[Senate Hearing 111-1142]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 111-1142
THE STATE OF THE AMERICAN CHILD
=======================================================================
HEARING
of the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
EXAMINING THE STATE OF THE AMERICAN CHILD
__________
JUNE 8, 2010
__________
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COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS
TOM HARKIN, Iowa, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming
BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire
JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee
PATTY MURRAY, Washington RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
JACK REED, Rhode Island JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
BERNARD SANDERS (I), Vermont JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
KAY R. HAGAN, North Carolina TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon PAT ROBERTS, Kansas
AL FRANKEN, Minnesota
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado
Daniel Smith, Staff Director
Pamela Smith, Deputy Staff Director
Frank Macchiarola, Republican Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Subcommittee on Children and Families
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut Chairman
JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee
PATTY MURRAY, Washington JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire
JACK REED, Rhode Island JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
BERNARD SANDERS (I), Vermont ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma
KAY R. HAGAN, North Carolina PAT ROBERTS, Kansas
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming (ex officio)
TOM HARKIN, Iowa (ex officio)
Tamar MagarikHaro, Staff Director
David Cleary, Republican Staff Director
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
__________
STATEMENTS
TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2010
Page
Dodd, Hon. Christopher J., Chairman, Subcommittee on Children and
Families, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
opening statement.............................................. 1
Alexander, Hon. Lamar, a U.S. Senator from the State of Tennessee 4
Sanders, Hon. Bernard, a U.S. Senator from the State of Vermont.. 5
Casey, Hon. Robert P., Jr., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Pennsylvania................................................... 6
Powell, Alma J., Chair, America's Promise Alliance, Washington,
DC............................................................. 9
Prepared statement........................................... 10
Zimmerman, Elaine, Executive Director, Connecticut Commission on
Children, Hamden, CT........................................... 13
Prepared statement........................................... 16
Lund, Jack, President and CEO, YMCA of Greater New York; New
York, New York................................................. 21
Prepared statement........................................... 24
Holzer, Harry J., Ph.D., Economist, Georgetown University and
Urban Institute, Washington, DC................................ 28
Prepared statement........................................... 30
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.:
.............................................................
Response to questions of Senator Brown by:
Alma J. Powell........................................... 49
Jack Lund................................................ 49
Harry J. Holzer, Ph.D.................................... 50
(iii)
THE STATE OF THE AMERICAN CHILD
----------
TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2010
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Children and Families,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m. in
Room SD-430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Christopher
J. Dodd, Chairman of the subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senators Dodd, Sanders, Casey, and Alexander.
Opening Statement of Senator Dodd
Senator Dodd. Well, good morning, all. I see we've got
quite a crowd here this morning. Sorry we don't have more seats
for all of you.
Let me welcome you all to our committee hearing this
morning of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions full
committee, our Subcommittee on Children and Families, and on
our hearing this morning--good morning, Bernie--the first of a
series of hearings we intend to hold on the condition and
status of the American child. This is the first such hearing.
I want to thank my good friend and colleague Lamar
Alexander, who's the ranking member of this committee and with
whom I've worked closely on a number of issues over the last
years involving children and their families. And there are
other members of the committee, both Democrats and Republicans,
who have a strong interest in the subject matter, as well.
This morning we're going to generally discuss that
condition and status, and steps we might take in moving
forward, and then, over the next few months, a series of
hearings on more specific subject matters as they affect the
American child.
I was saying to my staff, earlier this morning, we have a
wonderful committee, here, on Aging, in the U.S. Senate. It's
been a very good committee, and have done a tremendous job,
over the years, of highlighting the problems that older
Americans face. But, I've often thought that, while we don't
have--this is really the only committee of the Senate that
focuses specifically on children. A lot of committees deal with
it, obviously--the Finance Committee and others, the
Agriculture Committee, with food and so forth--but, we don't
have a specific committee that deals with one out of four
Americans who are under the age of 18.
This Committee on Children and Families, over the years,
has focused a lot of attention on this subject matter. But,
candidly, we're seeing a condition that's not getting better,
too often; getting worse. In fact, Lamar pointed out a study to
me, I think, done in Tennessee a while back, that indicated
that things were not going well for that American child; in
fact, they may be the first generation of Americans that does
less well than their parents. A stunning comment that my friend
made to me a couple of years ago, from Tennessee.
Anyway, let me share some opening comments. I'll turn to
Senator Alexander for any opening thoughts he has, and then
we'll turn to our witnesses this morning. I'm delighted you're
here with us to spend some time. Thank you for joining us.
As many of you know, this is my last year in the U.S.
Senate. And, although I've only been a parent for 8 of those 30
years that I've been here, the most rewarding work I've done in
the Senate has been the issues affecting children and their
families. You don't have to be a parent to know how much goes
into determining whether a child is able to reach his or her
full potential. But, if you are one, you certainly can
appreciate it.
Some of it is instinctual. Jackie, my wife, and I try to
teach our children the difference between right and wrong, just
like most parents do across our Nation. We tell them to keep
away from strangers, look both ways when they cross the street.
We try to get them to eat broccoli once in a while, as well.
But, during my time here, we've learned more and more about
what kids need in order to succeed. We're coming to redefine
what is a children's issue, and we've come to realize that the
government has a role to play in providing the resources that
families need, to thrive.
For instance, we've learned that a child's development
begins well before his or her first day of kindergarten or
preschool. And so, I've worked to build an effective Head Start
Program so that every American child can be prepared to excel
in school.
We've learned that, while a child's development begins at
birth, it doesn't start and stop with the ring of the school
bell. And so, I've worked to establish safe and stimulating
childcare facilities, as well as quality after-school
programming.
We've learned that a child's family life is every bit as
important as his or her development as in what happens in the
classroom. And so, I've fought, along with many others, for the
Family Medical Leave Act, so that parents don't have to choose
between being the caring mom or dad a sick child needs and
being the breadwinner that every family also needs.
We've learned that keeping our kids healthy is about more
than just winning the broccoli wars. And so, I've fought to
help every family afford pediatric checkups, through the CHIP
program, to keep kids away from the influence of Big Tobacco,
and to spread awareness of effective safeguards against food
allergies, and to reduce the number of babies born prematurely.
I'm proud of that work, but I'm well aware that there's
more work to be done. And that's why I've called these
hearings, because our work to empower every American child is
not, and will never be, done, in a sense. For instance, while
I'm proud that the Family and Medical Leave Act has allowed
millions of workers to take job-protected leave, less than 8
percent have access to paid leave. And, while Head Start has
proven to be effective in preparing children for kindergarten,
it serves less than half the eligible children; and Early Head
Start serves only 6 percent of eligible children.
An achievement gap persists in our schools, where poor kids
and minorities lag behind their classmates; money to fix our
crumbling facilities, to alleviate our crowded classrooms, and
provide quality after-school programs is scarce.
One in a hundred children are victims of substance abuse, a
number that doubles for those under 1 year of age. And nearly
three-quarters of a million children were abused or neglected
last year alone. And every 101 minutes, a child in the United
States dies from an unintentional injury, such as a vehicle
crash or a fire, making it the leading cause of death and
disability for children ages 1 to 14 in our Nation.
In addition, we can't ignore the fact that this discussion
is taking place in the wake of a brutal recession that'll have
a tragic impact on American families long after the economic
indicators have turned around. One in seven children in our
Nation have an unemployed parent; one in five live in poverty;
and an additional 5 million children will be driven into
poverty before this recession is over. One in four children
currently use food stamps. And half of all children will use
them at some point during their childhood. This recession will
end, but its impact will endure long after.
You can make up for a bad quarter in the stock market, but
it's not so easy to recoup what this recession has cost the
children and their families who have felt its sting. I'm not a
pessimist. As a parent, I know that my generation is equipped
with more awareness, more resources, and more support than our
parents were when they were faced with the challenge of raising
us. But, we know that we have more work to do, and we know that
the challenges we face are mounting. That's why I'm announcing,
today, that I plan to introduce legislation to create a
national commission on children in order to regularly and
closely examine the needs of American families, and identify
solutions.
