.
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Let's continue Kristof's account of the U.K. After the Labour governments under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the Conservatives took power, introducing severe austerity with the fool's goal of balancing the national budget while cutting business taxation, and the result has been a steady increase in poverty, sleeping on streets, etc., and the anger that fueled the vote for Brexit.
1
The fact that Kristoff starts the column by talking about an illegal immigrant is telling. Public school systems are drowning under a deluge of illiterate ESL kids brought into the country illegally by their parents, or popped out as anchor babies. Of course real Americans quickly realize that the school system's resources are not being spent on their kids, but rather on kids who shouldn't even be in the country in the first place. Send those kids, and their parents back where they belong, and there will be many improvements. The school systems will have money for extra-curriculars, low-end wages will rise and Americans without college educations can find steady employment.
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@KM
Exactly.
1
Worth noting: All of the Dem candidates have fully fleshed-out plans for improving college (surely it's just a coincidence that they also rely on the VOTES of college-aged young people). But none have very specific plans for improving preK-12 outside of "spend more money."
We have plenty of models we could emulate for better education outcomes, but all would require alienating teachers unions, who are big donors to Dem candidates and who are happy with our 19th-century education model.
Here's hoping that whichever Dem takes the White House has the will to make the tough decision necessary to improve the pathetic state of our education system.
All part of the Republican plan. If you are not top quintile economically in America, or top decile intellectually, the Republicans in power have no use for you. People don’t value what they think they don’t need.
They even use machines to load the sixteen tons.
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Our children do deserve better. From 1900 until about the 1970s, at least in California, they were receiving better. Up until the 70s, one salary could support a family of five, summer camps and other constructive activities, a decent home, university education, health care, and planning for retirement.
So far as I can see, there is no politically acceptable solution to providing better than we were in the 70s. Schools can't solve the problem. By the time a child enters kindergarten, the child's brain is pretty much set. If both parents are working, and caring grandparents aren't present, there is no one to provide the child with the loving play and guidance needed for successful development of that brain. The state can't do that. "It takes a village . . . " is applesauce. The article does not in the slightest provide encouragement that we will, in fact, do better by our children.
Unless and until we choose good leaders in congress we are not on a good path. And until the people adopt logic and reason, an ability to connect cause and effect, the quality of congress will not improve.
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"They’re falling behind other countries’ kids. Do the presidential candidates care?"
Our children falling behind other countries’ kids in education is not new. And, in all fairness, it should not be blamed on Donald Trump or Betsy DeVos, his secretary of education. The fact is, save for US top universities, the US education system has done a mediocre - if not outright poor - job educating our children for almost half a century.
What has compensated for the US poor educational system and kept the US economy buoyant has been emigration. In the last 50 years, there has been an interrupted influx of highly talented young students, from every country in the world, into top US universities. The majority of these students, after finishing their education, have stayed in the US and been absorbed by large US companies. A good many of them have taken up teaching, providing new blood for their Alma mater.
Now, with Mr. Trump's new immigration policy in place, combined with his open support for racist, far-right, white nationalist groups, one could expect the flow of young talents into US universities reduce to a trickle. In contrast, top universities in other countries are envisaged to have a bigger share of the pool of young talents.
This September that reality could be seen readily on many Canadian university campuses. Graduate classes in all major universities - University of Toronto, McGill University, and University of British Columbia - are all full this year.
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@Eddie B. And these students and other newcomers are GREAT!
1
I always baffled by arguments about "child poverty". Is this a more comfortable topic than adult poverty? Or is it because if adults are poor, it's "their own fault"? Let's talk about family poverty.
Not only are American children falling behind. Most maternal and child health outcomes are below the standard of other well to do countries.
3
We'll be spending so many of our resources and so much of our time wading out of polluted waterways and filtering poisoned air, we won't have much breath left to deal with issues like poverty. Education won't be the great equalizer because it will be achieved only by happenstance. What did Trump say? Make America Grovel Again?
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The children of this country started falling behind other countries long enough ago that they've grown up into unenlightened adults. We go through the trappings of education without hitting at the heart of what education should be: learning how to think. Instead, we have a nation populated by huge numbers of sheep who have been trained to follow the loudest voice, regardless of the content of the message. Instead of making rational decisions based on logic, as a country we make our decisions based on our emotions. This takes "getting in touch with our inner selves" too far. Whatever happened to teaching critical thinking? It's never too early to start teaching kids to use their brains to thing things through. People who take the time to think about consequences are castigated as being members of the "elite". And, the number of those people in our general population is shrinking as rapidly as the ice in Greenland.
3
The American left has weaponized, (under the guise of fairness and equality) excellence and achievement. A gifted mind particularly that belongs to a white male is portrayed as corrupt, an example of a "rigged system". One need not look further than NYC with its absent inept mayor, who wishes to eradicate testing for the best city schools, so that we have greater "diversity". I find this soft decree that minority kids need a constructed advantage to compete to be an incredibly racist ideology. Between race, and gender, we have become a country in love with perceived victimization. All this while other wealthy countries send their smartest kids to the best schools to learn and compete. American schools are breeding grounds for lawsuits and victimization claims. Other countries simply do not go along with this nonsense. Free market, free mind, free expression of opinion, all in peril because of a radical progressive movement. The culture of persecution and personal destruction of our fellow citizens didn't come from the suspects we all along thought it would, the far right. If we don't change course, we'll certainly have four more dreary years of Trump, but as much as I don't like him, he didn't invent the predicament we are in, in fact he railed against much of it.
9
Would Andrew Yang’s freedom dividend not address this in part?
1
Does it really matter that our country's kid are falling behind other countries' kids when we're poisoning their environment anyway?
2
This is not a political, government or public funding issue. THIS IS A PARENT ISSUE.
If you cannot afford to take care of your children, providing them with a safe and clean environment, food, clothes and resources for other things like healthcare and some entertainment, then you should not have children. Being a parent requires great responsibility and the ability to care for children as well as for yourself. If you have kids without having your life or your "house" in order, you are to blame for their neglected or abused state. At what point do we as a society start talking about taking personal responsibility for our own lives and own families?
But no politician, at least not on the left, wants to talk about this because it's not a problem that government can fix. What I'd like to see are national, state and community leaders talking about how to educate our citizen potential parents to get their lives in order before having children or to not have them.
7
@Andio I agree with you totally. This starts with proper and equal access to quality education, to include civic education, home economics, and other survival skills. AND sex education, and access to reversible permanent birth control. I am not above having all young women being required to submit to reversible birth control and having them apply to have a license when and if they demonstrate that they can provide for children. PS I am a leftie.
Great, let’s ignore the needs of America’s children, a large percentage of whom live in poverty! That will teach all those children too feckless to choose to be born to caring parents from the right race and social class! Let them starve! As precious as pre-born children are to the Republicans, a child’s worth and right to a decent life falls precipitously after birth!
This typical Republican response that advocates cursing darkness rather than lighting candles even when, in the long run, it would pay to intervene to aid these helpless children infuriates me. Didn’t you read the article? Investing in America’s children by giving the adequate health care, food, and education might truly help to Make America Great! (Or certainly have a better chance of doing so than cutting taxes for heartless corporations that managed to take all that money without creating any jobs or raising the pay of average workers. Or giving more money to the undeserving wealthy who got to add more zeros to their total net worth figures as a reward for what?? Already being wealthy, I guess. Or degrading the environment to the point that human life on earth may shortly become impossible!)
Americans wouldn’t want to inadvertently help a child when we can punish their parents or lock said ill advised children in cages. I give up on the logic that guides arguments like this!
2
@Andio
Goodness, Andio, where have you been all these years?
Not reading the NYTimes, that's for sure!
"If you cannot....(a list follows).... then you should not have children."
Now, does that mean that you support Planned Parenthood? The right of the woman to CHOOSE? That you are a-ok with birth control and abortion?
No?
Then what do you mean by "if you cannot"?
When the Government dictates that a woman will be force-bred, over and over, with no choice, then there is no "list" of healthy parenting to follow.
And, as for that "safe and clean environment", well, THAT went out the window long ago and Trump slammed that window shut with a bang earlier today.
No. I haven't a clue what you are going on about.
Well, except for bashing the "left".
That I got.
You continue living in your simple and simple-minded world.
You have plenty of company.
2
Sadly, this nation is far too culturally short-sighted to willingly make investments towards our nations poor or even middle class..."What, me pay taxes to benefit someone else??"
4
Important issue not well framed for resolution. It were better to identify all the issues up front, identify the stakeholders, and in a top down hierarchical manner.
Starting with an anecdote about a Guatemalan boy under the title starting "Our Children . . . " signals a political agenda rather than an agenda to truly resolve an issue.
4
I'm sorry, Mr. Kristof. Child poverty is not a thing.
Children can't (at least not so far in this miserable country) work and have only their parents' status to determine their own. Children don't live in poverty unless parents (or parent) live in poverty.
And that is a direct result of systemic racism, the erosion of our social contract and the unconscionable isolation of families in uninhabitable creases in our mean-spirited nation.
Focusing on "child poverty" is an (understandable) observation of the effects of these things without paying attention to the causes.
2
I can never shake my belief that the first step in solving ALL the world's problems is the birth and life of each child being born as IDEALLY PLANNED, but definitely wanted, adored, and nurtured by parents of enough maturity and means to raise a productive, contributing adult...hence my disgust with the hypocrisy of the GOP valuing "life", by not supporting Planned Parenthood nor funding the educational, health care. and all of our democratic and civicl needs, for the best possible well-being of each, eventual adult and our country!
11
I'm going to disagree with the general tenor of the comments on this column. While I have no disagreement with Mr. Kristof's conclusions, I am offended that he uses the case of the cruel (and probably racist) judge as his intro. This is just using the abuse of this child as a prop for Mr. Kristof's discussion of the broad issue of child poverty.
This case calls for unrestrained outrage. The cruel and racist judge should be shunned by all decent people. Attorneys should refuse to have cases under him, court staff should refuse to work for him. Restaurants should refuse to serve him. And so on.
Go read the linked story about the monster Crouch in Mother Jones. This guy has been PROMOTED by the Trump Administration.
Kristof merely just uses this outrageous case as fodder for his typically thoughtful but ultimately ineffectual calls to action.
1
@Don Goldberg
Actually, I saw it as an abuse of power and think that creep should be in jail.... where the other prisoners can shun him. The man MUST be dragged off the bench.
He reminds me of the case in this paper last week where a little girl had spilled her soup on the filthy floor.
The guard at her particular concentration camp told her, "Lap it up because you're not getting any more food until it is cleaned up."
These 2 men are mentally ill, not fit to serve, but because they are "serving" then they need jail time.
How long for abusing these children?
I'd say, five years. Depraved indifference. Abuse of power. Child abuse. Yeah, five years works for me.... with no early parole.
1
Such an important point! I believe Warren has mentioned universal pre-school, but that's only part of the problem. Supporting parents and younger children is important to raising a new generation of Americans whose stability, creativity, compassion and intelligence can help us solve the many problems facing us.
But I agree with commenter Larry Roth. The questions at the Democratic debates so far have not been helpful and have seemed geared toward the theater of creating squabbles rather than inspiring Americans and covering more issues than just the details of health care proposals.
The single most important thing that can be done for children is to put more money in their parents' pockets. School quality and kids' achievement, lower crime rates, stable families, and better health all correlate directly with income. People who aren't working three marginal jobs with erratic schedules, worrying constantly about where the money to handle a minor setback will come from, or neglecting their own health because they can't afford the co-pays, can devote more time and attention to their children.
Sure, there are some whose mental health issues or substance abuse problems will make them unable to parent no matter how much money they have. But for the rest, the majority who are trying and doing the best they can, raising their wages will improve their children's lives. Start with a $15 minimum, and work from there to enact laws that will reverse the wage stagnation most of the country has suffered since the 70's. You can't help the children very much without helping the parents first. It's that simple.
1
@Nikki
Canada's child benefit is roughly 6,000 for under 5's and 5,000 for 6-17's each per year. In my day we used to call it the "Baby Bonus" and it was considerably less, in effect, a "bonus" for having kids. For the past couple of decades various governments have seen it also as a vehicle for raising the incomes of the less affluent amongst us.
My province instituted 4yo prekindergarten this year as well. It is all in an effort to enable the less financially fortunate families to succeed. They too are citizens and deserve every opportunity to ensure their well-being. While these programs are expensive, it is felt that the alternative carries more long-term adverse effects to both individuals, families and society at large.
Most feel it is to our best interests to do so, on virtually every level.
Yeah, well Heckman only has a Nobel Prize. What does he know?
Obviously I am kidding.
Mr. Kristof is one of the few people talking about this. Sure a lot of ink is spilled on the micro level: what foods your kid should eat, how to deal with temper tantrums in public, whether children are getting enough sleep, etc
But...
Little time is spent at the macro level on how we are doing as a nation.
If you include two additional considerations in the macro evaluation, it is clear that the performance of American adults in the treatment of their children is not just "falling behind" but is more accurately described as "systematic sabotage."
The two considerations:
(1) Climate change.
(2) The National Debt.
Climate change will leave a whole host of complex challenges like drought, super-storms, water shortages, food shortages, forced migration, disease, and many others we cannot foresee.
The national debt is spiraling out of control. And while Obama and Clinton made efforts to turn the tide, Bush 2 and Trump gave out enormous tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations (ignoring children) again exploding the debt. The children who gained little if anything from those tax cuts will be stuck paying the bill.
Why do children get such poor treatment?
Money talks and Moscow Mitch listens. Under the Citizen's United decision, money is political speech and so corporations and the wealthy are screaming. Children are silent.
5
People will throw money at schools for everything BUT the teachers. Why not help children by improving their education with vastly improved teachers’ salaries, which would result in a much more competitive field of educators?
But America doesn’t want that.
6
We need to teach children early in schools the necessity of good money management so that when they get their first paycheck they understand the danger of using excess credit to live an unsustainable lifestyle that traps them in endless debt. So many become slaves of loans, headed to bankruptcy and ruin. And also the dangers of marrying a partner who, like Rod Stewart's father warned him in "Every Picture Tells a Story" (male or female in today's world as both work) ... But remember one thing, don't lose your head
To a woman (man) that'll spend your bread.
1
Oh, Baby Boomers.
Your children have deserved better since the very day that you had them. Why else would we be so obnoxious?
I’ve had enough conversations with my grandparents, prior to their death, so as to leave me with no illusions whatsoever regarding how much was squandered by their own children, with little consideration beyond instant gratification.
And now you want to start to care? How touching.
2
I'm surprised that Mr. Kristof does not mention expansion of charter schools that have led to a huge improvement in the educational outcomes for poor children of color. Progressives like NYC Mayor De Blasio have consistently opposed these schools although they are hugely popular with minority parents. I say put children's interests first, not the teachers unions.
1
Equality has nothing to do with reality. It never has and never will. It is one of the first of nature’s laws that children learn.
2
Many people believe that dollars spent on social programs focused on children's welfare and health are a net cost to the economy. Mr. Kristof illustrates how such spending is really an investment that saves much more than the amounts spent by reducing costs elsewhere. The same is true for spending on mental health and the promotion of healthy lifestyle choices in general. Perhaps more focus on encouraging the voting population to understand true costs and benefits would lead to the election of candidates who will truly make America stronger and healthier. America would also return to the path of becoming smarter, kinder and more optimistic about the future.
What we need to save America is a nurture agenda. All our social problems are fueled by child mistreatment and mal-attachment. Problems that used to affect mostly the poor have migrated into affluent populations today, as the routines of early childhood have morphed, and kids receive less attention and connection.
