It is time to rethink poverty programs that focus on the whole individual rather than simply meeting immediate needs created by scarcity (poverty).
I recently came across an interesting study about childhood poverty from the UK written by Frank Field who was commissioned by the Prime Minister in June 2010 to “provide and independent review on poverty and life chances.”
He said: “A major limitation of the existing child poverty measures is that they have incentivized a policy response focused largely on income transfers. This approach has stalled in recent years and is financially unsustainable. A more effective approach is to use a set of measures that will incentivize a focus on improving children’s life chances, and ultimately break the transmission of intergenerational poverty.” (pg. 71)
He also said: “Nothing can be achieved without working with parents. All of our recommendations are about enabling parents to achieve the aspirations that they have for their children.” (pg. 6)
I can think of three main areas of application in Idaho: early childhood education, the PCAP proposal, and entitlement reform.
The question in the early childhood education debate is not if early childhood education is important. The question is “Will the future of early childhood education be based upon the central role of parents or will community and state programs replace the role of the parents?” Will programs support parents or parents support programs?
We learned in education committee yesterday the scoring of the Idaho Reading Indicator given to children as they enter kindergarten.
- A score of ‘1’ means the child can identify 0-1 letters out of 11
- A score of ‘2’ means the child can identify 2-3 letters out of 11
- A score of ‘3’ means the child can identify 11 letters out of 11
I have never known what the scoring of the Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI) meant. I will definitely tell every parent of small children to encourage them to work with their children. Parents who spend a small amount of time with their children could increase the average IRI score significantly. Why haven’t parents been told this before?
The second area is the Primary Care Access Program (PCAP) proposal. Current safety net programs that focus on relieving hunger, lack of shelter, and provide other basic needs have an impact; however, they do not transform lives. Those in scarcity also have relationship, communication, financial, employment, and networking needs. The next generation of safety net programs must recognize the needs of the whole person which can only be addressed by attention to individual needs. This requires a one-on-one interaction which can be supplied by a volunteer coach or facilitator.
America has spent nearly $19 trillion on the War on Poverty without moving the dial. This is because the focus has been on removing scarcity through wealth transfers rather than removing scarcity through building individual capacity. True charity helps a person become independent.
We can do better.
This concept was implemented 40 years ago in Pittsburgh. The charity is Angels Place in Pittsburgh (http://www.angelsplacepgh.org/). They break the welfare cycle by helping single, low-income moms finish their education and helping them secure employment. They do this by focusing on the mom. They provide daycare, counseling, encouragement, a place to study, clothes and toys for kids, a support group. Birthday parties for moms and kids are often the first birthday party the mom has ever had.
Angels Place is 95% effective. Few non-profits are anywhere that successful and it is totally out of reach for the simple, expensive wealth-transfer programs implemented by government.
I believe a key word would be motivation, for parents or mentors who are involved with youth. Unfortunately many are sidetracked with TV, computers or cell phones to realize what they are missing out on in relationships with youth. It comes back to the old adage of giving a person a fish compared to showing them how to fish and the joy of catching one!
Senator Thayne…I very much like the way you think! Since all the entitlement programs were put in place back in the 60’s? Families have slid down hill. Something I remember seeing way back when….Future shock. Talked about the change from folks being a family unit within the family farm, etc….all generations worked together….This has been disjointed in the years since….families are split and spread out…The state should NOT be the defining factor in growing these kids up….Nazi Germany…they tried it….not a good outcome. The people who breed the offspring need to be the first authority ! Socialism only creates Sheeple
Get rid of the Education Department ( oxymoron), give teacher authority over children while at school, like the old days…or, end public schools and fund only charter schools.
However parents today need an adjustment to their heads..Their little darling cause trouble at school and they get whooped! End a lot of sports activities and empathize more studies of math, english, writing, social and economic history, American history, world history..Look back at the test given to 8th grade students in the very early 20th century…I wager today college grads could not pass this test..We have become a nation of illiterate, stupid people…
Dear Sen. Thayn,
Glad to receive this article — I think you are right on target with working with the parents. However the scoring on the Idaho Reading Indicator is ludicrous: what score do children who correctly identified 4 to 10 of the ll letters get? 2.1 to 2.5? What do we know right now about removing barriers for poor children? We do know that reading and math skills are important, and we know that learning about history, our form of government, and citizen responsibilities are extremely important to our way of life. When I was in grade school, we had release time on Wednesday afternoons to go to church and study religion (we called it “religious”)–that would be another source of support for these children without conflating public education with a particular religion.
Thank you for your good and hopeful ideas!
Molly Newcomb
Please look at Compassion International’s model of helping children escape poverty. They are highly successful at ending poverty in the communities where they have ministry centers.
Sen. Thayn,
I like that you want to empower parents. I hope you will go one step further to consider the systemic pressures that prevent many from being their child’s chief teacher — low wages so they are exhausted from working two or more jobs, high housing costs and medical expenses (Family doctor is only a partial solution), needing a car to get to work. It’s a mistake to assume families are not already motivated to do better for their children. So many of them are absolutely doing the best they can.
Education is huge part of this and it must start early….and bring the parents along with the same information. But honestly, it cannot all be done with the paid administrators and working parents…the community must be involved, which includes being informed and motivated. That is where I come in: I work with grade school AND high school kids in whatever subject in which they are struggling. Either a teacher or a parent (or the probation office) calls me and we set up a schedule to tutor…or I go to the classrooms and assist with the teachers asking for assistance. We have a 4 day school here so big part of learning that is missing from the kids’ learning week is repetition…so I add that to my bag of tricks, along with removing the clouds of confusion with assignments and problems.
So back to the community, I am in the middle of putting a group of adults AND upper grade students together to be on call for assistance to the kids who are struggling…and I have had great community response. That old saying: “It takes a village to raise a child” has lots of merit, so I continue along that bent until I know of something better.
Thanks for your interest in our kids and their education. Keep up the good work Senator.