There's a reason our children get report cards in school;
they help us clearly identify how they're doing. Only by
assessing, honestly, our progress--celebrating our successes
when they occur, and acknowledging our failures when they
happen, as well--can we improve on the status of our children.
Today, we have a distinguished panel of experts who can
help us answer these critical questions: What do kids and
families need in order to thrive? How are we doing when it
comes to making those resources available to them? What can we
do better to see that our children are going to be better
served?
One thing that Jackie and I teach our daughters is that
it's never a bad thing to ask questions. It's the best way to
learn. And I hope that these hearings, over the next several
weeks and months, can be a learning experience for all of us,
those who sit on this side of the dais and those who are
gathered here today. And I hope that these hearings will
highlight the critical need for a national commission on
children so that, even after I've left this institution,
policymakers who are at this very table will continue to turn
what we learn into action.
I thank you all for being here today, and I hope we can get
started.
With that, let me turn to my good friend and colleague,
Senator Lamar Alexander.
Statement of Senator Alexander
Senator Alexander. Thank you, Chris.
And welcome, to the witnesses and all who are here.
Chris Dodd has been a Senator for 30 years. As he said,
he's been a Senator much longer than he's been a parent. But,
all of that time, his focus has been on children and families.
And because of that work, history will record Chris Dodd as a
consequential U.S. Senator.
It's been my privilege to work with him, the last 8 years,
and he's not only an effective member of his own party, he
works hard to work across party lines because, in the U.S.
Senate, most of the time, that's the way you get a result.
As he said on the school-based health clinics, we worked
together on that. I think we're both particularly pleased with
what we call the PREEMIE Act. We worked with the March of Dimes
there to understand, better, the causes of premature birth. We
really don't know what all the reasons are.
Nor do we know all the reasons for the food allergies that
beset so many parents. And Chris has a special interest in
that, and we've worked together to develop legislation to help
schools do a better job of focusing on that. Head Start
reauthorization for 2007 was a really superior legislative
response to one of our most popular and effective programs.
And Chris showed, following Katrina, that he's not trapped
in ideology, as sometimes happens around here. We had the
problem of trying to figure out, What do we do with all these
kids from New Orleans who suddenly find themselves in Baton
Rouge, and the public schools may be filled, or they may be
staying with a family whose children all go to Catholic
schools? And so, for a year we worked out a situation that
defied a lot of the conventional thinking around here and put
the children first, and created what I think was a model
response to disasters, in terms of dealing with dislocated
children.
Chris, thank you for your work, and I look forward to this
series of hearings and the work of the commission that you
proposed.
I look forward to the witnesses, today. I've always been
struck by the comment of Professor Coleman, of the University
of Chicago. He said that schools were for the purpose of doing
what parents don't do as well. And so, the conclusion I've come
to, in and out of education and dealing with children and
families for a long time, is that parents and teachers and
principals are 95 percent of it, and anything we can do to
create an environment in which they can succeed is probably the
most important thing we can do for children.
I can remember, once, my mother was interviewed by a
newspaper reporter, who wrote that I grew up in a ``lower-
middle-class family in the mountains of Tennessee.'' And she
was so incensed by that, that she was reading Thessalonians,
when I called her, to deal with the slur on the family. And she
said to me at the time,
``We never thought of ourselves that way. You had a
library card from the day you were 3, and a music
lesson from the day you were 4. You had everything you
needed that was important.''
What was unsaid about that was, I had a mother and a father
who were very busy creating an environment in which I could
succeed.
We sometimes have differences of opinion about the role of
government in creating that environment. But, sometimes, from
the left and from the right, we see criticisms of a society
that seems to be at war with parents, making it harder for them
to succeed.
We'll have different solutions sometimes, but our goal is
the same: to create an environment in which America's children
can succeed. And I, for one, hope that the way to do that is by
focusing on better parents, better teachers, better principals,
and giving them support and nourishment so they can do that for
children.
Chris, thank you very much for your leadership.
Senator Dodd. Well, my friend Lamar, thank you so much for
your very kind and generous comments this morning, as well.
And let me turn to a couple of my colleagues, see if they
have an opening comment or two they want to make.
Senator Sanders.
Statement of Senator Sanders
Senator Sanders. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And
thank you for all that you've done over the years for children.
I just wanted, before we hear testimony from our panelists,
to hope, in their remarks, maybe they will address some of the
issues that popped up literally this morning.
USA Today reports that more than one in five kids live in
poverty. And I quote,
``The rate of children living in poverty this year
will climb to nearly 22 percent, the highest rate in
two decades, according to an analysis by the nonprofit
Foundation for Childhood Development.''
Also, I think, Mr. Chairman, we need an international
perspective. I get very angry about the way we treat children.
I think, frankly, it is a national disgrace.
I am looking, now, at a report--it's the latest that we
were able to find; I'm sure there are later ones--from UNICEF,
2007. They list 24 countries in the world, in terms of poverty
level. And guess what, Mr. Chairman? The good news is that--
well, no, there is no good news. We are in 24th place. And as
part of this discussion--and it does become a little
ideological and a little bit political--here are the countries
that are in first place: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden,
Belgium. What are they doing in those countries that we are not
doing in our countries? Are we satisfied that over one in five
kids lives in poverty, one in four kids gets their nutrition
from food stamps?
And what we understand--and you made this point--is that
when these kids start off at the bottom--there will be
exceptions, to be sure--but, it is not an accident that we end
up having more people in jail than any other country on Earth.
Is there a connection?
And then, some of my conservatives say, ``Well, government
is not the solution.'' Well, I don't think government is the
solution. We all know a strong economy is the solution. But,
what is Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden doing that the
United States is not doing? What about the fact that, while
poverty for children increases, the top 1 percent have also, in
this country--the very richest people have also seen a huge
increase in their income? Is that an issue that we should be
concerned about? Poorest become poorer, children become poor;
more and more millionaires, more and more billionaires.
I would hope that, in their discussion today, as we talk
about why we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the
industrialized world, why more and more kids are getting
poorer, why the gap between the very, very rich and the poor is
growing wider, whether that is an issue that is worth
discussing.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Dodd. Thank you very much.
Senator Casey, any quick comments you want to make?
Senator Casey. I'll be brief.
Statement of Senator Casey
Senator Casey. Mr. Chairman, thank you for the hearing, and
to our witnesses, and for the spotlight that you're providing
on this challenge.
I've always thought that we should look at the challenges
we face with regard to children in a very fundamental way, that
every child in the country, no matter where they are, no matter
where they're born, and no matter what circumstances, is born
with a light inside them. And I've always believed it's the
responsibility of every public official, whatever level of
government you're elected to, to do everything you can to make
sure that that light inside that child reaches its full
potential.
We've made tremendous strides in the course--the recent
American history, and certainly over the last couple of years.
I think it's at least four things. A child should be provided
with the opportunity to make sure they have enough to eat and
basic nutrition. And not necessarily in this order, but
certainly healthcare is fundamental to that. The Children's
Health Insurance Program is a tremendous stride in that
direction, enacted in a bipartisan way.
Third, we've got to protect our kids. And we're a long way
from doing that. Horrific, horrific data on that about the
failure of our country to really protect our kids.
And fourth, early learning opportunities. The record there
is, at best, spotty. Some States do it well, some States don't.
We still don't have a national commitment to early learning for
kids.
If we make progress in the next couple of weeks and months
on these hearings, I think we will spotlight and focus more on
at least those four areas.
This is, I think, a task worthy of a great Nation. We're a
long way from achieving it, but we do have some success to
point to, and that's, in large measure, to leadership like that
demonstrated by Senator Dodd over those 30 years. We're
grateful for his leadership. We're also grateful for the
bipartisan approach that I think this committee has taken.
Senator Alexander spoke to that. And he, as well, can claim
some credit for the success we've achieved.
We're looking forward to this hearing and the series that
you're undertaking.
Senator Dodd. Thank you very much, Senator.