Look in a mirror Mr. Kristof.
Who comes up with questions for the debates? Who bothers to look beyond what can fit in a soundbite from a press conference or an interview? Who wades through position papers and website links?
The media is failing - not the candidates.
37
@Larry Roth After a debate "question" required candidates to raise their hands rather than offer a meaningful response to an issue, I gave up. No more debate watching. I'll hope they have a chance to present their views and goals in another forum.
5
@Larry Roth
It's funny-peculiar to see you attacking the very media person who is complaining about the absence of the poverty question.
3
@Larry Roth How familiar are you with Mr Kristof's work over the past decade?
4
Are the children falling behind because of a lack of government action or due to a lack of parental guidance and responsibility? It is horrible that so many children are falling behind, but if that is due to cultural disadvantages, then throwing government (our) money at it will not solve the problem. Cultures that support tight knit families, education, responsible behavior, work and savings will do better than cultures that acquise to single motherhood, absent fathers, and lack of education. All ethnicities and races that embrace the former cultural attributes have children that do well, while those who embrace the latter do poorly and will continue to do poorly no matter how much government action is taken. Our current push for multiculturalism and diversity does not promote the cultures that do the best in taking care of their children.
33
@Dr B . So you want parents to step up and raise their kids better. Yeah, we've been waiting for that to happen since the 1960's. The fact of the matter is that single motherhood, absent fathers and lack of education is the norm for poor families in this country. And let's be clear about something, most of these people are white, not the black inner city ghetto mom that's been made infamous by Reagan. Yes, they exist too, because the Republican Party needs a "whipping boy". I was born in 1960 and worked in various summer programs in the late 70' & 80's that were designed to help the less fortunate, in this case mostly people of color. It was clear, back then, to my teenage eyes that Head Start was a great program. But of course, it was gutted as time went on.
It's great when a 2 parent household can raise their children by reading nightly to them from toddlerhood on up. But with the economy demanding not just 2 incomes in a family but maybe 3 jobs between them to make ends meet, how does that effect the "perfect parent" household? It flushes it down the toilet.
The perfect world you say should raise children, no matter the economic standing of a family, doesn't exist.
So what if the government can help deprived kids better themselves because their parents weren't available or able to do so themselves. Is that such a horrible thing if all of society is improved by these programs. I say no, right now we need that help to help us all. When all boats rise we are all better off.
34
@Dr B
I see, no wonder child poverty has risen among white children. Just look at their role models: Wall Street execs, Trump, etc.
22
What cultures are you talking about? Poverty has many unsavory effects. It’s difficult to stay together when there isn’t enough money, when you can’t get a living wage job.
24
Outrage, over how judge V. Stuart Couch treated a toddler in an immigration hearing, is too mild a term to describe my anger. But I only have to remind myself that Couch's cruelty is consistent with Republican values: imprisoning children in overcrowded filthy conditions, separating children from their parents without a plan to ever reunite them, caging children.
This is the face of an America, made "great" by Donald Trump and the people who support him. Forget adding "again" to the MAGAts' chant, because America with all its failings and blemishes was never so cruel and inhospitable to immigrants as it is under Trump. And that is exactly what Republicans wanted. Congratulations on getting your hostility to others out in the open.
The general disregard for the welfare of all children in America is a direct result of decades of Republican policy. They don't want to spend a dime of taxpayer money on the health, care or education of children. That same disdain for children is reflected in their contempt for working class people. They don't care that parents work two or more jobs just to survive.
If it were not for Democrats, Republicans would have long ago privatized or ended Social Security, Medicare and public schools. It goes without saying that Republicans have never found value in any safety net program. They believe such programs are for moochers and takers.
Republicans are born lacking empathy. You can't learn their cruelty and heartlessness.
130
@JABarry — Let's not forget the Republican party is the party of the god fearing Christians, many who believe that if you have money you have been chosen by god to rule.
20
I completely agree with you Mr. Kristof, but I think the attention needs to be diverted to the local/municipal level. Case in point: the Oakland Unified School District in California was openly rebuked in the 2018-2019 Alameda County Grand Jury Final Report. During the 2017-2018 fiscal year, the district spent about 95 MILLION more on non-classroom costs, including (but exclusive to) admin staff, uncompetitive contracts, consulting services, etc. More than 20 witnesses testified before the grand jury criticizing OUSD for failing to follow its own policies on responsible bond expenditures, conducting uncompetitive contract bidding processes, and making self-serving decisions. Ironically, the report reflects some of the concerns during the 7-day teacher strike this past February. Union officials admonished the district's spending habits and pushed that they could pay teachers more, reduce class sizes, and spend less on "administration."
The report can be found online, and its on pages 33-54. I notice that nowhere does it say that private schools, charter schools, lack of funding, and urban flight are the root causes from OUSD's dysfunction. This report was laser focused on what they found to be the problem. I also do not think that this issue is exclusive to Oakland. Arguably, it could be said for MANY school districts across the country.
4
Anna Quindlan once wrote that Americans are in love with the idea of children, but not with the reality of them. And as long as Americans continue to see child poverty, early education, childcare, etc., as women's issues, the decline will continue.
217
@LHH,
It begins with the protection of 'Women's Rights', which are being trampled on by this administration. One hundred years ago women were fighting to vote, and some were thrown into jail. Presidential candidates to come in on the above, and make good on their promise.
Mr. Kristof, this reader of yours is wondering about an update of the Children-in-Limbo at our Border.
19
Some 37 million American adults are functionally illiterate, but many more behave as though they are completely ignorant of the huge disparities between the quality of their lives and that of ordinary people in the 36 countries in which children also fare better. One doesn't need to travel anywhere but the public library to learn how well citizens elsewhere are living, but they seem only to focus on what poorer people here, or those seeking asylum, might take *from* them. People have learned to live sub-par lives filled with bad food, noise, pollution and stress, and most seem to accept it, as long as others are suffering too. Our society could be doing so much better in every single facet of life if only more of us were curious about life in other countries and demanded the same high standards for all Americans. Pretending that we are Number One in anything but gun carnage is deliberate self-delusion, and the wasted potential of each successive generation is the result.
267
@Kathy-Yes, of course, there is the library waiting for anyone who can read more than at tweet level. But given that the reading level is now set by The One Who Tweets, expecting anyone to visit the library is to be unjustifiably optimistic.
If you read 100s of comments every day, you will see that one standard type consists of ex-pat reports like one I have already filed here (not yet in print) and the 2d I am about to submit.
Each of us expats, especially if we can use the language of our present country of residence, has been awakened by living in that country. Before we moved to Sweden for good in 1996 I thought I knew a lot about America and even Sweden. Only by living here for all these years and reading the Times every day and visiting USA for one month each year did I learn how little I knew about the USA.
Now I know more than is healthy.
Thanks for the good comment.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
54
@Larry Lundgren Thank you. Though I am not an expat, I can see and I can speak and listen. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Germany, my husband is from there. While visiting there we would also visit other countries. It's obvious to me that the average European lives much better than the average American; it's been obvious to me since 1978 when I made my first visit abroad.
36
@Larry Lundgren Thank you, Larry. I look for your comments, and value your perspective and compassion a great deal.
13
I'm convinced that adults are the biggest obstacle to a decent life that most children face. We don't respect them, we make them pay for the sins of their parents, and we increasingly are horrible models of basic human decency.
45
Yes, we need to talk about childhood poverty. A child cannot learn if they are hungry.
I work at a Title One elementary school where 75 percent of students receive free lunches and everyone gets a free breakfast. I'd like school lunches and school breakfasts to be improved. Less sugar. Less white bread. More fruits and veggies. More nutrient-dense food like nuts and whole grains.
And schools should not be allowed to raise money off of selling chips and cookies to the students. If a child is hungry after they finish their lunch, give them another apple or bag of nuts. Coke and Pepsi are paying school districts to place their products in the district's cafeterias. Coke and Pepsi want life-long customers so they want to hook them while young. This practice needs to end.
340
@the quiet one
What article were you commenting on? Certainly not this one, which is about the abuse of immigrant children by immigration courts.
@the quiet one
75% of students have parents can't even pack their kids a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch?
5
@M I was a teacher, low income. My children qualified for free lunch, but would not take it because they were embarrassed. They also would not take a lunch of PBJ, because they said it identified them as "the poor kids". They went through high school without lunch. I couldn't afford the cost of the school lunches.
8
Is Nicholas serious? He's waiting for chlorpyrifos to be used in the White House to handle cockroaches? Quite possibly plenty of this toxin has already been used there, especially in Trump's bedroom. Just look at his insane behavior- talk about brain damage. Wake up Nicholas!
Even Trump seems to put his own kid on the back burner...
https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2019/sep/12/shes-got-a-son-trump-seems-to-forget-he-has-a-son-with-melania-video
1
From the favorite readings of Judge V. Stuart Couch:
Speak Roughly to Your Little Boy—Lewis Carroll
And with that she began nursing her child again, singing a sort of lullaby to it as she did so, and giving it a violent shake at the end of every line:
“Speak roughly to your little boy,
And beat him when he sneezes;
He only does it to annoy,
Because he knows it teases."
CHORUS
(in which the cook and the baby joined): -- --
"Wow! wow! wow!"
While the Duchess sang the second verse of
the song, she kept tossing the baby violently up
and down, and the poor little thing howled so,
that Alice could hardly hear the words: -- --
"I speak severely to my boy,
I beat him when he sneezes;
For he can thoroughly enjoy
The pepper when he pleases!"
CHORUS
"Wow! wow! wow!"
How is this jerk still on the bench?
1
I agree completely with Mr. Kristof and have wondered continuously why politicians are not talking about child poverty in the US. They discuss so many relatively unimportant subjects instead of child poverty. I find it disgusting , discouraging and totally incomprehensible. I am an early childhood educator and It is a known fact that getting off to a good start in life contributes to a successful future.We would have less violence, less homelessness, more productive citizens etc etc. Imagine if all the presidential campaign money was spent on reducing child poverty!!!
50
@KW et al: Marianne Williamson has been advocating for a change in governmental policies toward children and offering plans to address this issue, among many others, from the start of her campaign.
https://www.marianne2020.com/issues/plan-for-a-u-s-department-of-children-and-youth
3
@KW There are more issues then that. Our Education system is terrible. After traveling the world for the past year to find the right schools for my kids I came to find out that the system in the US is on of the worst. The children are behind and sadly so depending on what state you live in. I have 6th graders in one state doing 2nd grade work because they tested badly. So they lower the test scores. I wont even bring up that debacle of no child left behind that destroyed an entire generation.
3
@Zelendel
Thanks for saying it, you're right on all counts. But every American thinks their school system is one that is successful.
I don't what is more depressing...the contents of the piece or the fact that, as of this comment, there are only 55 others.
2
It seems awfully funny to me that the Religious Conservatives, Congress, Supreme Court, etc are always worried about the fetus, but not about the child. Lead poisoning, overuse of pesticides, glycosides, GMO's to let either more poison onto the plants (water, earth, animals, etc) are okay to disrupt the Brain of a child, but there are laws against birth control and abortions. Seems twisted to me.
3
@Joyce Benkarski Children are fodder for The War Machine.
3
The most simple answer to most if not all of the problems facing the USA, such as why was the Flint water poisoned, or why did we invade Iraq, or why did my hospital procedure bankrupt us, is this: the USA is not a good country. Not by western standards. For some intractable reason America has gone off the rails and is heading towards a very scary future.
Your kids? Man made global warming will ensure that their life will be far less rich and fulfilling than the previous generation.
3
A voice crying in the wilderness, Nicholas!
American voters, and the politicians they elect, have their priorities. It's not about people, certainly not children. That $100 billion you mention for child allowances could buy us yet another aircraft carrier, replete with overly-sophisticated fighter jets. It could fund a nostalgic rerun of the moon landing from a half a century ago. It could finance a new arms race for the weapons needed for limited nuclear wars.
Why are voters and politicians so preoccupied with the mechanisms of governance, military superiority, and the affairs of other nations, yet so ignorant and neglectful of the founding principles of our nation and government?
Read again the "Preamble to the Constitution", which defines a social democracy quite unlike past and present American governments. Why is there such a disconnect between social needs and government policy?
2
"...cut child poverty in half in the United States at a cost of about $100 billion a year."
Take it out of the Department of Defense budget.
3
Children don't vote. So they don't mater (except to kiss-up to their voting parents/guardians.
Too many adults would say what Couch said to that Guatemalan boy if they had the opportunity and there was no repercussions (as Couch thought there wouldn't be).
The $100 billion would go to all the wrong people: poor kids and their families, many with dark skin; educators, counselors, health care providers, and others who trend progressive; government employees who see their roles as doing good for people and society, and who might be in unions. And it has all the wrong effects: producing an educated population that might not be ignorant enough to believe what they hear on Fox "News" or from Republicans about the climate change China hoax, immigrant rapist terrorist MS-13 murderers, and fake news like Russian meddling or weather maps. Meanwhile that $800 billion is money well spent or not produced: for-profit prisons and a robust population of troubled youths and poorly educated adults to fill them and to do what Fox says when they get out; continued widespread poverty to keep those just one illness or unexpected economic stress above it from complaining about or leaving their jobs at or near the never-rising minimum wage; Dow and other unregulated polluters, gun manufacturers and the NRA, and the barely taxed wealthy to continue their generous donations to Republican campaigns. In other words, there's a system here, and everything is working just fine. A bunch of poor, damaged kids and families are not a bug but a necessary feature, essential for maintaining things just as they are, now and for the next generation.
If we gave our children 2 happily married parents, most of society's problems would go away. It's the elephant in the room that nobody will talk about, as though it's too preposterous to even hope for.
8
“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” - Mahatma Ghandi
The Grand One Percent party just handed over more than a trillion dollars to the nation's billionaires, millionaires and wealthy corporations via the latest radical right Republican tax cut.
They didn't need the money.
Meanwhile the poorest suffer as infrastructure, healthcare and public education go underfunded.
Taxes are the cost of a decent civilization...and they need to be increased, particularly on the wealthy, tax-evading class.
Greed Over People is a terribly, destructive American pathology.
Don't let your children grow up to be Republicans.
November 3, 2020.
Vote for progressive public policy that treats American society with humanity....not greed.
4
Comments to the effect that some people ought not to have children because of their inability to raise them well makes my skin crawl. I detect the sulfurous whiff of social Darwinism & eugenics that is disturbingly undemocratic and inhumane.
In the limit case, why not go all-in on dystopias such as Orwell's _1984,_ Huxley's _Brave New World_ and Niven's _Known Space_ series of short-stories and novels.
Suppress love & physical intimacy because they are conducive to emotional intimacy and politically subversive thoughts and conversation (Orwell).
Impose mandatory birth control for both women & men so as to uncouple sex from procreation. Leave the messy business of manufacturing genetically engineered Delta/Epsilon laborers to the Government — just be sure to leave alcohol out of the blood surrogates of future ruling-class Alpha embryos (Huxley).
Restrict reproductive rights to people who have demonstrated "merit" by issuing them "birthright licenses" on per-child basis (Niven).
The latter might be least difficult to implement since we have numerous precedents. One cannot drive a car; practice law, engineering, architecture, medicine, cut hair; or engage in many other forms of commerce without documented minimal competency to do _those_ tasks. Most of those professions also require proof of financial responsibility in the form of liability insurance.
Should we continue treating procreation and parenting any less seriously?
