get .: cuts must
arge children
MalrIaD Wi t EdtDuUl
When it's budget-cutting
time, politicians too often take
aim America's children. Since
children don't vote, lobby, or
make campaign contributions
they are the safest target.
Children re the easy target
in 1981, when more than $10 bil­
lion c from essential ser­
vices for children and families in
the name of deficit reduction.
Now it' budget-cutting time
again. And children are in
greater danger than ever.
To comply with the Gramm­
Rudman law, which sets ',early
tar for reducing the nation­
al debt, the Budget Summit must
red the deficit by much
100 billion - bout the ame
UHtarelS and the
administration quickly came up
. to finance the, saviDp and
��e, a JDljority said they were
willing to ee their own taxes
raised to expand services for
needy children.
WE AMERICANS must in­
sift that our elected officials
hammer out a responsible
agreement based not on politi­
cal expediency but on the truth
that nothing is more vital to the
nation's futute than giving
children a good start in life. A
good start includes high-qualitY
affordable child care. Co�
and the president must not use
the deficit as an excuse for fail­
ing to enact and sign the child
care legislation held up in Con­
gress for almost a year a result
of petty jurisdictional disputes
intheHo
Another danger to cbildrcnis
that the B Summit wiD not
"A co IItry, " p�o,'e,,, "'O"�"'�lIt lIuI, 40�s 1101 ""/". ils
YOll'" does flol tI�se",� ils future"
-Oliv�r R. T"",.o
ANC Pnsid�II'
loan bailout off-budget ext fis­
cal year. With politically tough
decisions before them, the
president and Congress will be
tempted to make crippling cuts
in programs for children and
families inste d of working out a
fair b relecting the nation's
true needs.
TH UNITED STATES
sim aneo Iy is facing grave
ceo . c and social problems
at home, tough economic chal­
lenge from abroad, and a
shrinking YOUDg work forces.
Yet are sacrificing more than
o e-fifth of our future work
� ce to tbe unti effects of
poverty,. dequate health care
. care, d poor cd ca-
tioa. To meet the challe of
the ccJltury, we will need all
children to grow up to be.
y q ·fled, productive
� aDd that means every
one of them m receive a good
. tart in life and a strong educa-
tion.
The majority of Americans
� d this. In Minnesota, a
stalt.eWl·lC!,e poll in JUDe owed
t 65 percent of YO en f vored
ina-eased spending for educa­
tion nd 61 percent anted
greatet pending on services for
low-income children. What'
produce any timely agreement
on howto meet the Gramm-
. Rudman target. If that happens
and Congress doe not change
the law, across-the-board
federal spending cuts will go
into effect automatically on Oc­
tober 15. These would blindly
chop 38 percent out of federal
programs for children and
families, with disastrous results.
For example, .
- More than 200,000
children would have to be
dropped from Head Start CYen
though the highly successful
preschool program is D able
�o serve only about 20 percent of
elegible childre
- One million childrea fewer
children would be immUDized
api prew:atable childhood
diseases � tho. a me"'�
epidemic is sweeping the
country and the U.s. fuDy. -
munizes a smaller proportion of
i one-year-olds . polio
than 14 other nations.
- About 2 children
ould lose the beaefits of the
Chapter 1 Compensatory
Education program even
though American children
know Ie geography than
children· Iran, Ie cieDce
than children in Spain,. and less
math than children in Ja�
- Assistance to the homeless
would be cut by more than one­
third even though 100,000
children are homele every
night.
Whether it's through
automatic Gramm-Rudman
cuts or short-sighted decisions
by our political leaders, this
country C8DD afford to take
aim at children during budget­
cut� Write to President Bush
and your senators and repre­
sentatives. Tell them to r . the
easy targets. No ore than
ever, cbiIdren's programs m
, be strengthened, DOt weakened,
if our natiOll is to prosper.
MtuiIut Wright Edelmtlll if
prelid,nt 0/ the Children's
Def".. Fund, II 1IIIIiotIpl voice'
lor cItiItlmJ. .