And I thank my colleagues, and we'll leave the record open.
I'm now going to turn--let me introduce our witnesses, and,
in the order I introduce them, we'll ask them to share some
comments with us.
First of all, welcome, to Alma Powell, who's here with us
this morning, who's the chair of the board of America's Promise
Alliance, whose mission it is to mobilize people in every
sector of our country to build the character and competence of
youth. For decades, Mrs. Powell has been a champion and
advocate for America's young people. She chairs the advisory
board for Civic Change, Inc., serves on the YouthBuild U.S.A.
advisory board, as well. For 11 years, she served as the chair
of the National Council of the Best Friends Foundation, an
organization dedicated to improving the lives of young girls.
And she's been affiliated with the Red Cross, the Associates
for the American Foreign Service Worldwide, and several other
very impressive organizations. She has numerous academic honors
that she's received, is the author of two children's books--and
I'm the owner of both those, by the way--and which were
launched with much success.
We're proud to have you join us here today as you share
thoughts with us.
Next to Alma Powell is Elaine Zimmerman, who's been a
friend of mine for those 30 years we've been talking about here
this morning. She's the executive director of the Connecticut
Commission on Children; and hence, the idea. What we've done in
our State is what we've talked about here this morning. In
fact, Mrs. Powell will talk about it, as well. And having read
her testimony--I've read all your testimony. In this position,
Elaine Zimmerman reviews children's policy and reports to the
executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our State with
recommendations for children's legislation and initiatives.
She has established a reputation, in my State and
elsewhere, for her understanding of public-policy acumen,
commitment to addressing children's needs, and bringing
together unexpected stakeholders in child policy discussions.
In Connecticut, she's worked on a variety of issues, including
preschool, school readiness, after-school programs, summer
reading programs, and a long, long list. She's been a great
champion of children in our State. And much of what I've done
here started with this woman, here--so, I thank you, as well--
over the years.
Jack Lund is the president and CEO of the YMCA for Greater
New York, the largest YMCA in North America. Jack has been a
part of the YMCA for the past 30 years, including a program
director. As New York City's largest private youth-serving
organization, the YMCA of Greater New York is still growing,
under Mr. Lund's leadership, with a career track record that
includes several local Y initiatives that have blossomed into
national Y programs.
Mr. Lund is adding new programs to tackle the challenges
our young people face, not the least of which is childhood
obesity, that include the YMCA Strong Kids Card, Teens Take the
City, and the Second-Grade Swim, which is developing vital
skills and sowing the seeds of a lifetime of fun in the water.
I congratulate you for that, as well.
His background and his current positions brings to this
hearing a valuable community-service perspective.
We thank you for joining us today, Mr. Lund.
And last is Dr. Harry Holzer. Dr. Holzer is a professor at
the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, and an institute fellow
with the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the
Urban Institute, here in Washington, DC. He joined Georgetown
Public Policy Institute as professor of public policy in the
fall of 2000. He's served as the associate dean, and was the
acting dean in the fall of 2006.
He's currently the senior affiliate of the National Poverty
Center at the University of Michigan, a national fellow of the
Program on Inequality and Social Policy at Harvard University,
a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a
research affiliate of the Institute for Research and Poverty at
the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He's also a member of
the World Economic Forum Global Diversity Council.
And I suspect some of the things that Senator Sanders had
to say this morning would ring to you on that subject matter
you've been involved in.
Prior to joining Georgetown, Professor Holzer served as the
chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor, professor of
economics at Michigan State University. He teaches a course on
poverty at Georgetown Public Policy Institute, and his
qualification for today's hearing is his three daughters--16,
9, and 9. Mine are 5 and 8.
In fact, yesterday I was telling my colleagues, coming in--
I returned, after 7 days of going down to Colombia, Ecuador,
and Peru, and got back very late Sunday night. I've been trying
to get my daughters' classes to come and visit the Senate.
Well, as my luck would have it, both decided to come yesterday.
[Laughter.]
And so, I had 50 children, 5-year-olds, and their parents,
for 4 hours in the Capitol after returning from a late night
coming back from Latin America.
[Laughter.]
Anyway, those are the joys of fatherhood, I guess; you get
to do that.
Mrs. Powell, thank you for joining us. Delighted to have
you here with us today. And the floor is yours.
And, by the way, any statements or comments and material
that you think would be valuable for us as we set the stage for
these hearings, we would welcome.
So, we'll listen to your testimony.
STATEMENT OF ALMA J. POWELL, CHAIR, AMERICA'S PROMISE ALLIANCE,
WASHINGTON, DC
Mrs. Powell. Well, thank you very much for your invitation.
And, Senator Alexander, I thank you, both of you, for your long
history of involvement with the issues of children.
Today, our Nation faces some very urgent priorities: the
economy, healthcare, national security, global competitiveness.
But, I would say that one of the most important issues that we
face as a nation is one that impacts all of these priorities,
and that is the well-being of our children. Meeting the needs
of our most vulnerable youth means building a stronger, safer,
healthier, and more equitable country.
To put it very bluntly, gentlemen, we are addressing the
future of our Nation. Our children will be the inheritors of
our lives, and they are not prepared, at present, as you
quoted--where they are in standing with the other children.
The America's Promise Alliance grew out of the President's
Summit for America's Future, in 1997. And my husband served as
the first chairman, as you know.
Out of that Summit came the knowledge that--of discussion
with people who were active in working with children--that
there are five basic things that young people need: a caring
adult in every child's life, a safe place to grow and learn
after school, a healthy start, a marketable skill through an
effective education, and an opportunity to give back. That is
the basis of the work of America's Promise, with its 414
partners across America.
On March 1, my husband and I, with President Obama and
Secretary Duncan, announced the next phase of our work, which
is called Grad Nation. There's a terrible statistic that exists
in this country. Only 70 percent of young people graduate from
high school, 50 percent of African-American and Hispanic
students do not graduate from high school. In 2020 and the
years beyond, we will be a majority-minority country. And if
they are not educated, what is our future? One-third of the
young people who go to college do not graduate.
This is a crucial issue, and it really determines the fate
of this Nation.
I applaud you in your support of a commission to study the
children and the needs of children in the country. We heartily
support that.
One of the problems that exists is that we have ADD. We've
talked about these problems for over 25 years, and they still
exist. And so, we, at America's Promise, say it is time to
address these head-on and start making progress in direct
impact on the young people in this country.
We know that most of these high-school dropout statistics
come from just 2,000 schools. And so, across the country we
will be mobilizing people in communities, and especially in
those target communities, to work on perfecting the high-school
dropout rate. This is crucial.
There is a Masai saying that--when they greet each other,
they say, ``And how are the children?'' I charge all of us
that, each day, we have to wake up and say, ``And how are the
children?'' Today, we would have to answer that the state of
the children in America is abysmal.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mrs. Powell follows:]
Prepared Statement of Alma J. Powell
summary
Today our Nation faces many urgent priorities: the economy,
healthcare, national security, global competitiveness. But one of the
most important issues we face as a nation is one that impacts all of
these priorities--the well-being of our children.
On March 1, I joined President Obama, Secretary Duncan and my
husband at an event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to officially
embark on the most ambitious initiative America's Promise Alliance has
ever undertaken. The Grad Nation campaign will mobilize Americans and
our more than 400 national partners to end the high school dropout
crisis and prepare our young people for the 21st century workforce.
The magnitude of this crisis is tragic. One of every three students
fails to graduate from high school in this country--over 1 million
students a year. And only about one-third of our high school graduates
have enough of the skills required for success in college and the 21st-
century workforce. Our children and our economy are in jeopardy.
But this is a crisis we can solve. We have seen what success looks
like when sound policies and best practices are paired with strong
community support. It starts with better schools but we must also
recognize that many of the roots of the dropout crisis lie in a
shortage of fundamental supports in the lives of our children. We must
couple education reform with efforts to ensure that children not only
have a good education, but also caring adults in their lives, safe
neighborhoods, after-school programs, access to health care and
opportunities to help others.