2
It's not just that kids don't vote; they don't donate to campaigns either. Our elections are money races for sound-bite headlines.....not discussions of policy differences between candidates.
When Congressmen tell us they vote for a tax bill to pay back their.....often out-of-state.....donors (ignoring their constituents) we no longer have a representational government. Or, rather, our government represents money, not people.
1
Fine and well, but then why all this hostility in the Times, and on this page, to politicians who actually propose social programs which would change the lives of the American poor and American children?
Aren't we told daily that we need a centrist to perpetuate our current wondrous state of being?
1
Your ridiculous opening example, using a non-American kid in a courtroom to somehow show how America is not supporting its children, is a mistake that allows the rest of your article to be discounted, unfortunately. On the other hand, you are right that we are not, nor have we ever, adequately funded the education of our children , and that this is a tragic mistake.
You give some good examples of our tragic neglect, there are even stronger statistics out there, but they are unlikely to sway the voting public to put up more tax dollars, especially since education is primarily locally funded. The reasons are clear, American selfishness that is ego-driven, education policies not supported by the voters, the low birth rate of native Americans who will not educate “the others”, and an overall ‘problem fatigue”.
I spent my career educating the children of my community and I see there is less support for public education each year. Yes, it’s tragic, and No, it won’t get better soon. You didn't come up with any good answers to fix this problem, and I don’t have any either.
3
There is one presidential candidate talking about this and has since she launched, Marianne Williamson. See: Plan for U.S. Department of Children and Youth.
1
"For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for what they become." - James Baldwin
2
Does any presidential candidate have the kind of knowledge that I a dual citizen of US SE have about some reasons for the difference between infant and maternal mortality in Sweden and the USA? How could they? Ask them.
Once again I suggest to a curious American researcher that she do this: Read study (1) below, then consider proposing research project (2)
1) Challenging the Use of Race in the Vaginal Birth after Cesarean Section Calculator-Darshali A. Vyas, BA a,eta al 2019
2) A comparison of pre, peri, and post natal care for 1st and 2d generation Somali mothers in SE and USA
(1) gives a detailed analysis showing that the fixation of American medical researchers on use of "race" as a/the key variable to explain poor US health data is not scientifically acceptable. Final sentence in (1): "As a step toward this goal, we strongly urge obstetrics practices to no longer include race-based correction in VBAC risk-stratification."
(2) Compare the pre, peri, and post natal medical records for a population of 1st & 2d generation Somali mothers in Sweden (SOM SE) and in US, maybe MN (SOM MN).
Virtually all SOM SE enter the maternal health care system at gestational week 12-14 and are in it for at least 2 years. Ob-gyn SE researchers believe that a study might show they do almost as well as the general population. I doubt that a study in MN would show the same.
Why not ask Ilhan Omar what she knows. Then Warren and x.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
It is becoming increasingly difficult to even think of America as one of the "advanced countries".
4
If there is one issue that I'm willing to throw the towel in over it is school lunches.
"Free lunches for all kids!"
We can sort the rest of this mess out later.
2
There is a large faction in this country that shrieks in horror over the campaign proposals of the Dems running for President. Medicare for all, free preschool to prepare littles ones for school. Free K-14 or more to educate our kids, maternity leave where parents will not lose their jobs, putting back regulations that protect our water, air, food, and banking and finance, and the list goes on........We must elevate our country because we are being left behind.
They shriek because they say it smacks of socialism. How uninformed these people are. These are basic human needs that certainly do add to the quality of life. With that peace of mind we just might find that there is less crime, less rage. We just might find that with better education and health coverage we will again be at the forefront in innovation and achievement. Along with this the ratio of CEO's compensation to their workers needs to be adjusted. They should still get their millions in bonuses and salaries, but raising wages that make it possible to keep up with rents and expenses makes for a more productive society.
A two-word phrase that seems to have lost its meaning is "for the common good." What kind of a society to we want?
3
"The United States is going to be the best place in the world for a child to grow up."
Marianne Williamson during the 1st Democratic debate. Children's wellbeing is on at least one candidate's agenda.
Nick, it would be helpful to point out that the theoretical $100 Billion child poverty program represents only 2.5% of our federal budget.
(R)egressives rail against any and all "social welfare" programs. Yet Progressives never - never - challenge them with the fact that these programs are a rounding error on our national spending.
In '17, TANF/MOE ("welfare") cost The Land of The Free $31.1 Billion, or .78% of our $4 Trillion Budget. Less than 1/4 of those funds were for "Basic Assistance” (direct payments). The remaining 76% was for: Child Care, Admin., Work activities, Work Support and Svcs, Pre-K School, Child Welfare and Other.
2.2 Million Americans, .67% of our 330 Million population - received TANF/MOE benefits. 77% of recipients were kids. The median monthly payment (family of 3) = $428.
TANF/MOE has mandatory work requirements, is time limited to a max of 5 years in a lifetime, allows drug testing and is unavailable to undocumented immigrants.
in '18, SNAP (food stamps), cost $65 Billion - 1.6% of our $4 Trillion Budget. Total Recipients = 39 Million (down from 47 Million in ’13), or just 12% of US population. 83% of SNAP recipients are children, elderly or disabled. Max monthly payment (family of 4) = $640.00, or $5.33/meal.
SNAP also has mandatory work requirements and is unavailable to undocumented immigrants.
Together, these two programs cost less than 2.5% of our federal budget!!
(R)egressives are not just mean-spirited, they are also Cheapskates!
Nick Kristof,
Read up on the ACE Study. Resort your findings. Our children do deserve better.
1
Lack of empathy is the Republican way. Don't ask them to care. Don't ask them to be responsible for others. Everyone for oneself is their motto. If you're not making it, then you're not working hard enough or being responsible enough or saving enough or...During a time when we are so hugely human over-populated, it is easy to devalue human life (as long as it isn't an unborn fetus). Why is Trump rolling back measures that keep our waterways safe? Why is Trump ignoring the looming global climate disaster? Because money is the only language that the Republicans speak. They have no heart. Only fear and greed and ignorance.
2
Republicans and Third Way Democrats afraid of what happed during the Reagan revolution have been far too willing to bend to the wealthy and corporations that would be most “inconvenienced” by programs (including education and early childhood efforts listed here) that would benefit our society in the long run both in moral terms as well as practical and economic. This short term, selfish, and frankly stupid view of the role of government by our elected officials must be rooted out at the ballot box.
2
Sorry, but you lost me in the first paragraph. the best way to help American children is to stop taking in the entire world.
5
“ Pro-Life “ stops at Birth. I truly despise the GOP, and anyone that Votes for them. Stay away from me.
Seriously.
3
Words from Sweden, part 2 - Thursday 12 September.
Nicholas, here one more Ex-pat report from an advanced country, this with some first-hand information about children.
This is anecdotal partially backed up by data.
Each day I take a bus to and from the center of Linköping, a city the size of my home-away-from home, Burlington, Vermont and here is something I learn about the situation for children of those who came to Sweden as asylum seekers, especially those from the Horn of Africa (H of A)
At the bus stops downtown there are many H of A women including mothers and students, mostly Somalis. Same on any one of the 3 buses that pass my home. The mothers have children in high-quality baby carriages and the kids, various ages seem to be in good shape. I know a large number in this population group thanks to 18 y at Red Cross. They got fine pre, peri, post maternal care, get subsidy for each child, and seem to be doing pretty well.
My newspaper, DN, keeps me well informed that all those I know and see do not completely represent the truth, but at least the government and DN do their best to know the truth and present it.
Today I read in DN: "Almost 44,000 children in Sweden live in families that have difficulty meeting their economic needs. 4 of 10 of the kids have single parent and 75% of these parents were born outside SE. But efforts are made to change that. (% of total represented by 44000 not given)
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
I, for one, am a bit tired of the ex-pats who post how wonderful wherever they are living is compared to the U.S. We know, believe me, we know. We know only too well. We'd like to be there or have the same standards for ourselves. Please stop patting yourselves on the back. We're envious and working hard to try to bring our country back.
Another wonderful piece by Mr Kristof.
When will this insanity stop?
On his birthday, a 9-year-old student's hot lunch is taken away over a $9.75 unpaid balance, grandmother says. On his birthday.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/9-year-old-student-s-hot-lunch-taken-away-over-n1051981?fbclid=IwAR2qs3Ul50609sZDgdo6tq7JOSb8RKB4qolZ-1ojZbvTuiHyu7QqhPpE3JU
3
I don't expect the Times to publish this, so I composed it at greater length where it will elsewhere be published:
Thus far, the pols do not give a damn.Their children and grandchildren go to competitive, VERY expensive private schools and public schools in tony neighborhoods.
Some of us over 65 remember many free colleges and universities, especially in New York City, where the legendary Cooper Union opened around the Civil War for, get this, Art and Engineering!! And, was Tuition-Free until about five years ago ...and get this - was harder than Harvard to enter.
The also once-legendary City College of New York, the "Proletarian Harvard" beat Harvard in chess and lacrosse often.
Count the Nobel Laureates from the once free five City College of New York Colleges. About half the students were working class and poor, with a big lower-middle and middle class.
Please pause a moment: the USA Was Much Poorer from the 1850s through the 1960s.
( But the American people don't receive such news - besides they need their free time to binge-watch TV, as they contribute to the the American Obese, who now are 40% of our population. They are our biggest poor health group draining the treasury, as do tax breaks for the rich and multinationals and big backs).
So, how will our children get what they deserve - how? Uprisings?
2
When its everyone for themselves, are you surprised that the smallest and the weakest are trampled and left in the mud?
Welcome to trumpland
3
So the solution is to bring more people into the country who will live well below the poverty level, right.
This is a complex problem with several “fathers.” First our education system is a failure. We try to teach kids who’s language is not English, especially Spanish. There should be English emergence which has worked in the past. The lead problem is generations old. The fact that it hasn’t been solved shows the lack of accountability by the administrations of our larger cities where most of this occurs. But maybe the most serious problems is the lack of fathers in the home.
5
All excellent points.
On a broader scale, we have become a savage nation, largely due to Republicans, and most recently due to Trump.
What civilized nation puts children in concentration camps?
What civilized nation denies asylum to people fleeing from fantastically dangerous countries?
What civilized nation deports people to countries they have never lived in only to die because they have no family there, no roots, and are unable to find work, education, or medical care, and so die alone, on the streets?
What civilized nation looks at the people of the Bahamas and denies them entry because the president declares, with absolutely no evidence or compassion, that they are bad people, gang members, very bad people? Heck, what kind of nation responds to tragedy among its own states and territories and responds by throwing paper towels?
What kind of nation allows the water crises in Flint, MI and other communities to continue to decades and where local politicians mock the victims of their own malfeasance?
And, speaking of children, what kind of man refers to his own child as "That’s how the first lady got involved. She’s got a son."? This is how much his own child means to him. What makes you think that he cares about the nation's children?
And on and on and on.
4
I've been reading pleas like this since the 1960's. For me, that illustrates how far we've come. There are pockets across the country of real concern about our youngest citizens, concern turned into action with measurable successes. But these are only pockets. Overwhelmingly, for the vast majority of children, it's the luck of the draw. Lucky to be born in the right families and to live in the right communities and to have access to the right schools. The country is too big, too diverse, too overladen with conflict, too focused on other priorities and children are a low priority. Well-meaning as Kristof may be, what he writes today doesn't move the dial on the welfare of children.
3
It’s not about if political candidates care...they are only supposed to serve at our behest. Since the white ethnicities in decline and white people own everything, they no longer care about the majority and have no interest in the support of those not like them.
2
The world would be a much better place with a much brighter future if our starting point for policy analysis was to ask “How does this affect children?”
1
“Our children deserve better.” Better than socialism, think the conservatives.
1
Lead? Poisoned water? What about GUNS that are killing students attending classes, trying to get an education to better themselves??? We are doing nothing to protect them just making excuses !
3
Four years ago, Kristof wrote a column, "‘Inequality Is a Choice’", where he advocates for a list of remedies. But, if you ask if these remedies will create equality of wealth and income, the answer is obvious -- no, no, no! Kristof baits us with the lure of equality, then switches to "remedies" that won't achieve this goal. Will we be fooled again?
Why doesn't the NYT show Kristof's columns to an equality expert to tell us what percent reduction in inequality would result if his proposals were actually implemented?
You're probably more informed than I am that the wealth and income of politicians exceed that of Average Americans, let alone matches the poor. They are part of a different class than Average Americans. They do not represent the stratification of the society.
For example, Warren who gets her lion's share of campaign cash from the upper half, has riskily sworn off big donor events, but guess what, not in the general election.
They will own her just like Clinton.
The politicians who created this economic stratification, they rule you without your consent; you're merely born here, and the rulers simply tell you to obey their laws. What chance they will implement equality?
The NYT might consider publishing editorials by the poor on equality, although they might raise the illegitimacy of the government saddling us with the inequity of inequality.
3
This article is very critical of the US. I'll have you know we treat our rich white people very, very well. Just ask them.
7
@Markymark,
Exactly right. Thank you for speaking out, and speaking the truth.
2
But, Nick, haven't you recently written that we need to bring MORE poor children into the country? How are we ever going to end poverty (for adults as wells for children) if we keep importing more of it?
5
@Green Tea Sorry but ridicule doesn't solve the problem. But treating US children bad is of course easily transferred to foreign helpseeking children as has been mentioned in the piece. The attitude is the same and it's rationale is unsuitable to any decent and thriving society. Contrary, it reeks of soulless greed and selfishness.
3
Nick's column is on target except climate change is the greatest threat to our children.
Paul Welch, Syracuse NY
Blame parents, they are the ones ultimately in charge, but the democrats make everyone out to be a victim. We’re the government and we’re here to help. Please
4
Once again too many believe life begins with conception and ends at birth.
5
One thing for sure: The guy in the White House who did not send one of his children to a public school couldn't care less about the aggregate well-being of American children. He prefers to avoid them.
3
You may add: this country is a horrible place for anyone who isn't rich, white and human, and if it's not good for children, it's horrific for the elderly. And let's not even get started on how bad it is for animals. The outrageously high taxes we pay here go on busing kids, not helping the poor - we are driving out anyone who isn't rich. Basically, all American resources are used to support the rich.
1
Our children also deserve better because they are inheriting a world of violence, vulgarity, fear and injustice, filled with radioactive waste and weapons of mass destruction on any street corner. Shame on us.
2
Those on the hard right get all weepy about a group of microscopic cells in a woman's womb and right on up to the point the fertilized egg becomes a human born into this world. Then it is downhill from there for those born not with a sliver spoon in their mouths and a trust fund. These children become greedy takers and a drain on their well stuffed wallets. Protecting their wallets is what it is now all about, not about protecting and nurturing the children in this country. I guess the little tykes must pull themselves up by their little boot straps. That is if they make it past year one.
3
In the last figures I've seen, the United States' health care rank is somewhere in the mid-30s, tied with Costa Rica.
The primary problem here is a hangover from American Exceptionalism, and the conviction that we must be best at everything because, well, we're the U.S.A., and anyone who says otherwise hates America, and is a Commie, too.
