y: from: f Capitol: Woman", a newsletter of the Michigan Hou Committee on Constitutional Revision and Women's RiPtJ SI G - recent inform tion rele by the tional Cenference of State Legislatures CSL has focused on the . ue of "Poverty: The Effect of onsupport," Leading off ith the thought pro 0- tatement that "If current trend continue mother and their "children compo almost 1 00 percent of the po erty p pulation by the year 2000: the arti Ie re ei recent r rch on the jrnp ct of divorce on omen and child- ren. the decade of the 90's approach­ the ine or ble mov to rd m . po erty n elusively fern nd child conditi n b mar ed b le t n 50 per ent of children ndin their entir childh d ith both parents and 5 per ent 0 th chi dren ith e p r nt livin ith their mothers, ith th intr ductory ta th report e plore the vari u myths urrounding di rce nd po rty. or e mple th myth of the tradi- tional en n family of four with in the uburb nd amother ho r in the home is e ily put to re t with data indic tin th t: o -Fifty percent of the mother in America wor outsi de the home. =Forty-three percent of the married women who are working ha e children under the ge of . . -Twenty percent of all children under the e of 10 or 18 million child­ ren live in sing parent home . Obviously, the definition of the 'typ­ ical" American family need to be rewritten to more accur tely reflect that the reality f cin women nd children today. A SECOND MYTH is that men ho are divorced do not fare well financially becau they are "strapped with main­ tenance or pport p yment ." Data ugge that this myth I far from reality: one year after divorce a oman' andard of living decrea 73 percent, bile a man' andard of li . increased 42 percent. omen in median income familie ( 20 000 to 29,000) have a post-divorce income that i le than 50 percent of their income while married. t the same time, men ho are po - di orce in this same income range ha a living ndard that· 97 percent of their pre-divorce andard. Thi pattern of gro disparity in tandard of living doe not appear to b ffected by the pa e of time: Yen year after divorce, a oman' tandard of living ha remained in a decline, and e i . ely to be e perien . g declin of 29 percent in term of income avail­ able to meet ba ·c needs. At the same time the man who i po t-di rce h e perienced a 17 p rcent incre in his economic position. E CE,O A 0 i only awarded in 14 percent of the case , hi e child upport is only awarded in 59.1 percent of the c here children are involved. But, even if child upport i ordered 'it is e imated that 28 percent of all farnilie do not receive the ordered pay­ ment while another 23 percent only receive partial p yment. DECE SER 14 - 20, 1983 THE CITIZE PAGE 3 Dat from 1978 from the U . D - partment of Commerce indicate that th avera e amount of upport J i800 to 2300 per year for two children. Thu , there can be no b . for continuing to pport the myth that mo divorced omen receive all of their income from child support or elfare paymen . According to the Friend of the Court A . tion, Stati . al Report, 1982, the d ta in i higan are no be ter. In 1982, in reportin countie the - a rage child upport order ranged from payment in dditi I to her p bli an e grant b au child upport is used to off t the grant. A FIFTH YTH IS THAT mothers can m payments. . . simply not econ my wh re omen earn on e avera e 59 cnet for every 1 earned b up for 10 m . objecting to gregated St. Louis. In 1980 Senior .s. i ri t Judge James eredith ordered limited busin for de gregation within the ci y. Hungate, who too over th c ilj ASH I GTO D.C.- Congre man ar Siljander (R - Thr e Ri er i the 10 e rated member of the . chigan congressi onal dele ti n ccording to an article in The ichigan obilizer, the CP ne etter. The CP took the ranking of privately funded non-parti con- ultin fum Congr ional Edu tion ccordin to that fum Senator Donald Riegle and Carl Levin ored 5 percent and 90 percent respecti ely on ey minority roll call ote. The verage Senate re 50 per- 10 of 12.82 per in Ot Crawford and Kalka Counties to a high of 57 per wee in ayne County, with mo counti s grouped t pproxi­ mately 20 per week aver ge upport ordered. FOURTH MYTH is that Aid to F amilie with Dependent Children ( FDC is the • remedy for the femini­ zation of po erty." Data confirm that thi i simply not true. The 3 million omen and 7.2 million children who compri e the families on AFOC, pend an aver e of 18 m nth on a istan e. In 30 percent of the ses the m ther i wor ing, in addition to re eiv- ing ist n e. The average family size of n FDC c se in j higan i 1.91 members ith an rage payment per hou eh Id of 367.92 per month in fi cal ye r 1983. This represents decrea in ver- monthly income from high of 380.87 per month in fi cal ye r ] 9 2. If a worn n receives FDC, she is not eligible to receive child support In 1980 bite head of household ere or- in had medl n nnual income of 11 900. nd Hispani omen h ere similarly ituated h d a median annual in orne of 900. I f a oman children are youn � her median in ome is oin to be e en Ie : white ith children und r 00 income partrnent of Labor p erty 1 ndard 8, 00 per family of three. The c nclusi none rn fr rn the foregoing d ta re in not on1y are om n and children in th f ste t gro ing p erty group but their conditi n i be in e cerabated courts hich order rel ti el I up­ port p yment i they ordered t II nd a failure t enforce th up rt orders on e they are III de. Appeals court hears S • Louis desegregation case Tim ry from The 'ational Leader ST. LOUIS - An unu at gathering of all 10 judges of the 8th UiS. Circuit Court of ppe ha heard argument in leg 1 sho down over th landmar St. Louis school desegr tion ca • The judges eduled an extraordi- nary 0 hour of arguments. F voting the plan i the St. Loui Bo rd of Education, the AACP nd 001 eli ric in suburban St. Loui County. The mo outspoken opponent h been ttomey General J obn A croft ho obj t to a pro . . n that the tate p y mo of the plan' co Ashcroft attended the hearing but did not argu th t te' ca . Under the plan, which went into effect thi fall inner