We must also look at this problem with more focus. We know that
just 2,000 high schools (12 percent) produce over half of the high
school dropouts in this country. With our business and non-profit
partners, we are building powerful, cross-sector collaborations to
focus needed resources in these low-performing schools and surrounding
neighborhoods.
In order to raise the visibility of children in Federal policy and
solidify our commitment to the Nation's future, we need a coordinated,
national action plan. A critical first step is for Congress to create a
National Council on Children focused on re-establishing America as a
global frontrunner in child well-being.
I ask that you challenge Congress to work with us to build a strong
and sustained movement. Individual by individual, community by
community, we can create a Grad Nation and show our most vulnerable
young people that America is indeed the land of opportunity.
______
Chairman Dodd, Ranking Member Alexander, and members of the
committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on this very
important issue.
Today our Nation faces many urgent priorities: the economy,
healthcare, national security, global competitiveness. But I would say
that one of the most important issues we face as a nation is one that
impacts all of these priorities--and that is the well-being of our
children.
Sadly, our children are often overlooked when addressing many
urgent issues of the time. But let there be no doubt--meeting the needs
of our most vulnerable youth means building a stronger, safer,
healthier, and more equitable country.
america's promise alliance
As you may know, my husband General Colin Powell was founding chair
of America's Promise Alliance, the organization I now chair. The
Alliance grew out of the President's Summit for America's Future in
1997, where all the living presidents and Nancy Reagan signed a
declaration stating that: ``As Americans and as Presidents, we ask
every caring citizen to pledge individual commitments of citizen
service, voluntary action, the efforts of their organizations, or
commitments to individual children in need. By doing so, this Nation
pledges the fulfillment of America's promise for every American
child.''
Today, we fulfill that promise through more than 400 national
partner organizations and their local affiliates--aggressively
addressing the high school dropout and college readiness crisis that
plagues this country. The dropout crisis is a dramatic symbol of how we
as a nation are failing our young people.
creating a grad nation
On March 1, I joined President Obama, Secretary Duncan and my
husband at an event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to officially
embark on the most ambitious campaign the Alliance has ever
undertaken--the Grad Nation Campaign.
Through Grad Nation we will mobilize Americans of all ages, income
levels and ethnicities--in all 50 States and in communities large and
small--to end the high school dropout crisis and prepare our young
people for the 21st century workforce. We will also mobilize our
national partners and their local affiliates to create powerful, cross-
sector solutions, especially in communities and neighborhoods that are
home to our most vulnerable children.
This is a critical moment in time. And it's time to turn a moment
into a movement.
the magnitude of the crisis
The statistics are tragic. One of every three students fails to
graduate from high school in this country. That's over 1 million
students a year. Among minority students, the problem is even more
severe, with barely half of African-American and Hispanic students
graduating from high school.
Lack of readiness for college and the 21st-century workforce is an
equally serious threat. As we all know, a high school diploma is no
longer enough in our global economy. Yet only about one-third of our
high school graduates have enough of the skills required for success in
college and the workforce. And only 10 percent of minority students who
enroll in college will graduate. Just 1 in 10.
the cost to our country
The high school dropout crisis not only takes a toll on our
children, but it also takes an enormous and unsustainable toll on our
country. Consider the students from the class of 2009. Had all of them
stayed in school and graduated, our economy would gain more than $320
billion over their working lives. That's $320 billion in higher wages,
greater consumer buying power, and increased tax contributions.
And this is only part of the cost. It does not count the cost of
remedial education. It does not count the cost of social programs and
prisons. It does not count the cost to our healthcare system. Because
high school dropouts on average have more health problems than
graduates, it has been estimated that our Nation would save $174
billion in healthcare costs had all of the Class of 2009 graduated.
Mr. Chairman, this is an economic as well as a moral crisis.
a solvable problem
But I want to make it very clear: this is a crisis we can solve. We
have seen what success looks like when sound policies and best
practices are paired with strong community support.
It starts with better schools. But we must also recognize that many
of the roots of the dropout crisis lie in a shortage of the fundamental
supports--or what we call the Five Promises--in the lives of our
children. In fact, the dropout crisis exemplifies our failure to ensure
that our children have the building blocks that make for success.
We support education reform as a keystone to improving graduation
rates and readiness for college and work. But too many children come to
school not able to learn. We must couple reform with efforts to
transform young lives by ensuring that children not only have a good
education, but also caring adults in their lives, safe neighborhoods,
after-school programs, access to health care and opportunities to help
others.
Over the past 2 years, America's Promise Alliance has been steadily
building awareness and momentum on the dropout issue--and today the
Silent Epidemic is no longer silent. We have convened Dropout
Prevention Summits in all 50 States and 55 additional cities, bringing
together leaders from all sectors of the community.
Now we must turn awareness into sustained, results-driven action.
focus on lowest performing high schools and their communities
How can we achieve success? We know that just 2,000 high schools
(12 percent) produce over half of the high school dropouts in this
country. For that reason, we are focusing special effort on these low-
performing schools and their surrounding neighborhoods.
With our business and non-profit partners, we are building powerful
cross-sector collaborations to focus needed resources in these 2,000
neighborhoods, to strengthen these lowest performing schools, and to
help our most vulnerable children receive the Five Promises.
What does it mean to strengthen low-performing schools and low-
resource neighborhoods? It means increasing the presence of caring
adults who are involved in everything from reading to young children to
after-school tutoring and mentoring to service-learning opportunities.
It means empowering and encouraging parents to fulfill their
indispensable role as active partners in their children's learning. It
means making sure more young people have consistent access to
healthcare. It means quality pre-school available to every child.
It means providing more places after school and during the summer
where children can be safe and use their time productively. 21st
Century Community Learning Centers need to be protected and expanded
because they keep children safe, inspire learning and are a lifeline
for working families.
And the focus must go beyond high school students. Half of all
young people who drop out of high school do so by the 10th grade. The
majority of those who drop out say they began disengaging from school
during their middle-school years. And one of the most reliable
predictors of future dropouts is third-grade reading scores. We have to
support at-risk children from an early age. And we must stay involved
every step of the way.
national council on children
We must also look at this problem with more focus. I mentioned that
the needs of our children are often overlooked as this Nation addresses
urgent priorities. In order to raise the visibility of children in
Federal policy and solidify our commitment to the Nation's future, we
need a coordinated, national action plan.
A critical first step toward reversing this downward trend is for
Congress to create a National Council on Children, focusing on
reestablishing America as a global frontrunner in child well-being.
A National Council on Children would serve as a forum on behalf of
children and function as a permanent independent entity within the
Federal Government. It would conduct a comprehensive study to assess
the needs of children, submit a report to the President and Congress,
and make recommendations on how to best address the needs of our
youngest citizens. Upon completion of the study and issuance of
recommendations, the Council would annually assess the Nation's
performance in meeting its goals, and propose additional improvements.
In 1997, a similar panel proved to be a remarkable success story
for America's young people, spawning the enactment of the Child Tax
Credit, improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit, the creation of
the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and other initiatives
that have drastically improved child health and well-being. But today a
new generation of children once again faces serious problems that
threaten this progress. The creation of a permanent Council tasked with
annually assessing the status of children will ensure continuous,
measurable benefits for our Nation's most precious resource.
the civil rights issue of our time
Mr. Chairman, many say education is the Civil Rights crisis of our
time, and they are right. Our values are at risk when students' chances
of graduating from high school are heavily affected by where they live
and the resources available to them.
Education is the passport to full participation in the American
Dream. But right now that dream is being dashed by a harsh reality.
Millions of our young people have little chance of being part of an
opportunity society simply because they lack access to the resources
that would enable them to succeed.
conclusion
The state of our children is not simply a failure of government or
of schools; it is a failure of all of us. Each and every one of us must
be part of the solution.
Today, I ask that you challenge Congress to work with us to build a
strong and sustained movement. Individual by individual, community by
community, we CAN create a Grad Nation and show our most vulnerable
young people that America is indeed the land of opportunity.