2
Children are the most marginalized, oppressed, and voiceless group in America. Cities like Washington DC, San Francisco and Seattle are practically empty of children. While singlehood is celebrated in the media and in the academia. Children are at best an option: our very future! At the same time ─same people want our government spend vast sums taxpayer money on practically everything. Now without children who will make up the future citizenry and the tax base? There’s so much irresponsible, contradictory talk about not having children even because of global warming! And there are those who think that a career is more important. Yet, without children and grandchildren facing a costly and problematic advanced age. The media and Hollywood is clearly against children─ indulging, promoting their pleasure seeking, self- justifying nihilist’s childless life styles. It has to be emphasized, effective parenting, stable family life and good schools will remain the very core of successful individual and the society. America needs strong families to have successful children. And research and statistics show that traditional family life is also cost effective─ provides the individual with best education, make us prosperous, give us a risk free, healthy longer life ─ and prevent our government from going bankrupt. Over time, our values have shifted towards a costly single existence making ever more dependent on tax payers to provide for our private needs── nearly bankrupting America.
1
We just LOVE to punish the poor in this country. Sorry kid, your mom should have picked a better father, no help for you. But by the way, we also did our best to restrict her option to not have you and make good birth control hard to get. So as further punishment for her having sex, she gets to watch you struggle. Well, your mom should get a job (and no shame for the employers who don't pay living wages and use scheduling systems that make a second job impossible, that's just a profitable business practice).
2
Anytime a comparison is made between the USA and "an advanced country", remember this: the USA is a Federal Republic with great autonomy in the States, while those other countries are not.
California is mentioned: where are the early childhood programs in the 5th largest economy in the world? How about New York? Oil-rich Alaska? No, it's time to get the Feds involved, the Universal Panacea aka the passing of the buck. And the Times bangs the same old drum.
1
Who are 'our children'?
By every positive educational, health, housing and socioeconomic measure black African American and brown First Nations children are about 2x worse off than their white European America Judeo-Christians peers.
The 63 million Americans including the 58% of the white voting majority made-up of 62% of white men and 54% of white women who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 clearly don't care about any children but their own.
What fair, just, moral and objective god would ever bless this America?
1
Odd non sequiter start to an otherwise good article.
1
This problem will only be solved when poor white people decide they have more in common with poor black people than they have with rich white people. The Republican Party is working hard to make sure that day never comes.
4
One of the most efficient ways to improve the lives of our children, in the current generation, would be to introduce universal basic income. In the UK, we do not yet have a laser-focus on this, but the US has an amazing opportunity in the shape of presidential candidate Andre Yang and his proposal for a Freedom Dividend of $1000 a month for all US citizens. Have a read at his policy page and look out for him tonight!
https://www.yang2020.com/what-is-freedom-dividend-faq/
One might expect all of the "right to life" Evangelicals would be all over this issue. All I hear from them is crickets.
1
Our children deserve better. You're talking about the ones we're paying to have murdered, right Nick?
"Kids don't vote." so..."trump doesn't care."
2
Children Have No Say--as well as the Beasts--Bless the Beasts and the Children--God Help Them--America is Brutal
The Republican base is so overwhelmingly anti-intellectual it's as if they've given their own kids the Jonestown Kool-Aid of educational suicide. Their president is the personification of idiotic anti-intellectualism. The Chinese and Indians will soon enough bury our pathetic, know-nothing offspring. Since both countries have at least four times the geniuses in math and tech we have, they will bury us anyway, but it's sad that the vast majority of our parents are so stupid themselves that they are dong their dumb best to facilitate the educational decline and fall of the America they claim to want to make "great" again. Actually, MAD magazine had it right with it's cover with Alfred E. Newman in a blond Trump wig, with The Great One right behind him grinning. The caption was "Make America Dumb Again." Mission accomplished.
2
Thanks for raising this issue. Here’s another petition seeking to get early childhood education on the debate stage too: http://chng.it/2MNZwGYjkg
As I wrote in my comment to Gail Collins, dems need a to band together (including campaign money) under a new campaign slogan. I suggest:
IT'S OUR KID'S FUTURE, STUPID
All due thanks to James Carvelle
All children deserve parents sho can care for them, and give them advantages.
2
Americans are way more STRESSED THROUGH THEIR WHOLE LIVES compared with people in other developed Nations: in the womb from lack of prenatal care, through the danger of an American Hospital birth, parents absent because they are working two jobs and no quality daycare available , exposed to lead and tainted drinking water, attending crumbling and dangerous schools and living with rampant gun violence.
Preyed upon by the marketing tricks of big Tech, payday lenders, tobacco companies, opioid dealers. In danger of bankruptcy when attempting to access our fragmented, poor quality (dangerous) healthcare. Without adequate public transportation options, they cannot escape rundown neighborhoods to work and raise their unplanned (because they are denied affordable birth control) kids.
WHO COULD PARENT UNDER THESE PRESSURES? SO THE KIDS SUFFER...
Why do you think there is such a proliferation of escapist superhero movies these days?
We do not need next-generation nuclear weapons, we need to take care of our next generation!
1
Mr. Kristof, I'm aware you may not think very highly of her, but Marianne Williamson is mentioning America's traumatized children in nearly every speech she gives. She is still a democratic candidate and she is bringing light to this issue. Hopefully more Americans will lend her an ear as the campaign progresses.
3
By all means let us examine the roots of childhood poverty. Let's begin with a discussion of the differences in outcomes for children raised by single parents versus those from two-parent households. This may be a major determinate of childhood success or failure.
Gloria Steinem famously said (quoting Irina Dunn), that "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle". This may be true, but is it possible that a growing child thrives better in a stable two-parent environment? Such thoughts are anathema to feminist cant and therefore can never be discussed in today's political climate. They are still worth considering however
7
100% of America agrees with the statement that “our children deserve better”.
The problem is that “our” is an ever smaller subset of America, depending on who you ask.
Our country has become a libertarian place of everyone for themselves. The irony is that Republicans are most eager to fly American flags everywhere, while not caring about 95% of other Americans.
4
Thank you, Mr. Kristof. To paraphrase Cesar Chavez....a society is judged by how it treats its poor and helpless. How we will be judged remains to be seen. Let us hope we can rise to the challenge in our time.
1
One factor Kristof missed is this: birth control and reproductive services for both men and women allows families to keep to one child or two at most, thus lowering poverty for the entire family.
When a single teen age girl and her boyfriend have a baby, that child has the highest likelihood of growing up poor. With each additional child, that single mother increases poverty for herself and for her children.
The Trump administration with its cohorts of evangelical Christians and orthodox Catholics are promoting exactly the wrong policies regarding women's reproductive rights. Not just in America but in Africa where population and poverty go hand in hand.
15
Condoms are inexpensive. Enlisted men during World War II came home with a healthy appreciation of their benefits, and used them when they began their families.
Far too many American inner-city, African, and Latin-American men seem not to know what condoms are. Yes, Evangelical types try to limit women's access to birth control, but condoms are sold in the same pharmacies and corner stores where they've always been sold.
I have a darned stupid cousin who said that wearing a condom was like taking a shower in a raincoat.
Millions of Americans warded off venereal disease and kept the number of babies they had to the number they could rest on their own -- and loved their wives just the same, regardless.
6
@B.
You're so right.
We are always speaking of women's reproductive health and birth control and forget that men have a responsibility as well. Young men could use education on this.
2
"Rear," not "rest."
Thank you.
Reducing Child poverty is a reflection of a societies values and where such a society will go in the future.
It does deserve debate in the Democratic debates, because Lord know this administration is doing everything to destroy the people who are so effected by poverty.
2
I couldn’t agree more which is why I’m not pleased with Elizabeth Warren’ policies of giving everything to everyone by taxing the rich. I think this should be out number one concern (after global warming) and we should be talking about it everyday, measuring results, nourishing best practices. With Warren, there is no focus, everything is worth tackling. Today it is giving me $200 more via Social Security.
@Rob C
America doesn’t invest in its people and particularly its children. We invest in our billionaires and corporate overlords who’ve gamed the system to shovel as many giveaways their way as possible, with no amount of money large enough to stop them from asking and getting more — a larger and larger share of the economy going their way.
That we don’t see this as a sociopathic greed shows we’re focused on the wrong things. We’re the richest country ever. Why can’t we get this right?
4
On what measure is America the richest country ever, certainly not on a GDP per capita basis. We can no longer address these problems on a piecemeal basis. The US is the worst of the developed countries on almost all relevant measures for human health and happiness, it is time to investigate why. The political system here is fundamentally flawed and nothing will change until it is subject to a root and branch reform to make it truly democratic.
3
@Rob C, It should not be either or. We could cut back spending on antiquated or pie in the sky military programs, cut out the ceiling on the FICA tax on wages, make income taxes hiigher by making them much more progressive without being confiscatory, etc. [I do not favor a wealth tax for many reasons.]
1
Nicholas Kristof suggests that the Democrats should debate child welfare. I believe the Democratic candidates, and the vast majority of people likely to vote for Democrats, favor improvement in child welfare. There is really no need for discussion. Democrats passed Obamacare, which was a great step forward. But we have endured concerted Republican efforts to remove benefits from those who might have been helped. It would be more useful for Mr. Kristof to encourage a serious discussion among Republicans about policies to improve child well being.
2
This child development thing has a horizon too far in the future and away from home. Heck, politicians have a hard time thinking beyond the next election or tax cut. Businesses can seldom plan longer than five years, and the average family barely goes beyond the next pay check; some get to think about vacation and dream about prestigious colleges, but most just try to keep the economic wolves from getting in their doors. Simply put, no one is ready to do long term planning for child growth and development and our leaders aren’t about to stick their necks out for such an outlandish endeavor, it’s simply too risky.
2
@Judith MacLaury,
Well, it looks like birth rates are about to fall a whole lot more, then?
US health care ranks 38th in quality but number 1 in cost .
French health care is number 1 in world rank for quality and 34 th in cost with free health care for everybody since 1949 .
The USA have a 1 million soldier army with a 750 billion dollar annual budget but cannot organize a global health care system.
The USA have the highest violent crime rate per capita of all industrialized nations. 8 times superior to the European average .
Highest incarceration rate by 8 times also superior to the European average .
7
Notice that you didn't even mention the most elephantine cruelty we are punishing our children with: The out-of-control deficit spending. Why is this such a "non-issue" for either political party...or our press?
1
Deficit spending is far less of an issue than the manner in which it has been squandered ny Republicans via hand outs to the rich and corporations.
9
50+ years of liberal social engineering has failed decrease the poverty rate in America or improve the quality of our education. So why should I believe that a corrupt incompetent bureaucratic government would do any better if we gave it even more money and control over our lives? I don't.
Pat Moynihan foresaw the problems the welfare state would create in his 1965 Moynihan Report. It is past time to return to the traditional American values of self-reliance, capitalism, and small government. Charity should be the dominion of churches, synagogues, mosques, and benevolent associations not the government.
3
Investing our tax dollars in our health care and in our children’s education would bring great dividends to our nation —far better than throwing more trillions at our bloated military industrial complex.
6
@Stanz
50 years of Republican assault on function of government - from education to building roads in a jihad to line the pockets of their rich patrons with ever lower taxes and ever larger corporate welfare has been the underlying source of the problems you cite. When we stopped investing in the people under the false arguments of “small government” that is when the erosion of the middle class in America began.
2
I think politicians don’t care about children because children do not vote and don’t make campaign contributions.
3
We have a political party that doesn't like most people, and makes no exceptions for children. Even their professed concern for fetuses is shown up for its hypocrisy when they aren't willing to provided pregnant mothers with proper medical care or access to food and shelter.
12
I heard there is an underlying motive of djt and his trumpist party members to their position of no limits to assault weapon sales & how that position relates to school shootings. I heard that djt's steadfast protection of the manufacture/sale of combat assault weapons has a secondary benefit. It goes like this: djt, gun manufacturers, the NRA & trumpists view mass killings of kids in their schools to be a means to reduce the population of kids--because kids are dependent, do not vote, and so many kids have 'special needs'--which is code for kids being "takers" of governmental funds & kids draining social service budgets. Trump is fond of obvious outcomes of school shootings, including fear of those with guns, militarization of schools, and increase in gun sales. Does trump see the increase in child suicides after mass shootings as a benefit, too? I heard trump designed his response following a school shooting to shift attention from the murdered children and the grieving families/teachers/communities back to himself; he makes a brief statement to thoughts and prayers, then quickly shifts his focus to heaping praise upon first responders. Soon he brings the responders to the oval office where, as The One Who Bestows Empty Praises, grabs the headline with his power & authority by handing the medics/police a certificate of bravery. Then he throws a dollop of the limelight to the NRA & his buddies in the trumpist party (for their loyalty). Could all of this be true?
2
Every child a wanted child. Every girl an educated, empowered girl with control over her reproduction and an actual pathway to financial independence through equitable education and opportunities.
16
Great column Nick, thank you. Child nutrition and education should be in the top three priorities in this country.
8
It is not only that children don’t count, or vote, it is that the $800 billion benefit for the $100 billion cost doesn’t go to anyone. Also, humans are biased to the short-term, as noted in the Times last Sunday (either opinion section or book review), and don’t value long-term benefits as much. That is a problem for a whole host of issues that require short-term costs while giving long-term benefits, see climate change as one example.
1
My experience, moving from the US to Europe and 20 years later back to the US is a feeling that the American tendency to put more emphasis on personal responsibility has degenerated into selfishness. Most people today see their own community as a very limited subset of America.
Not only the wealthy dislike solidarity and competition, the upper middle class tries to secure any advantage they have over everyone else too. If you're poor, it's your fault even if the odds were always stacked against you. The American dream is a mirage, social mobility is much lower in the US than in Europe.
It's hard to pinpoint a single dominant cause, but certainly the Republican's strategy of dividing the working class along race and religion is up there, and so are stagnant wages and the exploded cost of college.
I lived in Belgium, one of the only countries in the world where inequality has declined despite a high percentage of immigrants.
There are almost no private schools (except a few for expats), kids rich and poor go to the same ones. Funding is high enough to ensure quality and oversight. Sports infrastructure is mostly village owned, which means sports clubs are affordable (my kids' martial arts costs more per month here than in Belgium for a year). College is tuition free and without numerus clausus, which means students have to work a lot harder to get their degree. It's not uncommon for half of the freshman to fail. I'm sure Trump and Bush would have not been able to graduate.
20
@Anne this country could do much better if schools were uniform across the state instead of paid for with local property taxes. Also if charter schools were not siphoning money off the public school system.
3
Yes. We underfund our schools so that teachers have to buy classroom supplies out of their own pockets. We fail to provide ways for parents to get decent childcare so that they can provide for their families. Child care workers are some of the lowest paid (and often not well trained). The GOP, which claims to care about "family values" cuts funds for programs which serve children and low income families any time they can. Lately, CHIP is again threatened so that more kids are at risk of not having access to healthcare.
13
You don't mention illegal immigration. Isn't that interesting?
"Key facts about immigrant children:
From 1994 to 2017, the population of immigrant children in the United States grew by 51 percent, to 19.6 million, or one-quarter of all U.S. children. The majority of immigrant children are second generation, while first-generation immigrants make up a smaller population (16.7 million and 2.9 million, respectively).
In 2017, a higher percentage of first-generation immigrant children (those born outside the United States) lived below the federal poverty line (25 percent) than second-generation children (those born inside the United States) and non-immigrant children (those who are not first- or second-generation immigrants) (22 and 17 percent, respectively)."
5
@tanstaafl
Thank you for these important statistics and your point on immigration as a key reason for under-funding education. As a retired public HS English teacher, I can testify to the absolute importance of immigration on the locally funded school districts. The more citizens perceived they were being asked to pay for “others kids” especially illegal immigrants, the less inclined they were to pay for and support schools. This was a clear pattern in my district as I’m sure in others. There hasn’t been a school bond passed in decades and there won’t be any time soon. Just reporting.
