High Poverty Rate Persists for Children

WASHINGTON —  Despite the economic recovery of the 1980s, millions of children in the United States remain in poverty, “unhealthy, uneducated and unable to participate in the highly technological economy of the future,” according to a far-reaching congressional report released Sunday.

One-fifth of all children, 50% of black children and one-fourth of all preschoolers live in poverty, according to the report. Children--especially young children--continue to be the single largest poverty group in the nation.

The report by the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families said that there has been “no progress in increasing the proportion of pregnant women who receive appropriate prenatal care” and that the proportion of low birth weight babies has increased.

Problems Compounded

“The persistent problems of poverty and poor health are compounded by alarming rises in homelessness, youth violence and the emergence of drug addiction and AIDS among babies,” the report also noted.

Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), chairman of the House committee, called the report “a portrait of America’s children” and added: “But this is not a portrait signed by Norman Rockwell. This is a very troubling picture. What you end up with is the dark side . . . of economic recovery.”

The report, one of the most comprehensive ever to document the current economic conditions and trends affecting U.S. children and families, is the third in a series compiled by the committee.

What is especially disturbing, Miller said, is that the latest report reflects an increase in the same ominous trends as the two earlier reports, issued in 1983 and 1987.

The gloomy trends documented in the first two studies were frequently dismissed “as part of the recession,” or as the result of the Ronald Reagan Administration’s attempt to cut back many social programs, Miller said. However, he said, it is more difficult to fix blame now that “we see that these things are continuing, and they are profound and massive.”

“And I don’t see anything on the horizon that’s going to change them,” he added. “When will this constituency be strong enough to be heard? Politicians either do not hear them, or they are hearing them so slowly that the trends are overwhelming us.”

Besieged by Poverty

A “significant portion” of American families and “millions of our youngest children” have been “besieged by higher rates of poverty and low rates of health insurance,” the report said.

“Increases in childhood poverty in the 1970s and 1980s have generally corresponded with periods of recession in the national economy,” the report said. “However, despite the economic growth of recent years, child poverty rates have declined only slightly.” For Latino children, the report said, “they have not declined at all.”

Median family income has increased slightly since 1985, but is still below 1970 levels, “in real terms,” the report said. Family incomes of black and Latino children have continued to decline, the report said. Overall, the median family income of white children is more than 1 3/4 times that of Latino children, and double that of black children, the report said. Between 1970 and 1987, the median income of children living in single-parent families declined by 19%, the report said.

Among low-income families with children, average family income declined 14% between 1979 and 1987, compared with a 19% increase for the highest-income families, according to the study. In 1988, 20% of all children had no form of private or public health insurance, compared to 17% in 1982, the report said.

Prenatal Care

In 1987, the report said, one birth in 17 was to a mother who received late prenatal care, or none at all. Among black babies, the ratio was one in nine and among Latinos, one in eight, according to the report. Moreover, progress in reducing the infant mortality rate slowed in the course of the 1980s, the report said.

Miller called the trends “a national tragedy” that will “require the mobilization of all of our resources.” He said his priority would be “to continue to concentrate on whether we can launch healthy children into this world. I would concentrate on children 0 through 6.”

He added: “What this report says is that we’re essentially launching these children on courses of failure. (But) . . . minor course corrections at the start of a child’s life can dramatically alter the outcome and change the course these children will take.”

The report concluded: “Statistics may appear cold and impersonal, but they depict a reality which calls for action. The numbers presented in this report and its predecessors tell us that not just for one or two years, but day after day in this decade, children continue to be assaulted by volatile economic and social forces.”