Child Poverty Issue Paper

Emily Perdue
English 102
Issue Paper
Child Poverty
Poverty effects many people around the word, it is an underling issue to many factors in life. There have been many statistics written about poverty and the numbers are always changing. You can go from being rich to poor in minutes, from having a house to being homeless in a matter of seconds, but it can take almost a life time to get your life back on track. If you are born into poverty the statistics show you are less likely to ever get out of poverty; but why is that? What are the true reasons for that statement, you ask? The world around us, for the reason that a child born into poverty clearly do not have the same opportunity’s as a child born just above the poverty line. I personally
Meaning that 19.9 percent of children in America were hungry, not well clothed, not well taken care of, and not well educated. That’s 19.9 percent more children America sent out into the world to repeat and not beat the statistics. Research shows that a child who suffers from poverty also suffers malnutrition and lack of health care, both of these are reason children are distracted in school or don’t even show up to school to be educated. A Study by the U.S Department of Health, Education, and Welfare reported that poor children suffer 23 percent, they do not grow as tall as other children. Their more likely to have low hemoglobin values during their years of growth and suffer incidence of impetigo, gastrointestinal diseases, parasitic diseases, and urinary-tract infections. (Shiller,
They attend public schools from elementary to high school and very few go to college. They also have a harder time staying in school due to illness and those who do attend have a hard time focusing due to stress and/or depressions. Lack of education is the leading cause of poverty according to the table in the book, Economics of Poverty and Discrimination, 23.8 percent of people in poverty have no high school diploma, 10.8 percent have diploma (no college), 7.7 percent some college, and 3.6 percent are college graduates,(Shiller, 2008). Very many people suffer because they just can’t afford to go to college so the odds to getting a good job are rare because more education leads to higher income. . I believe that education is the biggest reason we continue to have high numbers in poverty, yet poverty is a good reason for lack of education. It is simply a never ending statistical circle, due to the government not stepping in to help for years and years. They just recently started raising the bar and passed the no kid left behind act, as well as sending home back packs with snacks in them every evening and bags of food home during the weekends, and giving grants such as the Pell to college students who can’t afford to go to