We know what to do. We need focus and commitment. Today it is more
a matter of summoning the will than finding the way. And we have no
option but to summon the will--for ourselves, for our children, and for
our Nation.
Senator Dodd. Well, thank you very much, Mrs. Powell. I was
reading your testimony, the longer set of remarks which you
gave to the committee, and that that statistic--of all the
schools, there are 2,000--represents only about 10 percent of
all the schools. While the number seems large, if you didn't
mention the fact that it represents only a relatively small
percentage where most of those problems persist--and your data
and statistics regarding the condition of children--ones in
poverty, the ones graduating from school----
I've often said, if I only could fix one problem in
America--I often get asked by people, ``What's the single most
important issue that you wrestle with?'' And I've answered the
same way for 30 years. It's education. I mean, I really
believe, while everything else is not unimportant, if you get
that piece right, then everything else begins to have a
reasonable prospect of a good solution. Get that one wrong, and
nothing else ever turns out terribly well. You may get lucky
occasionally on something, but, without the focus on that----
I thank you immensely for your focus on that.
Mrs. Powell. Well, we also need to understand that, when we
talk about school reform, that's only one part of the equation.
Senator Dodd. That's correct.
Mrs. Powell. We have to be sure that we're providing all
the supports that young people need, so that they come to
school ready to learn. This is our focus.
Senator Dodd. Yes, totally. And that's what--parents and so
forth who have that--so, the educational issue carries through
all the way along.
Elaine, good to have you with us.
STATEMENT OF ELAINE ZIMMERMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CONNECTICUT
COMMISSION ON CHILDREN, HAMDEN, CT
Ms. Zimmerman. Very good to be here.
Senator Dodd, Senator Alexander, members of the committee,
it's an honor.
I've been asked to speak, in particular, to the issue of
children and the recession. As the Senator knows, we have tried
to understand the uncharted territory, when it arrives, for
children. We studied, deeply, the impact of September 11 and
homeland security issues on children. We studied Katrina. And
when the recession began, before people were captioning it, we
began to look at what it meant.
There were very little articles, very little information
out there, but two that we used. One was from First Focus, and
one was from Ken Land, at Duke. We invited the studies'--the
authors and economists--to join us in Connecticut. And we
learned, from First Focus, that, though the economy will turn--
it's pretty much what Senator Sanders was beginning to talk
about--the economy will turn. Those children who fall into the
rabbit hole of poverty right now will not recover. In fact, we
will see, from them, lost wages and poor health into their
adult years. What we do now, in this decade, has a profound
impact on a generation.
And sadly, Don Peck, in The Atlantic, calls this
generation, now, the ``sinking generation,'' which is part of
what I'm going to speak to.
In our country, this is going to cost $1.7 trillion. We're
going to see 3 million children fall into poverty. Ken Land, at
Duke, found that the progress made in children's economic well-
being since 1975 is likely to be totally wiped out by this
downturn. He projects a decline in safety, which we are already
seeing, and is historic, based on recessionary trends; a rise
in poverty; education decline; a decline in social
connectedness--and a report just came out that's showing that
this generation is notably lacking in empathy; a decline in
family income; and a significant toll on communities of color.
We are already seeing black middle-class neighborhoods hollowed
out; and, though the unemployment gap between blacks and whites
was narrowing, it has now widened, and we're thrown back to the
1990s.
Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson says, ``We should
brace ourselves for what is happening now.''
In our State, the data is pretty staggering. More children
are hungry, homeless, and living in families under tremendous
stress. There's been a 30-percent increase in homelessness, a
33-percent increase in homelessness in the suburbs and in the
rural sector. This is not poverty as we know it, this is a
middle-class agenda, crashing. We are seeing one out of five
children, in our State, under 12, hungry. In the past 2 years,
there's been a significant increase in infant mortality and
low-birth weight, which is costing our little teeny State $159
million a year in unnecessary hospitalizations.
Speaker Donovan established the first task force on
children and the recession, and we took this research, and we
wanted to see, Well, is this really true in our State? We held
hearings--urban, rural, suburban--throughout the State, for 2
years. We invited families to come. And they did. Homeless,
middle class, whatever, they came, and they told their stories.
The stories are--well, they are staggering. The line that
did it for me, that led me to travel the State, nonstop, was
one young man who came to the microphone and said, ``I
concentrate, each day, on not eating.'' That's our education
system. On not eating. That's what this child's concentrating
on. He said, ``In my refrigerator now, there's a half bottle of
juice and a box of eggs.'' This is what his family has.
Teachers are observing children steal food off desks.
We're seeing children say that they need to leave their
families--the young adults--because they feel the burden on the
family. We are seeing an increase in runaways, an increase in
youth leaving families and going to the streets. And the
children are as young as 13 years old. There's beginning to be
a spike.
There's an increase in domestic violence. In our State,
there's been an increase in murders in households. There's an
increase of children being left alone because families are now
juggling three jobs, but making half the wage.
We're seeing, not only what is becoming almost a national
experiment in family stress because of this recession, but
youth floundering for opportunity. The unemployment rate right
now for youth is as bad as it was right after World War II.
Young children, youth, are competing with their parents now for
similar jobs.
More runaways, more homelessness, and family healthcare
floundering.
What we did in our State after 2 years, was passed
legislation--and actually, the Senate was unanimous, the House
was overwhelmingly positive--that said when the unemployment
rate is 8 percent for a duration--for a certain amount of time,
a few months, this is going to be considered a State emergency
for children, and we are going to do things differently,
because a recession is a crisis for children, the same way
September 11 was.
And so, we say, when it's 8 percent unemployment, we must
have a single point of entry for all families, we must have
coordinated leadership, because we cannot let youth disconnect.
We cannot have a generation of disconnected youth, so we need
to make sure there's plenty of leadership opportunities for
youth, we need to make sure every child is fed, year round;
that there's enough childcare, because what we learned again
and again was that homeless families cannot get out of that
problem until they have childcare; and that unemployed cannot
find jobs unless they have childcare. And it needs to be of
quality; it can't be a neighbor or a boyfriend.
We also said that we needed to make sure that we paid
attention to competitiveness, and that if there are no jobs
right now, then let's build up education, and let's do that
even for welfare recipients so that the people can become more
competitive instead of throwing them off the cliff when there
are no jobs at all; that we needed to work across funding
streams and silos; that whatever needs to be waived right now,
we should just waive it to allow for a more unified approach;
and that we needed to maximize Federal opportunities, such as
the TANF Emergency Fund, which is so helpful for youth
employment and for service-sector jobs.
What, interestingly, occurred from all of this was, we
realized we have some very good policies, as do many States,
for children, but, frankly, we don't have good systems. We
haven't worked well enough on creating systems for children.
You can have a good preschool law, but, if you don't have a
good early-care and education system, it's actually full of
holes, eventually, when the economy turns, or whatever.
Actually, this crisis has led us to say we must focus on
systems, but we must understand that children come first and
that this is an economic crisis.
There were a few other things we learned. One was that it
was key to focus on prevention, that we had to prevent problems
as much as we could, rather than enduring just a constant state
of crisis, that we needed to go much more forward in civics,
bringing parents in as leaders, because they're going to notice
the fissures in the system, over anyone else; and once again,
to make sure youth feel engaged; and that we have to get rid of
the programs that are not working; that this is no time for
lackluster programming; that we need results-based
accountability in all that we do. We're very proud that we've
moved this legislation.
This is an interesting generation. This generation is a
generation that saw itself--it's global, it understands
technology; it's a generation of the world. It simultaneously
observed the World Trade Center be bombed. This is the
generation that saw children jump out of windows. After things
calmed down--several years--they then watched a city become a
flood, and they watched children, that looked like them, on
roofs, with signs saying, ``Help me.'' They then began to think
that their government wouldn't help them. Then they watched the
banking industry cheat its own customers. Then they watched
people begin to question government. And now they're in a
recession.
These are children who learned, unlike any other
generation, to think in a worldly way and a global way. They
are global children in a sinking boat.