3
Is it accurate to say that "our children are falling behind those in wealthy countries" as if all of "our" children are in the same situation? My sense is that the children of wealthy American children are not falling behind, just the rest of American children, and the lower the family's income the farther behind the child falls.
9
You're mistaken. Children are important in the US - specifically, the rich children of rich Americans. They get fine educations, top notch health care, access to stimulating after school activities and live in places where lead paint and tainted water is a concept foreign to them.
Oh, and the poor children?
Well they're important to the rich people too. After all, worker bees are needed to make sure that food gets harvested and livestock slaughtered, buildings get cleaned, lawns get mowed, mines are mined...
This is America.
15
You are asking the wrong question. The question is not whether politicians care, they will be selected by the voters. The question is: Do the voters care?
I attended Los Angeles High School in the 1960s. It was an impressive institution; three story brick ivy-covered buildings, a four story bell tower; teachers with Phd’s; some classes so rigorous that they exceeded freshman-level University curriculum.
Any student attending school in such an institution knew that they were important. Education was important.
Following the 1973 earthquake, the old impressive brick buildings were removed and replaced with modular temporary structures with much larger classes, many of which still remain. Students get the message loud and clear: We are not important; Education is not important.
Unless our society, starting with the voters, is willing the re-make the commitment to value our children and their future, education will decline. This is more important than a bigger car, a bigger house, or a better smart phone.
21
@Ken
Agreed, 100%... and I see this in my own county. There are a handful of cities/towns that have no problem with passing a tax levy for capital funding, teachers raises, resources, etc.
On the other than, not even a mile down the road, there are other cities/towns in the same county, that will fail them every single time. Then the State wonders why test scores their are low, why graduation rates are abysmal, and the district is put on a remediation plan.
The most pressing challenge that no politician can ever defeat: why do some people care and others cannot even be bothered?
In full disclosure, the areas I am referring to are predominantly White, like 90% Caucasian.
7
@Ken
Our president is a role model for the "Me First" culture. He maintains his purported riches with constant lies to fleece people, stomping on the backs of the downtroddened and hiding his financial records to protect his many illegal dealings.
As middle class citizens struggle to make ends meet and now warnings of a Trump induced recession dominate the news, it is apparent they are less and less concerned about the struggle of others.
1
I spent 40 years working in education at different levels. The data you are sharing has been available for some time. The problem is that our political leaders don't listen to the educators who know what the research says, data like you share in your article. Senator Warren is now in favor of vouchers. Vouchers will not solve the problem of inadequate schools in low income neighborhoods. Schools of choice can only take a few students. The problem can only be solved by fixing all schools. Schools in poverty areas do not have the additional financial support from the local community like suburban schools do. With proper resources children from low income families can compete in our society. Give them a fair chance and don't make excuses about the parents.
5
Many people believe that dollars spent on social programs focused on children's welfare and health are a net cost to the economy. Mr. Kristof illustrates how such spending is really an investment that saves much more than the amounts spent by reducing costs elsewhere. The same is true for spending on mental health and the promotion of healthy lifestyle choices in general. Perhaps more focus on encouraging the voting population to understand true costs and benefits would lead to the election of candidates who will truly make America stronger and healthier. America would also return to the path of becoming smarter, kinder and more optimistic about the future.
12
It is two tiered. Kids of parents who marry, finish high school, and wait for marriage til 21 do more than well enough. The rest do not. Fix that.
7
Most American families struggle to afford health care and college education for their children, as well as housing. Fix that.
3
@O'Brien Some evidence would be in order here. Or is this just something that you “know”?
1
Another example of the paucity of compassion, care and protection we afford children in America can be found in “Child Protective Services,” (CPS). I have spent a lifetime as a therapeutic professional working with adults with serious chronic mental health issues including addiction and psychosocial/socioeconomic functioning issues such criminality. Most of the clients I have had also have children, often many.
Thus, I worked extensively with CPS professionals. They are (with a few exceptions) nearly always dedicated, very good at their jobs, and compassionate. They are also poorly paid and insanely over-worked. It is not uncommon to have caseloads of 50 or more. A horrifically-busted foster care system leaves CPS few tools and resources, hamstrung at every turn trying to care and protect these children.
And those adults I have treat for decades? Nearly all came from families that were intimately involved with CPS when they were children.
So, we are talking about generations of children suffering who grow up to suffer more as teenagers and adults in our criminal justice system. They the also have children, whom they parent the same way they were parented, and the whole thing goes on and on and on.
This entire system needs an intense comprehensive overhaul and trainloads of additional funding. That said, in the end and if done right, *the cost will be significantly less than the system that currently exists* and the suffering of children significantly diminished.
19
@SMcStormy You are stating simple basic truths. Bravo. How did we get to this point where we care so little as a society for children, not to mention other groups in need? Candidates? Step Up. Explain how your policies (Warren, Sanders, Trump, Sanford) impact on this problem.
6
@SMcStormy I should add for all the racists out there that statistically, regarding the US as a whole, roughly 2/3's of the above multi-generational families are White; families of People of Color are not the majority.
2
As a retired RN and then retired child welfare worker it is crushingly sad that our national priority is making money and accumulation of stuff. Even Nicholas Kristof is forced by our culture to involve the discussions about returns on investment in dollar figures. The essentials cannot be measured by dollar assessments. When we have to (not blaming Nick) justify moral or ethical behavior with dollars saved or return on investment instead of inherent right or truth or good, we are beholden to the religion of materialism and lust of possessions. Children, kids, innocents, our future cry out for a radical change of VALUES, WHAT WE GIVE OURSELVES TO AS IMPORTANT IN A COMPASSIONATE AND WISE CULTURE. We are failing our children, failing to honor the core responsibility of an economy, a nation, an ethical society. We can no longer claim to be a beacon or a leader in the community of nations. Shame
14
This article highlights one of the biggest problem I have with Conservatives today: Their lack of interest in human, scientific, or physical infrastructure. Everything is oriented towards the next quarter or at best the next year or two. That is fine for businesses but government should be preparing for the future. This attitude is going to impoverish the US in the long run.
16
Multinationals rely increasingly on immigrant visas (L1 and HB1) to fill vacancies, given the poor output of our expensive college system.
1
This brought tears to my eyes as it did for others who commented here. How can this corruption between so-called representatives of the people and chemical corporations be allowed to continue decade after decade? It is only now being called "corruption"! For decades the word has almost never been used to refer to anything in our federal government. Now it is at least being called out by some Democratic presidential candidates.
But WOW. The nerve gas "developed to attack the nervous system" has been used in pesticides, more so in poor neighborhoods no doubt, causing all sorts of cancers among other health effects. It gets stopped 17 years ago and now Trump -- and REPUBLICANS who support him -- is allowing it to be used again.
How very very awful for the poor children who will die as a result, and the families who will suffer. It's heartbreaking that this can be allowed.
Now, Trump's/Republican's actions will lead to "Dow’s Nerve Gas Pesticide" to end up on the dinner plates of all Americans, in our food, our water and even in fetuses. And they care about abortion? Please, give me a break.
22
Something is terribly broken with a society that harms its children through its inaction on lead-laden water, poisoned air and soil, this new iteration of child abuse called "lunch shaming," and corralling children in cages. I challenge everyone to look the children of Flint or Newark, El Paso, Odessa, Parkland or Sandy Hook, in the eyes and tell them that we've got their back. Because we haven't.
I don't know when children became a liability in this country exactly, but here's an example from the 60s when they weren't. The neighbors around Yasgur's farm rallied together to "feed the kids" when the food ran out at the festival...because it was the right thing to do, whether or not you agreed with their politics or liked their music. When I saw that on one of those 50th anniversary documentaries the other week, all I could think was (tragically), "That would never happen now." And why? Because this country monetizes and criminalizes everything, and the horribly unequal distribution of wealth makes people greedy for what little they have. Instead of treating each other as humans, everyone is a competitor for finite resources which have grown every more scarce for the many when so much is controlled by the few. The children, the weakest, and the most infirm become the easiest targets in such a dystopian system. I second you, Mr. Kristof: Our children deserve much better than this.
20
Bravo! I would add that early child development, early childhood intervention, and the plight of children living in poverty in the US and abroad should be a major plank of presidential candidates' policy positions for 2020!
14
Single parent households in the USA are 10 to 12 points (25 vs 13-15) higher than in much of Europe.
5
@John Duffy And? This is hardly the only explanation for child poverty. Not to mention that investing in the ideas mention here would reduce things like adults going to prison (children become adults, after all) and reduce stress on parents by not making them the only ones shelling out $$$ or quitting jobs to provide childcare (reduced stress would probably help couples stay together). Education, too, for children, helps these future-adults avoid unwanted pregnancies.
At the end of the day, children will become adults (if we care for them enough to not die beforehand). Anything we do to invest in them will pay off manyfold in our future adults.
7
Economic strains will destroy marriages and families eventually.
Speaking as someone who has spent 40 years working with children and their families, your column brought tears to my eyes. You could not be more right and our country could not be more in the wrong. We need many more voices speaking for children who cannot speak for themselves, whether they are speaking for the underprivileged who are doomed to a predetermined future of loss and pain or the overprivileged children who are expected to spend their lives maintaining a status quo that ensures a withering gap between the haves and have nots. Children deserve the right to be who they want to be, loved, nurtured, and cared for by a country who values not only who they are, but who they will become. Our future as a nation depends on it.
19
My generation had the benefit of teachers who were especially bright and capable because smart women only had three career options, teacher, nurse, secretary. I've worked in some of the "best" schools and not only has material been dumbed down, but teachers spend a ridiculous amount of time on disciplining children who shouldn't be in a school setting. Parents are M.I.A. So are grandparents. It's time we start realizing our schools need to be a second home staffed with health professionals and counselors. A one-stop shop.
18
An Iowa poll in May showed frequent Iowa voters rank "ensuring the education and well-being of children" at the top of their list of concerns they want Presidential candidates to address (80%), above "creating jobs and improving the economy" (66%), the next highest of the thirteen issues. A content analysis of Presidential candidate websites shows candidates are beginning to develop policies around children, but have a long way to go. The media itself rarely raises these issues; Kristoff's column is welcome in this respect. The webpage www.childequity.org/2020-vision.org provides a summary of the poll and the content analysis, along with a description of the key child policy issues (health, safety, school readiness, school success, safety and permanence, economic security, and equal opportunity) upon which candidates and the media need to focus attention. Thanks to Kristoff for raising the specific issue of child poverty.
17
Nicholas Kristof 's humane concern for others is admirable. It shines out in his writings. Certainly, our children and our future generations deserve to escape the mayhem and havoc that emanates from our present administration in Washington.
This article set me thinking, is it only our children that are being shortchanged? What about all of us below the billionaire or multi-millionaire class---the vast majority of our population? Do we deserve better?
Since we are probably the wealthiest country ---are we also the happiest or best educated or best medicated?
I googled the following "ranking USA in healthcare, education, and contentment". You would be surprised. We are not among the best.
Here is one report--typical of what is found: "Business Insider" quotes a recent (2018) study from Washington University with the following headline "The US was once a leader for healthcare and education--now it ranks 27th in the world." Similar results abound. the Pew Research Group places the US as 38th in math out of 71 countries. Contentment of citizens has been evaluated for decades and the USA( in the studeis of the last decade) never placed among the top 10. (Scnadinavian countries do very well; Canada was #7 in 2018.) And so it goes.
And we, the wealthiest are not the most contented or the best educated or best medicated.The Mar-a-Lago crowd with all its available money may be very happy and contented in the USA, but not all of us can afford membership there.
16
Republicans label anything that dos bot benefit corporate profits as socialism. Throwing around a negative label is just one more tactic they use to demonize any policies that benefit average people and perhaps requires a tiny bit of money from the ultra wealthy individuals who actually run the government through their donations to politicians. True socialism puts the ownership of all business in government hands. No one is proposing such a thing. What separates Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans believe in unrestrained capitalism where businesses are free to do anything they want, including polluting the environment and selling dangerous products that may cause death. Democrats want capitalism with some brakes to prevent abuses by corporations. One is better for the wealthy elite who own around 85% of stock; the other is better for average people who should have access to clean air and water and be able to purchase safe products that will not harm them or their children. Pretty simple, really.
22
When we talk about childhood well-being and education, it is seldom pointed out that there are enormous differences among individual states when it comes to prioritizing our children. Some of us live in states that take good care of children in education and healthcare. We are constantly demonized by right wing media, but who cares?
20
Children. Old people. Clean air and water. Access to healthcare. Safe roads and bridges. Healthy food. Fair labor laws. The list goes on. We worship money and the have-nots, otherwise known as our fellow Americans, don't factor in.
54
@Carr Kleeb — spot-on. Over the years I have gone from being a proud American to being ashamed of my country. The politics of money will eventually ensure that the shining house on the hill becomes a shack housing politicians and white-collar criminals.
2
A wise man once wrote to me, "Politics, my friend, is why the huge gap exists between what is and what ought to be."
I wish someone would explain to me the justification in forcing children (or more accurately, their parents) to pay for their meals at school - not to mention all the other myriad expenses schools come up with. Whether it's health care, time off for childbirth (both parents), daycare for working folks, and the basic idea of a roof over their heads, children end up taking it on the chin in order to maintain this ideological notion of "personal responsibility," and to avoid the slightest resemblance of a "socialist" country.
I get very frustrated with those who refer to taxes as "stealing" other peoples' money, combined with the laughable fiction that they "earned" that money and we have no right to take it away from them - as if Bezos would somehow suffer if he had "only" $86 billion.
And my favorite: "If half the country is working to support the other half, pretty soon no one will want to work any more." And yes, they extrapolate this fiction to, "Little Johnnie's parents haven't paid his lunch bill, so Little Johnnie will have to sit in the corner, hungry, while his classmates all enjoy their lunch."
Every time I read comments on Twitter or Facebook, I am confronted by the stark reality that there are far too many Americans who would rather see a child starve than allow "socialist" policies to take hold, no matter how humane.
68
@TL Mischler Unfortunately, there is much truth to the saying that socialism works until you run out of other people's money. Certainly one could have more systems of social support with capitalism, but that is only possible because capitalism creates so much more wealth than socialism. Not a single country that has used socialism, meaning government ownership and control of industry, has done anything other than impoverish their citizens.
3
@Dr B I think it would be a very, very long time before the top 1% of owners of wealth would "run out of money" to help support child care, the well-being of all, and other compassionate social programs that many other countries have somehow enabled.
15
@Dr B
Like many, you appear to confuse socialism (which you correctly define) with democratic socialism, which is what nearly all advanced societies enjoy, including the US.
Germany, GB, Italy, Spain, Japan, France, Denmark, Norway, Korea, Portugal, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, etc. - all have thriving economies, far better care for children, better health care & educational opportunities, and a fraction of the income inequality that we have here in the US.
Socialism & capitalism are economic models, that's all. There is no country on earth that is 100% socialist or 100% capitalist - all are unique blends of the two. Even China and Vietnam, who declare themselves communist, contain a great deal of private ownership of businesses.
It's time we abandon the use of "socialism" as a bogeyman label and focus on what works. Forcing a child to starve while his classmates enjoy their lunch isn't capitalism, it's cruelty. It should never, ever be allowed under any circumstance.
12
What if there was one candidate, and only one, that has a plan to address childhood poverty, the universal rights of children, early childhood education, homelessness and the fact that food and financial stress run rampant through far too many families?
That candidate would really stand out in the democratic field, no?