.' . II
Igher education
egins early
y Kei o. Hilt
. .According to Edgar Epps,
1 the foreword of Dr.
eginald Clark' boo,
" arni l y Life and School
chievem nt: Why Poor
lack Children Succeed or
�il.." "!h'e family is the ba ic
inSlJfulOn through w ich
children learn who they are
here they fit into ocicty.
�a d what kind of future h y
a�e Ii kcl t cxp rience. It
"One's ethnic roup mcm­
b rship determines much of
t e content and Ilavor of inter­
a lion. wi thi n the family. If
one i BI ck (African
American). Puerto Rican, or
C icano, he or she wiJl be ex­
p . ed to parental values and
p iorities that differ in impor­
tant ways from tho e ex­
p rienced by white (European
A crican) children.
• A family' ability to pro­
vi e a home environment that
Black children mire
live with 'grandpa en
cen u bur au report
Some ).2 miJl ion Black
children, J3 percent of all
Black children under the age
.) 8, lived in the home of their
grandparent in 198.
according to a report released
by the Commerce
Department's Census Bureau.
This compares with 3
percen� for white and 5
percent for Hispanics, who
may be of any race.
About one-half of Black
children living. in their
grandparent • home bad onl y
their mother pre ent, 38
percent had neither parent
present, 4 percent had both
parents living with them, and
3 percent had only their father
present, (There was no
significant difference in the
percent living with both
parents and their and with
their father.) .
About one-half of white
children Jiving in the home of
tbelr grandparent bad only
tbeir mother present, wbile
one-fourth were cared for by
tbe grandparent only. The
percentages for Hispanic
were 51 percent nd 26
percent.
About 38 percent of the
Support Our
Ad
•
,
hows.
na ion's 9.8 miJlion Black
. cb ldren under age 18 Ii ed
w rh both parents In J9H9
compared with 80 percent of
w itc children and 67 perc nt
of Hi panic children.
For Black children, the
. de line in two percent Jiving
w s greatest in the 1970s
w en the prop rtion dropped
fr m 59 pcrccn to 42 percent;
. i ce ) 980 the roportion has
de, Jined by on y 4 percentage
POlOt .
Since J 970, the number of .
Bl ck childre living with
on y one paren ha. i ncrea. cd
fr m 3.0 mi lion to 5.4
miJlion. S'milarly, the
nu b r for w ite children
ro c from 5.1 iIlion to 9.6
mi lio�. .
in aJl su ey, tbe data
ar subject 0 sampling
va iabiJity and other source
of rror.
MICHIGAN CITIZEN PAGE 7
Keith O.
Hilton
HIGHER
EDUCATION
�repare it children for future
cce ,including succcs in
hool, develop out of pa t
experiences with cultural
task and social rewards."
Jf as parents andlor rela­
tive of younger people, we
also r member th t we are still
) arning a' well, then young,
p oplc wiIJ also learn.' It i
n vcr too late to be n active
lc der of the family, s many
m thers and father re dis-
CI...AR ,
w om I know and respect
trcrnc ndousl y, . �irectJy
f uses on children, mucb of
w at he write bo�t may
se l' a� guides for adults
w·11.
Clark xu 'gesls ' wide
• rrc t of spccific parental
pr ctrccv that may sc ewell
. in cqu'PllIng school-children
w th the comprchcnsi e writ­
in '. read: ng. verbal, nd 0-
cial �k,lb and personal
q alitic« needed for caring
d' ssroorn lessons and coping
With adult-, and peers.
For mvtan 'C, hc sta cs that
pa cnts .lcarly need 10 define
an fully accept their �e P n­
si iliucs for "parenting." Thi.
m ans bc rng a provider,
te chcr, nuturer, coach, and
so rce 01 hop' for the hild.
Family members should he
_ wr res. help (children) e tab­
lis rclauonships wit other
ac ievement oriented per-
o . 'ontrary 10 w at we
re d and hear daily about a
la k of U.S. African role
m cls, I continue to ay that
therc i. n overabundance of
po itive Afro-centric local
oriented per-
UlDE - 19.95
nd, COfIIb neg tv. In-
• .. or.)
owe, b uty
, 6th Fl., Suil� B-457,
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