We need to take the potential leadership and genius of this
generation and make sure they don't sink.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Zimmerman follows:]
Prepared Statement of Elaine Zimmerman \1\
summary
This testimony describes one State's findings regarding children
and the recession. It evaluates the impact of the recession on children
and youth and reveals outcomes across class and geographic regions of
the State.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The presenter, Elaine Zimmerman is the executive director of
the Connecticut Commission on Children which is a strategic policy arm
and coordinating entity for children in State government. She has
worked for both the California and Connecticut Legislatures and serves
as staff vice-chair for Human Services and Welfare for the National
Conference of State Legislators.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Connecticut Legislature brought in scholars and economists who
could inform the policy leadership about implications for the family.
The research is summarized.
Seven hearings were held throughout the State to learn from
families and youth how the recession was touching them. Urban, rural,
and suburban families spoke to us. Their topics included food, housing,
violence, child care, safety, education, and dreams for the future. The
findings are summarized.
Legislation was crafted after 2 years of research and public input.
The legislation, which passed overwhelmingly, is discussed. Additional
policy efforts are also presented including:
1. A major strategy to reduce child poverty by 50 percent within a
decade;
2. A Parent Trust to bring families in as partners in public policy
related to children;
3. A focus on prevention for children, rather than crisis; and
4. A statewide strategy of results-based accountability to ensure
methods of transparency and high-level strategic planning for best
outcomes in population trends.
______
Chairman Dodd, Ranking Member Alexander and members of the
subcommittee, thank you for the honor to testify before you. My name is
Elaine Zimmerman and I am the executive director of the Connecticut
Commission on Children. Today I will speak to the current situation
facing children. I will use Connecticut as an example, but these issues
face the Nation.
Connecticut sought to learn what the impact of the recession was on
children. As we did after 9/11 and then again after Katrina, we reached
out to families to learn how the current and uncharted context, both
sociological and economic, is impacting the child. We researched the
recession and family life. Little on children was emerging at the time.
There were two core studies: one by First Focus in Washington, DC and
one by Ken Land at Duke University. We brought them both to our State.
Michael Linden and Bruce Lesley, from First Focus, shared that the
recession will send between 2.6 million and 3.3 million children into
poverty, costing American taxpayers $1.7 trillion. They estimated
conservatively that the economic impact on Connecticut would be $800
million annually, with 35,000 children falling into poverty.
Their research shows that children will not recover when the
economy recovers. The last two recessions reveal that children who fall
into poverty during a recession fare far worse, even well into
adulthood, than their peers who avoided poverty despite the downturn in
the economy. These children will live in households with lower overall
incomes, they will earn less themselves, and they will have a greater
chance at living in or near poverty. They will achieve lower levels of
education and will be less likely to be gainfully employed.
Children who experience recession-induced poverty will report
poorer health than their peers who did not fall in poverty during the
recession. This difference will persist into their adult lives. What we
do now will influence a near decade for children.
Dr. Kenneth Land from Duke University, working in concert with the
Foundation for Child Development, reported that virtually all the
progress made in children's economic well-being since 1975 is likely to
be wiped out by the downturn. Specifically, findings revealed:
A decline in safety--Children are expected to fare worse due to
higher rates of violent crime where youth are both victims and
perpetrators. This is based on historic recessionary trends.
A rise in poverty--The percentage of children in poverty is
expected to peak at 21 percent, comparable to that of previous economic
recessions.
Education decline--Fewer children will be able to participate in
pre-kindergarten programs.
Decline in social connectedness--More low- and middle-income
families will move or become homeless. Children will experience
substantial negative impacts on their peer and other neighborhood
social relations due to the severity of the housing crisis.
Decline in family income--For all families, median annual family
income is expected to decline from $59,200 in 2007 to about $55,700 in
2010.
Significant toll on communities of color--The child well-being
indicators show that African-American and Latino children are generally
more susceptible to the consequences of economic fluctuations. When the
economy is doing well, their well-being gains are more dramatic. When
the economy slumps, they are harder hit than their white counterparts.
This is now validated in The State of Working America by the
Economic Policy Institute, showing black middle-class neighborhoods
hollowed out. Black unemployment has risen with job loss, savings are
drained and retirement accounts are being used to make do now, rather
than for the later years. The gap between black and white unemployment
had been shrinking for decades. But the latest recession has thrown it
back to the early 1990s.
one state story
Already, the evidence in Connecticut is staggering. More children
are hungry, homeless, and living in families under tremendous stress.
Fully 28 percent of the State's children have parents with no full-
time, year-round employment. Home foreclosures have pushed many
families into the rental market, which in turn is driving up rents--
despite falling incomes and rising unemployment. As a result, many
families won't find housing at all.
In just 1 year, Connecticut homeless shelters reported a 30 percent
increase in the number of families they had to turn away due to lack of
space. Few things hurt children more than housing instability and
homelessness. Just in terms of academic performance, they increase the
chances of repeating a grade or dropping out of high school.
One out of five Connecticut children under the age of 12--102,000
youngsters--is hungry or at risk of hunger. Food insecurity affects
child development. The increased odds for cognitive, behavioral, and
other development delays have implications for educational achievement.
In the past 2 years, increasing rates of infant mortality and low
birth-weight infants, along with dropping rates of mothers receiving
timely prenatal care during the first trimester, suggest that a once-
positive Connecticut trend may be reversing direction, erasing three
decades of improvement. Low birth-weight costs our State $195 million
per year in preventable hospitalizations.
The Commission on Children suggested the Speaker of the House make
this a legislative priority. Connecticut Speaker Christopher Donovan
(D-Meriden) established a legislative Task Force on Children and the
Recession, to be chaired by State Representatives Diana Urban and Karen
Jarmoc. The bipartisan Task Force includes legislators, economists,
business, families, philanthropy, health-care, State agencies, and
child experts.
Specifically, the Task Force on Children and the Recession:
Identifies trends and research resulting from the
recession related to housing, employment, homelessness, child care,
unemployment and makes recommendations to the Speaker on appropriate
budget and policy action;
Recommends efficiencies and offers ways to streamline
services and access points for families;
Reports quarterly to the Speaker and leadership of the
Legislature on key findings; and
Identifies appropriate Federal opportunities.
After the Task Force learned the research findings from Ken Land
and Bruce Lesley, we went to the community. Did the community echo what
the research said? We aligned our hearings with our congressional
districts so that our congressional leaders could partner and help with
policy and State response. They all attended.
We looked at topics that included streamlining services,
employment, family strengthening during a time of stress, food and
nutrition, housing and homelessness, youth, and planning for college.
We asked how communities can help. What should be waived during this 2-
year crisis to help families and children? Can we keep the American
dream?
Hearings were held in seven sites--rural, urban, and suburban. The
recession is a cross-class crisis impacting children in every
geographic area of our State. The first hearing was led by Congressman
John Larson's Youth Cabinet.
The hearings revealed:
Increasing job loss, homelessness, and hunger are part of
our State's portfolio.
Latasha Fitzwilliams, 20 years of age, said, ``I concentrate each
day on not eating . . . in our refrigerator right now there are two
things: a half-bottle of juice and a box of eggs.''
Teachers are observing children steal food off desks, out of
hunger. One community college president described strangers coming to
her staff meetings to take food from the back table.
A generation of tired young adults.
Bulaong Ramize of Wesleyan University said,
``Along with being a student, I have four jobs on campus.
Most of the students at my school work at least two jobs to
help pay their way through college. I have friends who've taken
semesters off to go back home to help their families . . . it
does affect our grades. Are we really going to be the driving
force if by the time we graduate, we're already tired of
working?''
New obligations to take care of siblings and parents
alike.
High school junior Kara Googins said,
``I come from a middle class family. We bought a house before
the recession started and both of my parents had jobs. My mom
lost her job almost 3 months ago. Now my main concern is
finding a job. I've applied for jobs, but there aren't any for
students after school. I'm worried that one day, I'll come home
from school and my dad won't have a job either. It's just
difficult because high school students shouldn't have to deal
with supporting their families.''
