Send a thank-you note to Romania for keeping us out of last place

Last week the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) released a report on child poverty in America. Done in partnership with the Urban Institute, it presents some troubling stats but also nine strategies for reducing child poverty by 60%.

First, the bad news: 

• It's not just that over 21 million American children live in poverty, but that this nation ranks 34th out of 35 industrialized nations in how well it addresses the problem. (Last place goes to Romania, which has an economy 99 times smaller than ours). Think about it: a nation with the world's largest economy fell next to last in civic response to children living in abject poverty.

• Every year that we keep children in poverty costs this nation $500 billion. If you look upon them as individuals, it may be easier to understand the long-range problems emerging from the toxic stress of a childhood spent in poverty: fewer cognitive skills, impaired brain function, less productive adult years, aggravated health outcomes, criminal behaviors, and "dynasties" of poverty through future generations.

But here's what we can do:

• Download the CDF report. It's a cogent and detailed piece of nonpartisan reporting.

http://www.childrensdefense.org/library/PovertyReport/EndingChildPovertyNow.html

Get the details on the nine proposed strategies. Spread the word. Make it a part of your volunteer efforts, church ministry, or philanthropic planning. For example, advocating an increase of your state's minimum wage to $10.10/hour would help.

• Educate your policymakers on the proposed changes and policy improvements, and their consequences. Remember that humanity lives on both sides of a defined poverty line*: such changes would not only benefit kids living under the poverty line but also children in jeopardy just above it.

• Don't let anyone tell you this country cannot afford to end child poverty. CDF's policy recommendations would cost $77 billion, just 2% of our national budget. For further perspective, consider that Americans represent only 5% of the world population, but 37% in military spending, yet in 2013, more than 45% American children lived in homes where there wasn't enough to eat.

The bottom line: Whether or not you have children, no American citizen should remain a bystander to what is a national moral disgrace.

* The poverty line is defined as $23,834 for a family of four.