It is very difficult to sell to the American people that a panoply of programs run through separate government bureaucracies will really move the needle on these issues. But if there was one VERY simple idea that had a chance to make a real dent on these issues, and didn’t involve a massive government expansion or intrusion, the proponent of that idea would be uniquely positioned for a general election victory, no? Addressing those issues effectively while REDUCING enrollment in government programs is a winning general election position—especially with a simple and easily digested plan. Liz Warren (love her!) trying to explain to everyone how a combination of the wealth tax, earned income tax credit, expansion of SNAP, WIC, housing subsidies etc might help could be a recipe for losing.
Nick, please endorse Andrew Yang. And please call Lebron James and tell him to do the same. Martin Luther King, Thomas Payne, Milton Friedman—they are right. It’s time for Yang’s Freedom Dividend, a universal basic income of 1000 a month. Simple and stigma free, because everyone gets it. And yes, the math works: A modest Value Added Tax gets us there easily.
6
On this same day, your colleague at the Times is worried about religious crusaders at the Supreme Court’s gate. But as you mention, suicide rates among are children at an all time high. And there is a very good case to be made that the hopelessness and despair that is in part responsible for this tragic state is a consequence of the increasing secularization of the culture. The reasons for this despair is complex and cannot—like everything else that is bad these days, be blamed on Trump or poverty. But a culture that cultivates secularism and so tells their children that they are the chance-caused children of inorganic matter and nothing more than dust in the wind has little to offer them in the way of hope. And without that, the other stuff has very little value.
2
I couldn’t disagree more.
How could a lack of organized religion trump a lack of basic care, food, protection, education, social services, safety? These are things every child deserves. It’s our government’s job to provide them when American families can’t do that on their own.
Families all have their own ethos and ethics, which they often pass on to their children. You don’t have to believe there’s a giant man in the sky or reference an old book to be a good person, provider, neighbor or parent.
Churches—especially of the catholic variety—don’t have a great track record for prioritizing and caring for children. What that takes is simply making the care and well-being of children a priority.
13
@ehillesum
I live in a part of the country where God is venerated and all churches, which cover the landscape here, pay no taxes and take up a ton of space. Meanwhile, many live in poverty and breed like flies. We need to tax the churches, make birth control free, easy, and mandatory beyond 2 children, and stop subsidizing mindless breeding regardless of how much money one has.
1
A critical, important, and great point, Nicholas, that America — the richest country in the history of the world — is AWOL in terms of fully caring and funding our childrens’ safety, health, well being, and future — in terms of their current deplorable conditions (which you note), and in terms of their future, which is indeed bleak because of the FACT that the Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Empire (under Emperor Trump and weak-kneed Democrats) are totally unaware of, or just don’t care, that this virtually Disguised Crony Capitalist Empire is allowing massive ‘negative externality costs’ to be dumped into our childrens’ lungs (cigarettes and vaping), our childrens’ atmosphere (global warming, extreme storms, and sea level rise), and into the deaths of our childrens’ schools (AR-15 assault weapons) — all for only the sake of allowing Uber-greedy and conscious-less global corporations and transnational banks of the UHNWI elite to produce “faux-profits” by pumping death and destruction into our childrens’ world 24x7x365!
8
From a "conservative" perspective- people should want to alleviate child poverty and educate children and feed them well so that they can be independent with gainful employment later in life.
Let's raise the playing field altogether. ALL together.
19
Today's "conservatives" are owned by big money and all big money wants is fodder for war. Undereducated, alienated, simple-minded people, to fight profitable, bogus wars.
2
I am wondering why we don't look for something that actually has proven to work? Other countries have models that we could look at to begin to solve some of these problems. I believe it begins with people earning a living wage to be able to support their families. We need affordable housing and safe neighborhoods. Where are the problem solvers in America?
14
"Where are the problem solvers in America?" With one notable exception, the problem solvers are not running for public office which is issue #1. They're either comfortable within one ivory tower or another or at a think tank. The solutions to ALL of the challenges have been written and fleshed out, but what is politically possible remains our collective Achilles heel. What are WE the people going to do?
5
We will never solve that problem of child poverty until we stop importing poverty wholesale from the third world on a daily basis. The influx of poorly educated Central Americans who are crossing our borders daily with their children will keep our child poverty numbers high for the foreseeable future.
Take a look at the statistics involving our schools. The best way out of poverty is education but we are spending more and more on programs to mitigate poverty and less on true education. ESL, free lunches, and special ed costs are soaring, taking away from other areas like science. Even toney Fairfax Cnty VA is facing this issue.
Until we get our border under control and reduce immigration in general, we can talk a good game on ending child poverty as long as we want, but we will not come near to success.
7
@D Flinchum Half a dozen of the wealthiest Americans earn more than the entire bottom half of the population, and the gap between wages for the highest and lowest-paid workers has never been higher, but the cause of poverty is too many Central American immigrants? Please.
3
Thank God we have immigrants! Otherwise, who would we have to blame for all of our problems? Perhaps ourselves?
1
@Terry
the cause of poverty is too many Central American immigrants?
No, @Terry, they are a contributing factor. If your basement is flooded by a broken pipe, you first turn off the water before you start to bail. Otherwise, you will quickly find that the water will flow in quicker than you can bail out.
For years, we have imported poverty wholesale and it is rapidly catching up with us. The only chance that we have to possibly mitigate the poverty we have now is to stop bringing in still more. This is simple economics.
1
How children are treated in the United States is one more example of not caring for those with no voting power. It is sickening to read that according to UNICEF America ranks number 37 and that American infants were 76% more likely to die in their first year than children in other advanced countries.
The fact that problems for children have been magnified under the 'guidance' of Trump doesn't surprise me. Why should lead poising be fixed when it costs money? The number of uninsured children was raised by 425,000. Poverty is not something Trump or the GOP care about.
For Trump, profits for Dow Chemical is more important than brain damage for young children.
One of the main reasons children in poverty do not do well in school is that they are living in conditions that are threatening. Drugs, gunshots, lack of housing, lack of healthcare and parents without jobs contributes to changes inside their bodies. It is similar to trying to study while living in a war zone. Very few can do it.
What can be done? Hopefully Democrats will find some answers. Doubt that the GOP, who give to the wealthy, are concerned.
28
Parents can vote. And modern American parenthood has become a monumental struggle. Unfortunately, many parents are so overwhelmed by the relentless daily challenges that they can't pause long enough to see the causes. In their anxiety over their children's future they push their kids rather than ask what is wrong with our society.
The answer to helping our children have a good life is for us to do the work now of building a better place for everyday Americans to live. Universal healthcare, an increase in and fair redistribution of school funding, parental support and education from pregnancy thru high school, highly subsidized or free college level education, free high quality childcare along the lines of France's system, a reasonable work week, reasonable wages, rent control in high cost cities, and a real safety net for the unemployed. The US is behind most western countries in all these things. And all these things can help lift families from poverty.
Older Americans are often been fearful of these protections. They bought into the idea that protecting rich people and businesses is capitalism and thus American but protecting citizens who build the country is communism and thus not American.
But the constitution states that "governments are instituted among men" to protect the rights of the people.
We will not succeed against poverty until we lose the irrational fear of the solutions. Reach and teach parents how to build a better world for their kids. They can vote.
31
While both major political parties may have a lackluster record when it comes to addressing child poverty, it would be unfair to blame both the Democrats and Republicans equally for this sad state of affairs. Far and away, it is the GOP that willfully embraces policies which not only "[ignore] the welfare of our young" but also cause them harm.
On vital issues such as gun control and climate change, the Republicans have shown that they are only too willing to sacrifice the lives and health of future generations of Americans, in order to appease special interest groups like the NRA and corporate benefactors like the fossil fuel industry. How can they be so indifferent, so short-sighted? This goes beyond mere cruelty. It is immoral.
The litmus test for any candidate for political office should be how their policies will better the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable among us, those whose voices are least heard and represented. Time and again, the GOP has failed this test miserably. For the good of the country, for the good of ALL Americans, these rogues should be voted out.
They should be expelled for good.
23
Ironically, the candidate Nick scorns, Marianne Williamson, has spoken eloquently about children and has unveiled plans for better the lives of children n the U.S and globally. It has been a consistent theme in her campaign.
8
And Bernie, the candidate scorned even more by Kristof and NYT editors has voiced the issue for decades. See for example: https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/recent-business/childhood-poverty-in-america
2
The top five countries in the UNICEF report on Children in the Developed Word are Nordic Countries. Bernie Sanders ran on the Nordic model in 2016
Here is the list, in descending order
Norway
Germany
Denmark
Sweden
Finland
But " We are not Denmark"
27
True, we are not "Denmark". But we ARE capable of doing a LOT better. One example, the Headstart program was a jewel in our crown until the republicans tore it to shreds. We can be better.
1
While I think there could be bipartisan support for cleaning up lead in homes, subsidized high quality child care and early childhood education, the odds of the GOP supporting direct payments to families with children is extremely low to nil. Conservatives believe that (brown and black) women will have children because they'll receive $ from the gov't (remember Reagan's welfare queens). They're fine with tax credits but those don't help poor people who already don't pay federal income tax.
20
The problem is not that kids can't vote since kids can't vote in the thirty plus countries with less childhood poverty.
17
@Keitr
Agree. The problems is the kids' parents don't vote.
Thank you for the reminder of our shortcomings when it comes to childhood poverty. One should point out that we are doing our children and generations to come no favors by the enormous weight of the budget deficit and projected implosion of social security and medicare. Not only are our children being shortchanged now, but we are denying them sufficient resources to live well in the future.
7
Mr. K. makes a fair point but does not go near far enough. We are cannibalizing our youth. Consider the extraordinary costs we impose on young families with child care, health care and education costs. I attend a town hall the the congressman is all concerned about vets and heath care for the elderly. Not a word about the young, until someone happens to raise the issue. At that point he is, of course, concerned, but not enough to act on it, but then what important issues does Congress take action on these days? BTW I am 72.
25
You conveniently ignore this week’s economic report of significant decrease in families living in poverty, including single parent households. That would debunk your ‘Trump is to blame’ dictum of this editorial board.
The sad fact is that most kids living in poverty are born by parents with generational histories of being poor. The practical solution to all this is to not have children you can’t afford in the first place.
8
@Henry Lecturing women while funding and access is slashed for family planning and women’s health services is not helpful.
13
Historically, the decline of 2 parent households, triggered by entitlement programs that facilitated absence of fathers has done more to increase childhood poverty than any decrease in ‘family planning services ‘ i.e. abortion, or other liberal government fiascos of similar aims. Call that a ‘lecture ‘ too, but call it the truth.
1
@HENRY You express what seems to be the bottom-line attitude of Republicans, conservatives, libertarians and, of course, Trumpers: People are so darned inconvenient. Who needs 'em?
2
We have decided many of us as doctors, teachers or law enforcement personnel are mandated reporters of child abuse. If we see someone beating up a child, we are both morally and legally compelled to act.
But none of us either as individuals or as a government is equally compelled to respond in like fashion to childhood poverty or other depredations of lesser overt and visible harm which have devastating cumulative effects on development.
Our president and supposed leader rails against "rat-infested" communities and speaks of humans seeking refuge to themselves and their children as an "infestation". Our collective action is as if the damaged children were themselves responsible for their situations.
If not killed off by neglect or abuse, our children will become adults who, without requisite skills, will become a millstone on our nation's success.
A battered child is a tragedy but so is a hungry or poor child. It is the same crime, just a matter of degree.
34
It would be nice if everyone agreed that assuring children get a good start in life is in enveryone's best interest. I suspect this is not the case, as many people want to make sure that their own (or their own perceived group's) children do better than others. Even Voltaire admitted that society needed some people to do the farming; the equivalent today would be the menial jobs no one wants. This is extremely short-sighted, as neglected children often create enormous social costs.
10
Thanks Nicholas. There are many steps that America can easily take but unfortunately doesn’t. Proper child care is one of them. I cite here a simple incident or two. Please think over seriously.
The other day our granddaughter went to her first K.G class in Ann Arbor, MI. Our son - in - law and daughter have seen to it that we are present on this very important occasion for our family. So we came all the way from India to share the joy not only with them but with our granddaughter too.
On that day I found two unaccompanied children entering school premises totally perplexed whom to ask and where to go. I told a couple, who accompanied their child about it. They simply lifted their hands as if they are helpless and clueless. I thought of helping the children. Luckily one of the staffers guided the children properly. The children’s parents could have seen to it that they are taken care of but not.
After coming from school on the first day, our granddaughter told us that one of her classmates cried since she had nothing to eat. She might have forgotten her lunchbox. I asked my granddaughter why she didn’t offer her some food ? She told me that her teacher told her not to do so. On hearing it I felt very bad. A child perhaps had to go without food just because someone feared that if other child offers food, this particular child might be allergic and this child might fall sick and that the school might face some law suit ? How can we let go a child just like that ?
42
And we punish and humiliate children who have “lunch money debt “
4
"James Heckman, a Nobel laureate in economics at the University of Chicago, calculates that investments in early childhood programs for at-risk kids have an astronomical return, because of improved productivity and reduced spending on police forces, courts, jails, special education and health care."
Blame Trump, sure, but also blame the short-sightedness of the majority of Americans for our lack of adequate investment in our most important resource, our children and particularly our disadvantaged children.
Children raised in single parent homes need intervention the moment their cognitive skills begin falling behind those of more privileged children.
Germany's education reform at the beginning of this century proves what can be accomplished with an expensive investment in education that tests and provides remedial intervention for children that begin to fall behind, beginning with public pre-school.
They have proven the efficacy of such an approach, but Americans as a group have not shown a willingness to support programs that require serious funding and almost a generation to truly bear economic fruit.
We have an energetic but not long sighted culture and consistently refuse to make sacrifices for the long-term good of our country.
25
But we make sacrifices so billionaires can get richer. I just don't understand why people aren't rioting in the streets and burning down mansions. They should be.
1
I think Warren has a plan for that. Her public childcare/preschool plan coupled with debt forgiveness for higher education will help millions of families who can’t get ahead. The universal insurance options from multiple candidates will definitely help.
Things that aren’t covered as talking points are public housing for low income families. The public housing issue also faces a lot of vets who are unable to work. It’s a travesty that I see regularly on a personal basis.
12
Affordable housing laws are now supposed to provide at least 25% affordable housing, but our township consistently allows developers to break this law and offer only 10%. Time to make gov't accountable to the taxpayers. Our whole town council and planning board should be in jail.
16
1. Political candidates pick and choose what they talk about on the campaign trail. They are typically drawn to topics that will allow them to criticize the actions or inactions of their opponent. It is so easy to be high minded when you get to decide what to be high minded about.
2. The superficiality of most political discourse is mirrored in our highly superficial society. Many people never think about something like child poverty because they have an aversion for the unsettling. I am reminded of the reader comments accompanying books advertised on Amazon. Many readers are critical of a book not because it is poorly written or improbable but because it forced them to think about something they would have preferred not to think about.
3. Not only do our children deserve better, we deserve better for ourselves. And better means that we must be willing to confront problems for which there are no easy solutions.
18
I generally agree with you Mr, Kristof and share your columns widely. That said, in reading this, I get angry about your subhead. To question whether the presidential candidates care is totally being "sensational," "headline grabbing" and "accusatory." Just because they haven't been asked a question in debates doesn't mean THEY don't care. I think we have heard plenty from the candidates on how they care. I think we've heard how they care about policies that the current administration has implemented affects children. I think many have expressed how our children deserve better. Perhaps you can ask if the Senate cares as we know the White House doesn't.