Scattered services and workers not aware of what is
available.
Families reported again and again having to go one place for one
service and another place for another. They had to wait and return up
to 3 days just to sign up for services. Some gave up.
State employees did not know the services for families in other
sectors. In some instances they sent families to Federal offices when
the State provided the services.
Homelessness and a housing crisis for the middle class.
Sixty percent of the adults in homeless families have 12th-grade
educations or higher. Homeless shelters in our State are above
capacity. Many middle class families are just a step away from falling
into foreclosure or losing a job. Others have already fallen into a
loss of home or job.
Families trying to cope without resorting to illegal
activity.
Rhonda, a Bridgeport mother of three, testified before us about
having to tell one of her daughters that she could not go to college
because the family could not afford the $40 application fee. She went
to describe how, faced with eviction from her apartment because she
could no longer afford the rent, she pleaded with government agencies
for assistance. One said she'd qualify--if she had a drug, alcohol, or
mental problem. Rhonda had none of those. ''Right now,'' she tearfully
told the Task Force, ``you do not know how bad I want to use drugs just
to help my family.''.
Family stressors up with more neglect and violence.
Families are working more and seeing their children less. Children
are stressed, but their parents are more stressed. So they do not know
who to talk to.
We are seeing more children left alone while parents work or hunt
for jobs. There is an increase in domestic violence. Connecticut has
seen an influx of murders in the home. There is an increase in teen
dating violence.
Youth floundering for opportunity.
Youth unemployment rate is the highest since just after World War
II. Youth are competing with adults for the same jobs. This is
disheartening to both generations. Joblessness for 16- to 24-year-old
black male youth and young adults has reached ``Great Depression
proportions.'' Nationally, it was 34.5 percent--more than three times
the rate for the general U.S. population.
More runaways. More homeless youth.
Youth told us again and again how they were feeling they should
leave home. They sought to be one less burden on a struggling family.
More youth are saying they cannot see their way to college. Some are
leaving home to relieve parents of the extra costs. The New York Times
reports government officials seeing an increasing number of children
leaving home for life on the streets, including children under 13 years
of age.
Growing demand for lower-cost higher education.
The President of the Connecticut State University system and the
State's Commissioner of Higher Education describe more and more middle
class students leaving the private higher-education system for the
public system. And many in the public system, who are lower-income, are
leaving to care for family. The loans are just not enough and the
family financial burdens are too great.
Family health care faltering.
The number of low birth-weight babies is on the rise. From 2006 to
2008, our State averaged 255 infant deaths per year. Of those, three
quarters occurred before the 28th day of life, and half of those were
linked to low birth-weight, which is strongly connected to lack of food
and stressors.
This is not a poverty issue as we have known it. Twenty-five
percent of those going to food pantries are working. There is simply
not enough cash to buy food throughout the week. People are working
more and making less. (Many are working three different jobs, all at a
lower wage than what they had been making previously.) Fathers,
mothers, and grandparents need all the support they can get to access
additional food for the children, find child care, and learn about
employment.
The recession is like any sudden emergency--you need leadership
fast and resilient to work across agency and boundary to put out the
fire, wherever the flame is. We cannot stop the recession from its
course. But we can make sure we understand its impact on children and
buffer the impact fast and capably.
After approximately a year of inquiry, the Task Force reported its
findings and worked with the Legislature to create a policy response.
Public Act No. 10-133, passed overwhelmingly in the Connecticut House
and unanimously in the Connecticut Senate. It declares a recession an
emergency for children. When the unemployment rate is 8 percent, an
emergency response will kick in. The legislation calls for:
streamlined services, with a single point of entry.
a coordinated leadership team from key departments, so no
child receives fragmented services.
ensuring all children are fed, year-round.
making child care be available for families so they can
look for work and train for jobs.
stopping the trend towards low birth-weight babies by
using proven interventions.
giving youth opportunities for leadership and connection
in community.
providing more education. If there are no jobs, help
people go to school, including welfare recipients.
work across funding streams and silos. Allow whatever
needs to be waived to help operations smoothly help families.
maximize Federal opportunities in employment and training,
such as the TANF Emergency Fund.
ensure accountability and efficiency. This is not a time
for lackluster programs or bureaucracy.
improve coordination and integration of services for
families.
deter homelessness through rental assistance programs.
Other key lessons:
Bolster leadership and civics in such hard times. We need to bring
parents in and give them the leadership tools they need so they can
tell us what is and is not working. With so many cuts and fissures in
the system, we need those who care the most about children to inform
public policy. Parent engagement and family civics are key.
Create systems for children, not jut single policies. Our systems
do not work well--we have single policies, one silo after another. For
example, if we have a good preschool law, but no coordinated system of
early care and education, our system is pecked with holes.
Prevent the problems from happening in the first place. Know what
works. Know what is proven and cost-effective. Complete cost-benefit
analysis. Get rid of what is not working for what is proven. And then
bring to scale.
Federal funds to support families in this recession are key. The
Federal Government is key in bolstering policies proven to help
families in times of fiscal uncertainty. Again and again families
stressed the need for help from government. The TANF Emergency Fund is
just one example of a Federal initiative to States that helps with
jobs, building employment partnerships with industry, the State, and
workers. We have used the funds to create new job training
opportunities in both manufacturing and the service sector.
Connecticut has endeavored to address a few additional policy areas
pertinent to the family and the recession.
1. Our child poverty legislation sets a goal to reduce poverty by
50 percent within a decade. National experts were brought together,
across party and interest area, to tell us what was proven in reducing
child poverty, what could be replicated and what was most efficient.
They recommended the policy focus on (a) family income and earnings
potential, (b) education, (c) income safety nets and (d) family
structure and support.
We took their recommendations and created an economic model
analysis. The Urban Institute found that we could reduce child poverty
by 35 percent if we: (1) provided child care subsidies to families with
incomes of less than 50 percent of the State median; (2) provided
education and training programs to result in associates degrees for
half the adults with high school diplomas; (3) helped high school
dropouts get their GEDs; (4) increased employment by 6 percent for the
unemployed; (5) increased participation in safety net programs by 85
percent such as food stamps, subsidized housing and LIHEAP; (6) ensured
child support payments.
2. Prevention policy--Connecticut now requires an annual prevention
budget, a shift in expenditures from crisis to prevention for children.
The Governor reports out in her state of the State on our prevention
budget. She writes up an annual report on what programs work best in
prevention for children and which programs are properly coordinated
across sector and funding stream. Connecticut released a children's
stock portfolio that details a return on investment specific to our
State. We treat prevention as a cost savings strategy, with proven
outcomes, for children and youth.
3. Parent Leadership Training Institute and Parent Trust--
Connecticut offers parents a toolkit in leadership for children.
Parents want to partner for the next generation, but lack the civic
skills to do so. Once they have the skills, it's amazing what one
parent can do. We now have over 2,000 graduates who are on school
boards, city councils, advisory committees. After about 7 years of
this, parents shifted in our State to assets at the policy table--both
State and local. They have contributed 1.5 million volunteer hours.
4. Results-based accountability--State leaders in all three
branches of government are trained in an accountability paradigm. The
Appropriations Committee does not entertain a request without a
presentation based on population trends, indicators and impact. If
there is not a context, analysis, or clear strategy to reverse or
bolster trends, the work and proposal will not be received.
Connecticut is the only State in the Nation to report to the public
on its social state and quality of life. Annually, the public is
objectively apprised through data analysis on how we are faring in key
subject areas that cross age and region. From wages to health care to
housing, we can observe the social State of Connecticut. Eleven
indicators are offered separately, as well as integrated into a single
digit number, so that we can trace our overall direction and success as
a State. We look only at indicators that have a trend line of two
decades.
summary
This generation of youth and young adults is complex. They were
born into a broadening world democracy. They learned their numbers and
letters as we became a true global economy. There was a sea change in
technology and communications with the Internet. They are ahead of us
on diversity and integration in how they think and live. Their
landscape is naturally vast--much vaster than the scope and range we
grew up with.
