Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Hold politicians accountable on issues of poverty and economics
Even though we know that there is poverty in our schools, it’s always a shock to find out the extent to which poverty affects school children.
The number of homeless children is an example.
La Crosse school officials keep track of where homeless students live. We found out that 24 were at shelters, 61 were with family or friends, nine were in motels and two were living in cars, parks or campgrounds.
The number of children receiving free or reduced-cost meals at school ranged from
35 percent to 50 percent, depending on the district. That’s a lot of poverty.
Couleecap, an anti-poverty agency serving La Crosse, Vernon, Monroe and Crawford counties, reports that 8,302 children in their service area are from families whose incomes are below the federal poverty guideline of $21,200 for a family of four.
The Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, a Madison-based advocacy group, is working with Couleecap and other agencies to try and reduce the extent of child poverty.
That campaign is calling attention to four factors:
Ending, or even simply reducing, poverty is not an easy task. Encouraging a better educated and better trained work force will help. So will new investment in business, and government tax incentives to encourage such investment.
Wisconsin is working toward providing health care for more segments of the population. Wisconsin BadgerCare Plus program will ensure that more children are covered. But we still need to work to make sure that all children have access to dental care, regardless of their parents’ incomes. That’s very difficult in the current economic climate.
It’s important to keep elected officials and candidates focused. Don’t put up with stupid attack ads that don’t address real issues. Ask candidates and elected officials questions about poverty, health care, economic development and other real issues.
Reducing poverty? It’s slow going, but important work. Let’s not lose sight of what needs to be done, even if the people who run political campaigns are counting on us having short attention spans.
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