10
Let's be honest: most politicians of both parties LIE, and only care about lining their own pockets with bribe money from developers, banks, billionaires, corporations, etc. Otherwise we would not be in this mess, and our blue states would be like Denmark.
1
Bernie Sanders does not lie and does not take bribes from developers
1
The focus of this column -- reduction of childhood poverty across the USA -- is welcome and worthy. Thank you for it, Mr. Kristof. Your advocacy for presidential candidates to address this important issue falls short in one important respect, however. One current presidential candidate -- Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado -- has been strongly advocating for a very realistic proposal that would reduce childhood poverty by nearly 40%, the American Family Act (see https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/c/9/c95f1385-42ba-43fd-9003-c70b5e702a88/B2B2105009436FE946AB7B313D3AC421.american-family-act-of-2019-fact-sheet.pdf). Senator Bennet frequently speaks about this legislative proposal on the campaign trail. Both he and the proposal deserve more attention in the media. Unfortunately, Senator Bennet is, so far, having persistent trouble getting noticed among the current candidates. Compounding that challenge are the current NDC rules regarding debate qualification, which are preventing Senator Bennet from participating in tonight's debate. Were he there tonight, there is a very high likelihood that childhood poverty would get raised and discussed as an important issue, just as you opine for, Mr. Kristof. Without Senator Bennet on the stage, it's likely that all of your (and my) discussion will be for naught.
7
Child poverty? How about affordable child care first, the rest will follow.
22
Government welfare programs for corporations and endless trillion dollar wars on terror have bankrupted this country both fiscally and morally. Perhaps we should ask Brooks, Stephens, Douthat and Friedman for some cutting-edge free market solutions to the problems you're identifying, Mr. Kristof.
19
It seems like we first have to answer the question of who "our children" are? If every random child in the world can be morally eligible for American benefits just by showing up here, as Mr. Kristof's opening anecdote seems to imply, then there isn't much we can do for "our children."
9
oh, but we can spend untold trillions on "defense" and corporate welfare? It's all about priorities, not pretending (lying, really) that it's a pie that couldnt possibly be sliced up any more fairly than it currently is.
4
@Steve Sailer
You'll no doubt be happy that Trump's rigged Supreme Court has overturned restrictions on Trump's Asylum policy, which requires families seeking Asylum to apply, and be rejected, by another country before they can even apply for Asylum in the US. I'll also offer that it is not Asylum seekers who are responsible for the US being ranked 36th or 37th in child wellness, or for an infant in the US to be 76 times more likely to die in his/her first year of life than in other westernized countries. The now, again, increasing numbers of people without health insurance is a result of Trump and the Fox News/right wing Republican Party hell bent on undoing everything Obama accomplished for the country. De-regulating pesticides which cause neurological damage in children is one of many examples. Blaming Asylum seekers for the damage done to children and families in the US as a result of Republican policies is despicable.
1
Reading this column makes me sad and angry. I don't have children but feel all children matter and I try to contribute when and where I can. It's shocking to see how much the country has sacrificed in decency and care--starting with its children.
34
I don't have children, but I have to pay $10,000 in school taxes to a gentrified community where rich yuppies breed like rabbits and are driving us all out (I'm getting ready to leave, enough is enough). Where are the resources left for our poor when the rich are hogging them up?
When I saw the title of the article, I thought that Nicholas might be talking about climate change, and how the US is leading the way in destroying the earth for future generations.
He makes very good points about important issues for the welfare of our children, and I agree that these should be discussed by the presidential candidates.
But isn't the most important thing that we aren't doing for our children is leaving them a livable planet?
17
Maybe if we didn't have so many children, the planet might not be in such bad shape.
Yes, we need to leave kids a livable planet, and do everything in our power to banish those legislators who deny it and refuse to act. As a lifelong educator, this issue of protecting and nurturing children cannot simply be explained away by focusing on one issue. We need to care more about children and families bringing children into the world. We have legislators who have no clue about poverty in The US, about hungry kids, SO scared every day of their lives. They care only about donors, getting re-elected, making money, wielding power. If we really cared, we would provide free contraception and health services. Some here say that “these people” shouldn’t have kids, should be more responsible”. Yet again, those who cast the first stone, often have no idea how some among us live; not knowing where their next meal is coming from or how to provide for themselves and others. Sometimes, the only ray of light is a bit of affection from another human, even knowing that the comfort and love may not exist or last and may end in a pregnancy.
It is easy for some of us to not understand others because we haven’t walked in their shoes. Living a safe, food filled, love filled life makes it easy to tell others what is “right”. If we were the country I thought we were, we’d be helping kids and their families, paying teachers as professionals. But no, we have become a disgusting, money crazed, power crazed place that puts a narcissistic racist in the WH. What did you expect would happen?
1
Living abroad I saw my local co-workers having medical benefits, old age /long term care insurance and maternity leave. 6 weeks before & 8 weeks after birth were mandatory by law, then the option of 3 years maternity with return right to work. Free college education and well compensated jobs. People had quality of life, maybe a bit less consumerish but good standards. That is what I believe is the problem in the US. It starts and ends with education and compensation, how can you be a wholesome person if you constantly struggle for this or that. Living in America I find money troubles in many households that diminish all happiness and quality of life. Kids eat junk, miss out on art or sports. Soccer is a common people sports but in US it's elite, we pay almost $1500 a year for the club. if I could I would sponsor a kid, there are many who would benefit from being in a sports club. It's all about the compensation of people, yet when you talk about free school or M4A that's so socialist. We are going backwards in many ways. My hope lays with the millenials.
200
@Hulagirrrl You don't mention the high taxes paid in those countries to support those services--and every American politician knows it's practically impossible to sell higher taxes to the masses.
3
My European relatives pay almost the same tax rate that I pay. They get health care, university education, clean modern transit. We get wars.
26
@Trish Bennett
Yes, their taxes are higher. So I guess we wish to keep stepping over the homeless and helpless on NYC sidewalks. I am pretty sure that the $900+k we'll have spent over 33 years for college tuition and health care for our family would have been covered with less than that cost in taxes over that time (in one of the high-tax countries). I am late to the party, myself, but we Americans need to see that we ARE responsible, and with re-visited priorities, we would benefit, too.
9
Thank you for this column. Child poverty in this country is inexcusable, as is corporate profit pesticide poisoning, deteriorating education, and the incidence of youth suicide. We should demand the needed changes. But in the meantime we're all cruising on the ship Planet Titanic. Better start bailing before it's too late.
37
As long as children's wellbeing policies are measured in economic terms such as costs and return on investment, instead of in moral, human rights, and common sense societal terms, the US will continue with its retrograde path denying a future to new generations.
43
@Omar If women had a chance to stay home for the first three years of a child's life, or parents split that time it would so benefit not only that family but society. Now families pay super high prices for child care and if they can't afford they take a person who is maybe less qualified or vested in providing great care. I would not be able to afford a child in America today, and then take them to school and they learn fear of active shooter training or worst they have a security guy scanning their bags and they can't wear certain clothes because they are suspected to carry weapons. The assumption of guilt goes with a student in High School. I would not send my child there.
10
It's even more expensive to have an elderly parent, but my mother was still expected to subsidize the local PreK, when I couldn't even get her into daycare.
My career consists of working with children, adolescents, and young adults. It is a shame that in this country, we really don't invest at all in children. Instead, they are seen as consumers, and are easy targets for corporations who market unhealthy products and lifestyles. These corporations, in turn, control many of the elected officials who promise their constituents consideration. Since the investment is not an immediate return, the immediate profit becomes the priority. Now, the education system is failing many bright and motivated children. The healthcare system is also not intended to benefit preventative care, but, again, to maximize profit from illness (hospital stays, pharmaceutical use, office visits). But, the saddest of all, is that so many children have no regular meals and don't have a consistent home. They live in a constant state of flux, and don't have access to nutritious meals, as the public school meals are dismal, if best. The vigilance that develops from not having basic needs met takes these children on paths of immediate gratification, usually involving criminal activity. It is such a tragedy how we fail our children with even the most basic of their needs. If we can start in infancy, having a social worker or nurse make home visits to families with newborns in the first at least 3-6 months of life, the parents could learn how to feel more empowered. Then, they can play that vital role as their children's main advocates.
27
If it doesn't directly impact the Boomers, there's no way this [large] self-centered voting block will make it an issue politicians have to pay attention to. This is why nearly every social good program, from early childhood education, to climate preservation to infrastructure improvements have languished, while bloviated senior entitlement programs are placed on a pedestal. Furthermore, the Boomer generation has bankrupted the Millennial generation to the point where many cannot and never will be able to afford to have kids, so even while being more compassionate, many of us lack experiential awareness of languishing children's programs. Consequently, I'm grateful for articles like these and will vote accordingly, but until Boomers are gone I'm doubtful that there will be any meaningful reshuffling of priorities.
8
@ab: Why are you dumping on the boomers? When I was a child, factories dumped their hazardous waste directly into the nearest stream, emitted every imaginable poison into the atmosphere. It was the collective mindset in the 70's and 80's that led to a curbing of pollution. Civil rights? They came into their heyday during that time. And when I was growing up, we lived in a small house, had hand-me-down clothes, ate vegetables from our own garden, and spent our vacations at home - which is something we continue to do today.
And how exactly did the boomers bankrupt the millenials? The last I saw, we paid for their educations.
No generation is perfect - there are environmentally and socially aware members of every generation.
37
"The last I saw, we paid for their educations."
This is exactly the attitude that needs to see the door before real change can happen.
7
It is always encouraging to see a fund-raising drive at one's local supermarket to combat Child Hunger in America. Shoppers will usually donate whatever they can even if it is loose change.
Noted a few months ago the above, which has now disappeared. There are soup kitchens for children in some of our rural communities; the offering of a rich cake to brighten the eyes of our young; our small town libraries are child-caring and the holiday season is upon us. This is not enough.
One of UNICEF's largest fund-raiser takes place on the celebration of Halloween, and this reader of what Mr. Kristof has to relay, wonders if those small boxes for outings on Trick-or-Treats could be deposited at local post offices.
For those of us who are able and send out greeting cards for The New Year, UNICEF has a magical collection of the above.
The appeals to help the well-being of children are coming in urgently from all over the country and can be overwhelming. It is not necessary for the humanitarian agencies to include free gifts.
Politicians tend to stay off the topic of children-in-need, perhaps because it is a sensitive one that demands a generous amount of sensibility. This presidency has been notably rigid and sterile on advancing the cause of the child in our midst. '1979' has long been forgotten in American history, known as the International Year of The Child, where politicians helped to raise the banner world-wide.
Let us begin once again. America deserves better.
5
We've spent so far $2 trillion dollars on the stalemate in in Afghanistan. Compare that to the entire total student debt held by Americans, which is around $1.5 trillion.
It's all a matter of priorities. Our children may deserve better, but they are not going to get better if there are big profits to be made from endless war.
95
Another key fact from the UNICEF data: Of the measures, including well-being, the highest ranking is in EDUCATION. That is to say, that the US is doing better in education than in health, well-being and every other measure. Yet, our schools and teachers are frequently denigrated. Try teaching poorly nourished, fearful children who are experiencing low levels of well-being. Given the state of our children our education system is doing an amazing job.
13
Our education system is inferior to most in western Europe and Scandinavia, yet my school taxes are outrageously high, while I keep hearing about schools falling apart and underpaid teachers. Where is the money going? And what about the lottery funds that were supposed to support education? Why doesn't the Times investigate that, instead of all this hand-wringing? What has happened to investigative journalism that would expose the misappropriation of funds that are supposed to be used to educate our children?
7
@Stephanie Wood
Our health and safety systems are inferior to virtually all developed nations. Children have lower rates of wellbeing and fewer life prospects and so do their parents. Education is outperforming all of these other social institutions in the US despite the key role that health, safety, and economic stability play in learning and educational achievement. You want to improve education, improve those indicators. The NYT should investigate the relationship between these human flourishing factors and educational attainment.
BTW, most increases in funds for education in past decades end up in two places: Health management corporations and publishing companies. Any salary increases for teachers--and often more than those increases--are eaten up by increased health insurance costs. Which means that public education is basically a conduit of money to private corporations. Second, with the increase in testing and the costs of textbooks and other teaching-learning resources, publishing companies get more money. Not much more investigative journalism is necessary. We know why American kids underperform others (poverty and the gutting of public education to serve corporate and ideological interests), and the rapidly increasing costs of health care and over-emphasis on testing and teaching to the test. ALL of the countries ahead of us have national curricula and health care, and corporate publishers have minor roles.
If by misappropriation you mean the above, I agree.
8
@Stephanie Wood,
Ditto! Having just paid for children's school taxes, and scouted about to find out what they are being taught, the answer remains obscure, with the reality that schools are falling 'apart', and the teachers are underpaid.
Two children age twelve visited recently mid-afternoon. First questions, do your parents know where you are, and what did you learn today. An enthusiastic response is 'P.E.', translated into physical education.
Learning a second language has been dropped on the school program for lack of funds. Our country is in need of more scientists and mathematicians, but more important, our children need to be fed healthy food from birth, affordable to all.
This hopefully is a bipartisan issue that unites its citizens. Charles Dickens was working in a glass factory at age seven and never forgot. Celebrating his 'Christmas Carol' annually is not enough.
Thank you, Mr. Kristof, and hoping you can keep the momentum growing for what is essential and lacking in the Politicians' Agenda.
6
Well done Nicholas. Thank you. Really excellent work.
8
We could barely afford my granddaughters nursery school and day care. When she started kindergarten we thought our financial burden would lessen. Unfortunately we then realized she needed an after school program. This year we can barely afford for her to go three days a week. She really needs to go 5 days a week. Next year we’ll have to tighten our belts so she can go all 5 days. At the same time that we are struggling to pay for these programs, were wondering how we can save for college. This is not the way it should be. There must be a better way.
117
@LoveNOtWar
It's best for a child to be raised by people of parenting age, who have the financial resources to provide.
When you realized the child's parents were abdicating their responsibilities, you stepped up. If family members had recognized earlier that so much government help (daycare, after school programs, free meals, etc) was needed to raise this child, perhaps a better choice might have been a parental termination of rights, and adopting the child into a family that was fully capable of providing for her needs, in the home.
An "open adoption" might have satisfied you: pictures and progress reports of how the child was faring in a family with other children, a healthy home routine, and security, security, security. That's a better way, though adoption is hard for the people making the sacrifice to provide the child with a better home life with people as parents fully capable of meeting the child's needs.
7
@Midway That is not the subject. And you are working hard to deflect. There are many parents, good, stable, loving parents who find themselves in the same situation. Are you going to tell them to give their children up for adoption? Oh, I know, you will say, you shouldn’t have had children. This is what we’ve come to in this country. Hard-hearted, mean-spirited people.
No, I’m not a snowflake, just a mother of 3 sons we managed to raise on very little money at a different time. Somehow we even managed to help 2 of them get through college. Not today, its amazing that any middle class people have children today.
14
Only the wealthy should have children.
1
Why do we have so many American children being born INTO poverty? Why do people who cannot care for themselves reproduce, and bring others into the cycle of poverty?
Why do Americans have a high infant mortality rate? Because, we COUNT the little lives that never make it to birth in other countries. Because, the care here helps us to "rescue" premature babies, some of whom make it past that first year, some of whom don't... In other countries, stillborn children and non-viable preemies are not counted because they are never born. In America, if your child is delivered and lives for a few hours, she is granted a birth and a death certificate. That skews the comparisons, where other little lives never make it out of the womb alive because they do not have the medical advantages we have in the United States.
