by AFT President Sandra Feldman
January 2000

Let's promise
our elders
the new century
will care more
for children.

As we enter a new millennium, I'm thinking about my remarkable father-in-law, Oscar Barnes, who just turned 99 and fully expects to celebrate his next birthday in the year 2000. You've come a long way, Papa! Born in St. Croix to a mother who died in childbirth, he was raised by an aunt in Puerto Rico, came to New York City at age 14, and still lives in his own apartment in Harlem.

In his lifetime, he saw all the amazing changes the century brought--telephones, cars, airplanes, refrigerators, radios, television....He's seen war and peace, the end of segregation, the rise of communism--and its collapse.

Papa's life is good. But the poverty he was born into still exists, 99 years later, for millions of children in America, even as we've become the most prosperous nation in the world. The basic statistics are grim: Nearly 20 percent of young children in this country are living in poverty--defined as a yearly income of $13,000 for a family of three. One child in ten lives in a household where the yearly income is under $7,000 a year. And two-thirds of these poor children belong to families where at least one parent is already employed. The knee-jerk advice--get a job--is not working for them.

Good Schools Are Essential

One way we can erase poverty is to ensure that poor children get the kind of education most of their parents didn't have--by raising standards, improving teaching, and making all schools safe and orderly. AFT has been in the forefront of efforts to achieve this. But many children need much more than good schools.

No matter how hard their parents struggle, the effects of poverty often leave poor children two to four years behind before they ever enter kindergarten. Many never see a doctor when they are sick because their families don't have health insurance or money to pay the doctor bills. Their physical development may be slowed because they don't get enough of the right kinds of foods. And many don't get adequate intellectual stimulation, either from their parents or from the poor-quality daycare that's the best their families can afford. Some children who face these disadvantages in their early years suffer permanent damage; others develop more slowly. Many do catch up as they go through school, but others just give up; and some become angry and frustrated. They are the class behavior problems--the ones who also keep others from learning. For them, education is a broken promise.

A New Year's Resolution

Ending childhood poverty ought to be a New Year's resolution--a new century's resolution, really, made by every elected official, every political candidate, every corporate CEO, every citizen who believes in the American Dream. No excuses. It can be done. Here are some of the things that need to be on the agenda:

There have been repeated attempts to make sure that all poor children have health care: these must be carried to conclusion. We must expand the earned income tax credit, which is designed to help the working poor and has already lifted many families out of poverty. It could help many more.

And a good education is fundamental. But it must include quality childcare for the children of working mothers and early childhood education, including preschool and full-day kindergarten. All of our children should have access to these--but especially our poorest.

In public schooling, we're making progress. But in too many places, setting standards is considered enough. It's not. It's like putting up higher hurdles on a track and expecting runners to clear them without any extra coaching or training. It won't happen unless we also help students who are behind by providing smaller classes, more time, ongoing tutorial assistance when they need it, and expert teachers.

My father-in-law has two great-grandsons, who are not only completely computer-literate but who will live to see changes he can't imagine. One of them should be a society that does whatever is needed to make every child safe and healthy and well educated.

Let's promise our elders we'll make the new century a caring one--for them, of course, and for all the children in it.