The poor will always be with us. With smarter planning and more conservative government investment, we will not encourage poor people with few options for themselves to reproduce for a monthly check. We need to educate poor women, and stop incentivizing them only as breeders. Invest in the women, and they will stop bringing children into the world until they have already lifted themselves -- and any other children -- out of poverty.
Kristof means well, but he is out of touch with how poor people rise, and why American birth numbers and "infant mortality" is so skewed compared to the rest of the world.
10
@Midway
People who cannot afford to care for themselves do not understand and cannot afford contraception. Too many of them are oppressed by religious institutions that preach against contraception. Not to mention politicians who vote to de-fund family planning.
45
@Philip Brown
I disagree, Philip. The culture encourages young women to breed with men they love, so they have something left to love when he leaves, or moves on to other women...
Women CHOOSE pregnancy. It's not ignorance, it's a choice to bring a baby into their lives of poverty. Sadly, in some places, uneducated young women see childbearing as a ticket to maturity, a check and admittance to the social services provided to children, and the people who care for them, in America.
Don't blame the politicians or the religions please. If you want to find a free condom in America, you can. If women want longer-term birth control (implants or pills), they are indeed accessible in every county social services agency, where you need to go to access the government benefits. Welcome to America. We need to change the culture, not just give money for policies that are already well funded and available, just underused.
11
@Midway
I find this conversation very upsetting. Women who live in economic poverty are not breeders. This country has a long history of criminalizing and blaming people who are poor along with people of color. It is beyond time for this false narrative to end. Suggestion: stop making blanket statements about groups.
I am a member of a grass-roots lobby working to end poverty. We are working with our legislators to insure
that all children have access to best health practices beginning when they are in the uterus. We want every child to have access to excellent education. Many children in poverty lack access to education or good medical care.
It does take a whole village to raise a child. Thank you Nick for your story. I hope each and every reader will sign the petition to insure that our presidential candidates talk about how they would address raising our country’s children. Roosevelt so aptly said how we treat the least of us is reflects who we as a country really are.
insure
64
Candidate Marianne Williamson talks about this very issue in nearly every campaign speech. She believes deeply that there should be a Presidential Cabinet level position concerning children and youth. Please go to marianne2020.com and read her issues statement on the subject. You are right, our children deserve better. I must add that Marianne needs to be recognized for speaking so often and so eloquently for our children's future. Please do so. Thank you for the opinion piece.
11
American kids would be much better off if there were fewer of them. The war against abortions and birth control has resulted in women who have no business being parents producing broods they are not capable of caring for, supporting or educating. Child allowances won’t help a 20-year-old with three kids by different fathers to raise reasonably competent human beings. It is not fair to ask the taxpayer to support children who should have never been born. On the other hand, since conservatives refuse to pay for abortions, they better shell out for remedial education.
30
@Mor
If Americans are asked to pay for other people's health and children, then it is only fair for the successful Americans who are supporting others to guide and direct the lives of those receiving the payments.
If you want to live better, emulate the lives of people who can care for their children without government help. If you want to be healthier, look and see what fit people choose, and deny, daily. Then, emulate them.
We can provide monthly support checks, or we can teach people how to fish. The more support checks, the less independence and the more people view themselves as victims. They're not, they are just incentivized to make poor choices that keep them poor.
More money for those women who do NOT bear children out of wedlock, put their kids into daycare for others to raise, and understand the importance of staying home to provide healthy meals and hands-on supervision when the learning years are vital.
10
Even "competent" parents take huge resources from the community. The cost of education for the rich is astronomical.
1
@ Midway - People who live in poverty and on insufficient wages do not want or need "support checks." It is affordable (and safe) housing, food, childcare, transportation and other tangible resources that will help them to have better lives and, in turn, raise healthier, more active and better-prepared children. Tax money should not be spent just throwing money at the parents, although if the things they need are not readily available through government-supported programs, they will require greater income to pay for what IS available. Early childhood education is vital for children and programs such as Head Start have been proven to be effective. People are not born knowing how to be parents - they need to be taught. They are not born knowing how to budget, make healthy food choices, read well and prepare for the future. I suspect that many of them were raised by parents who were completely unprepared to raise children. Education is the best way to help them and many of our schools have been ineffective. People can not simply do it on their own. They need much more than just money. When the government cuts back on vital programs, it does a disservice to all of us.
This is what more than forty years of Republican rule have brought us. Our children are behind in every measure. Republicans have never felt that investment in human beings was worthwhile, unless those people were employable. Now, with more jobs becoming automated, Republicans see even less value in people.
We can elect a Democratic president in 2020, but without the Senate, he or she will be seriously hamstrung. This Supreme Court will make law for several more decades. And as long as our system of government allows the power to be held by a minority of citizens, we won't have progress.
Perhaps this nation will return to what it once was. I recall the space race quite well. I remember when America was proud to invest in its young people, to try to educate them at the highest levels. Those days are long gone. They will not return in my lifetime.
For families with young children now, my best advice would be to try to emigrate to a nation that values its citizens. A nation that provides excellent education. A nation that provides free or very affordable health care. A nation that provides parents paid leave to take care of their families.
It will be decades, if ever, before the United States becomes that country. Any middle class family with young children (because the wealthy always have access to whatever they want) should consider leaving this country. Your children's futures are at stake. And Republicans don't have the slightest concern about their future.
87
@Henry Hurt,
'For families with young children now, my best advice would be to try to emigrate to a nation that values its citizens'...Where is this Land of Narnia in the sunlight?
Parents that I have the pleasure of being acquainted with, and regardless of party affiliation, are making 'sacrifices' to place their children in school and beyond.
A privileged child is a 'loved' one. Planning to thank a young friend of mine from a Republican family for sending a hand-written note on the occasion of her birthday.
An 'accident' is addressing you here, and when my parents separated, my mother took this offspring to France and Spain. Her son of the 'first bed' never forgave her for 'moving', and was left to the whims of his robber baron family. When he mentions her lack of character, it is the two of us who are lacking in character for he forgets her courage. Neither of us have children and our pets do not have to go to college.
Back to the reality of the Present. UNICEF has just issued a responsible report based on facts and figures. On an aside, Joe Biden might be a presidential candidate who cares about the well-being of impoverished children, and these are many in the Land of the Free.
'Midway' holding strong in this call for action to abolish Child Hunger, and it will come as no surprise if we have a supporter of Planned Parenthood in our midst. We are not 'rabbits', and not all well-padded persons make for good parents.
The Middle-Class is not in Malta.
@Henry Hurt
Any middle class family with young children (because the wealthy always have access to whatever they want) should consider leaving this country.
---------
Lol. OR: parents could just budget and figure out a way to live on one income with one parent staying in the home community to save, shop smart, keep the dollars in the home. No need to run away. Your problems will follow you where you go. Families, not governments, are the building blocks of societies. Not all families are intact, but we should encourage the family to provide, and not go running around the world looking for the most government handouts.
3
I am grateful that my granddaughter who has dual citizenship will never have to worry about the cost of health care or needed drugs.
My granddaughter will never have to worry about the cost of university education. She’ll have to study hard and she could fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor.
My granddaughter doesn’t have to be frightened that a gun nut might open fire in her classroom, her church, or while she’s at a concert or shopping in a mall.
I heartily recommend young people to try another country.
7
The problem is not only that "kids don't vote"--kids also don't give huge campaign contributions, either.
In a society, unlike most of the rest of those in the first world, in which "money is free speech" and unlimited funds can be given, often without disclosure, by anyone or any organization that has them in order to influence the work of government representatives, it's no wonder that the interests of those who by definition can't give said funds are given little attention.
Still another argument for full public funding of elections, the elimination of all organizational (be they business, religious, labor, or 503 anything) "donations" to politicians' campaigns, and a very low (three digit) limit on individual donations to any given campaign. (Because only individuals can be characterized as having any sort of free expression right--an organization is not a speaker--and even that right of free expression has limits that go beyond shouting "fire" in a crowded theater.)
12
Yes, but...Mr. Kristof, the astronomical returns you talk about are returns to society-at-large. The oligarchs who would be called on to help pay for this would not realize this same return. And, unfortunately, they are running the show. Until we have government for [all] the people and by [all] the people, society will continue to forego worthwhile investment just like these.
44
I read this until I came to the nonsense about lead poisoning. It's very rare today, largely because lead has been removed from gasoline. The "levels of concern" that Mr. Kristof is confusing with actual poisoning are less than national AVERAGE lead levels were in the 1970's. Yet people who grew up then and earlier weren't harmed. Better to have zero lead, but wrong to pretend harm was done when it wasn't.
If you want to prevent child poverty, make sure their parents are married. That would eliminate almost all of it, and we could concentrate support on widows and orphans.
4
@Jonathan Katz
"I read this until I came to the nonsense about lead poisoning. It's very rare today, largely because lead has been removed from gasoline."
Three points: First, lead exposure arises from other sources beside no-longer-leaded gasoline. Poor people tend to live in old housing stock which has un-remediated lead-paint contamination. Deteriorated pain sheds lead-containing dust that finds its way into children, who are exquisitely sensitive to lead's harmful effects. Lead plumbing continues to be another source of lead exposure. Flint, Michigan, is only the most notorious municipal water supply so affected. Due to lack of enforcement of Safe Drinking Water Act provisions, the problem is more widespread than is generally known.
Second, lead has no biological function, unlike other heavy metals. The toxicologists tell us that there is no known threshold dose for its harmful effects. In other words, there is NO safe dose or exposure quantity.
Third, lead exposure can depress cognitive function, learning, memory, & impulse control even at low exposure levels. If ten million children lose 5 points off their IQ on account of preventable lead exposure they'll grow up into adults with 50-million points of ability lost to society as a whole. YOU might not notice a 5-point IQ deficiency in an individual, but summed across an entire population and we're talking about a real problem.
167
@Jonathan Katz-Lead is in the pipes delivering water to millions of households. As you are in St. Louis, you would do well to check out your city's water report. Also look into chloramine's leaching effects on old pipes.
3
Parents are primarily responsible for the well-being of their children, not governments.
If you're not well enough off, financially, to support your children, why are you having them?
Do you read to your child every night, from birth, to help them start the learning process?
Parents should research the pesticides they use in their homes, regardless of what licensing agencies say.
How many parents lie around the house all day, sometimes drunk or stoned or just eating themselves fat, instead of meeting the responsibility they have taken on as parents?
This is a societal problem, not one of government, and it's our responsibility, as citizens, to take responsibility and make it better.
22
@Raz
Parents are responsible for their children. But some parents do terrible things. Does that mean their children should suffer and we shouldn't do anything? Neighbors, friends, and family members often refuse to help. Sometimes government programs are the only things that help those children. Their circumstances are usually not their fault. If those children don't get help, society suffers. Supporting children is the best investment--and if we support children, we can help them be better parents in the future.
107
@Heather H
The only recourse the government has is foster care. Sometimes that's worse than what they came from, especially from an emotional perspective.
The best, and only real solution, is for the parents themselves to get better.
We are raising a whole generation of people that take very little responsibility for their own lives, looking for excuses for all their shortcomings, and expecting the government to solve all their personal problems.
It's ridiculous and time for it to stop.
13
@Heather H
If a parent is neglectful or abusive, remove him or her from the home. Permanently.
If there is no government check for the neglected child, the parents are very likely to "give it up" because they want more of a meal ticket than a child to raise and protect and shelter and feed and educate. If you can't do this, discontinue the parental rights and get those children in families that have proven they can care for children. Plenty of poor families do.
5
Politicians proudly run on 'get tough on crime,' but never on educate all children. We are quick to elevate former prosecutors into higher political offices. Imagine what a good school system throughout this country would do for the well being of Americans and the savings of billions of dollars. Instead we seriously underfund K12 education through property taxes. We expect impoverished poorly educated kids to become enlightened at 18/21 yo and act like responsible adults. Instead, billions go into our criminal justice system to incarcerate all the wonderful missed opportunities to make the world a better place.
81
@MT
Sorry, but if there is no cultural support or value placed on education in the home and the community, then throwing all of the taxpayer money in the world will not help.
If a family and a child wants an education in America, it can be found no matter where you live or the quality of your home public school district.
The trouble is... too many people scoff at education and fear what they will learn. It becomes self perpetuating -- the values are transmitted and if education is not valued, the child gets the message first and foremost at home.
6
@Midway You entirely missed the main points in my comments. It is unrealistic that an unwed teenage mother will have the parenting skills to raise a child; the mother's environment was probably much the same. The solution(s) extend far beyond our schools but the lack of 'cultural support' detrimentally affects the education systems. We need to recognize and address the problems early and yes invest, or we pay later multiply times over through the criminal justice system. Children are the greatest resources for any nation's future.
14
But education is NOT valued by the top echelons of society! Otherwise funding would not be stripped from public schools to support investor charter schools. College education would be free. Graduates would not be saddled with high interest debt. Teachers would have good salaries and would not have to hold second jobs and spend their own money for school supplies. And teachers would be respected. Pre-school would be free for all. After-school programs would also be free.
Intellectuals are denigrated. Scientists are scoffed at. I see NO evidence that this nation values education.
4
First, I want to give thanks for your advocacy for our children. I so appreciate when people have a platform and use it productively, as you do. Second, I agree that even small changes can make a big difference. I am a Speech Language Pathologist who works with Early Start Children in California. These are children, ages birth to 3 years, who may start out with a disadvantage, but with some intervention with family involvement, may reverse the trajectory for the long run. Research has shown that the brains of young children are quite pliable, and with proper nutrition, hearing many words spoken to them and read to them, will change their brain neurons. That real physical change leads to better learning lifelong. As a society we need to focus far more on our children. Please keep focusing our politicians on this.
115
@Lianne Thanks for your work with these children! I believe the zero-to-three space is where we have the greatest leverage to improve outcomes, because that's when kids' brains are developing most rapidly. I'm a believer in coaching parents, because there's evidence it has real impacts. For example, poor children and wealth children begin to speak at the same time; there's no innate gap in verbal ability. But children of professional parents hear 30 million more words by age three, so naturally they are more verbal when school begins--and that gap continues. Often poor kids don't have any children's books in the house. But programs that coach disadvantaged parents on speaking to their kids and reading to their kids really work. Almost all parents want the best for their children, and all society is better off when we make these modest investments in our nation's future.
48
@Nicholas Kristof
This is absolutely correct. The population I work with it are typically farm worker families (yes, many are illegal immigrants from Mexico or other Latin American countries, and, no, they are not rapists or drug dealers or bad people--Trump is just wrong). My name is Marcia Arnold, and Lianne is actually my daughter, but we share the NY Times subscription. Coaching parents is where it is at, and the key is not to go into the home and pontificate, but to listen to them. All parents want the same thing. Listening is the key, and then reading to them, talking with them and encouraging exploration. Many of the families I see don't even have toys for their children. (I am embarrassed to think how many toys my own kids had). Please keep up your wonderful columns. Thank you.
31
@Lianne
Research has shown that the brains of young children are quite pliable, and with proper nutrition, hearing many words spoken to them and read to them, will change their brain neurons. That real physical change leads to better learning lifelong. As a society we need to focus far more on our children. Please keep focusing our politicians on this.
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The word parents should replace politicians in your last sentence, Lianne. Otherwise, agree 100 percent. If you expect the daycares and the schools to raise your children, please don't conceive them.
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