Then they witnessed those threatened by a democratic world, blow up
our World Trade Centers. They watched people jump out windows and felt
a nation in shock.
Then just as the Nation seemed to calm, a city became a flood. They
saw children and youth on rooftops with signs pleading for help. They
then began to think that their country could not protect them from
disaster.
Just when that crisis calmed down a bit, they watched our financial
leaders rob its own customers and tip our financial boat over. They
have watched the public believe and then give up on government. They
have seen a recession dim the last 2 years and all that they promised
and international fiscal crisis scrape away their sense of future.
This is an exceptional generation--complex, deep, exposed, not
naive. What they will do with all this information--who they will be as
adults will be ripe for historians. But now we must make sure to lead
for them--promise what is possible and to help them join us in
leadership. They are a generation of leaders. Their skill set is beyond
ours. A sea change has occurred and it is part of their every day
psyche.
But the resources and programs necessary for them must remain
intact so they can be all they can be. You may have read Don Peck's
disturbing article in the March issue of The Atlantic, entitled ``How a
New Jobless Era will Transform America.''
Peck writes,
``The great recession may be over, but this era of high
joblessness is probably just beginning. Before it ends, it will
likely change the life course and character of a generation of
young adults. It may already be plunging many inner cities in
to a despair not seen for decades. Ultimately, it is likely to
warp our policies, our culture and the character of our society
for years to come.''
If only one-third of what he says is accurate, we need to prepare
now for this generation. Make sure they stay connected. Invest in their
future. Fund only what works. Create coherent policies and a
coordinated system. Reduce child poverty. As children and youth are
often forgotten in national crisis, make sure they are not a second
thought--too late, too fleeting.
Thank you.
Senator Dodd. Thanks very much, Elaine.
With that, Mr. Lund.
STATEMENT OF JACK LUND, PRESIDENT AND CEO, YMCA OF GREATER NEW
YORK, NEW YORK, NY
Mr. Lund. Good morning, Chairman Dodd, Ranking Member
Alexander, members of the subcommittee. I'd like to express
appreciation, on behalf of the Nation's 2,687 YMCAs, for your
work to ensure the health and security of the Nation's children
and families.
The YMCA is the Nation's leading not-for-profit committed
to youth development, healthy living, and social
responsibility. And at the Y, strengthening community is our
fundamental mission.
About 35 million children in the United States live within
3 miles of a Y, and every day we work side by side with our
neighbors in more than 10,000 communities to make sure that
everyone--everyone, regardless of age, income, or background--
has the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive.
Last year, YMCAs across the United States had a direct
impact on the lives of more than 20 million Americans of all
ages and backgrounds. About half of them were kids under the
age of 18. In New York City, we serve nearly 400,000, half of
whom are youth and teens.
By design, YMCAs are diverse as the communities we serve,
and we strive to meet the unique needs of our neighbors. But,
at the heart of almost every Y is a belief that kids deserve
the opportunity to discover who they are and discover what they
can achieve.
In each of the five boroughs in New York City, and in every
congressional district in this country, we have at least one,
if not several, YMCAs, where kids are encouraged to learn, make
smarter life choices, develop the values, skills, and
relationships that lead to positive behaviors, better health,
and the pursuit of higher education and personal achievement.
I've been around a YMCA movement more than 35 years. And
thank you, Senator, for suggesting that it was only 30. But, as
a Y professional in cities from coast to coast, I can attest to
the YMCA's transformative impact on the lives of kids. Not only
kids, but also adults, families, and, for that matter, the
entire community.
Today's kids are facing challenges unimagined a generation
or two ago, and the culprits are not new, and you've been
hearing about them this morning; they are disturbingly real.
Unsafe streets, or the perception of unsafe streets, leads
parents to keep their kids indoors and plugged into video games
and the Internet. Budget cuts and increased emphasis on
standardized testing has led to the disappearance of physical
education from the school day. A lack of sidewalks in some
neighborhoods mean fewer kids can walk or bike to school. A
lack of supermarkets and the relative high price of some foods
has made junk food from the corner store and fast-food outlets
the only choice for low-income families living in so-called
``food deserts.''
The statistics are shocking, almost unimaginable. One in
three American children are overweight or obese. One in three
Americans born in the year 2000 will develop type II diabetes,
which some of our experts call ``the scourge of the 21st
century.'' And black, Latino, and Native American kids face the
greatest risk.
American kids' screen time in front of the television or
computer exceeds the hours that they are in school. And so, for
so many kids, the support system has disappeared. In an era
when the parents of 28 million school-aged children work
outside the home, only 8.4 million kids, or 15 percent,
participate in after-school programs. As the After School
Alliance reported in a recent study, 18.5 million additional
children would participate if a quality after-school program
were available in their community. Instead, so many of these
children are left to fend for themselves, alone at home. They
need to have access to after-school programs that offer a safe,
nurturing space for them to learn, grow, and to realize their
potential.
At the Y, we offer a range of programs, or perhaps a better
word would be ``experiences,'' that contribute to closing the
gap identified in the study that we did, along with Dartmouth
and the Institute of American values, called Hardwired to
Connect. It's been entered into the record today. We provide
the necessary tools to help youth and teens reach their
potential and develop the values and skills they need to carry
them into adulthood. Core offerings include childcare, before-
and after-school care, tutoring, summer camp, civic engagement,
and leadership development programs.
[Editor's Note: Due to the high cost of printing,
previously published materials are not reprinted in the hearing
record. You may go to: www.Americanvalues.org or
www.Amazon.com, to order the above referenced study.]
But, these Y experiences are so much more than meet the
eye. Consider: childcare and after-school provide safe,
nurturing environments for children to learn, grow, develop
social skills, and engage in physical activity; sports and
structured play not only builds healthy bodies, but also builds
social and leadership skills; swim instruction reduces the risk
of drowning, a leading cause of accidental death in children,
and also instills confidence and a valuable skill that can
never be taken away.
Y camps provide a safe, thriving community for young people
to explore personal interests, build self-esteem, learn values,
develop interpersonal skills, discover the wonders of nature,
and develop independence away from their parents, often for the
first time.
Civic engagement and leadership programs, like Youth and
Government and Teens Take the City, which is a model city
government program we began in New York 5 years ago, they
enhance knowledge, build character, and give young people the
opportunity to discover that they can make a positive change in
their communities and in the world. As we all know, democracy
must be learned by each generation, and the YMCA shares in that
responsibility.
We believe all these opportunities are not just nice things
to do, but very essential to the healthy development of our
communities--a community's children--in spirit, mind, and
body--and access to these experiences should be considered an
American birthright.
We can't talk about the State of American kids without
talking about childhood obesity. Nearly one-third of our
Nation's children are overweight or obese, putting them at risk
for a host of chronic conditions, including type II diabetes,
high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and others.
Along with access to affordable healthcare, it is the most
pressing health issue facing our children today. As I mentioned
previously, the Y offers a range of experiences that keeps kids
moving and educates them about making healthy choices. But, we
believe we have a responsibility to support individuals of all
ages to adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles. It extends to
the entire community. That's why we're committed to working
with community leaders to influence policy, to increase
physical activity opportunities, and to improve access to
healthy foods.
In New York City, our YMCA has been an active partner with
Columbia University and neighborhood residents in the East
Harlem Food and Fitness Consortium. Our collaboration has led
to the opening of supermarkets in one of the country's most
underserved neighborhoods, and we're proud to be there.
Simply put, we need to make healthy choices the easy choice
by ensuring that our communities have adequate opportunities
for children, families, and adults to engage in healthy
behaviors, wherever they live, learn, and play.
As you move forward in your efforts to improve the health
of the Nation's children, please know that, with the Y, you
have a partner with a 160-year track record of building healthy
spirit, mind, and body, and an on-the-ground presence in 10,000
American communities to address those pressing social issues.
Despite the challenges facing our Nation's children and
youth, we see bright spots every day at the Y, and we're proud
of our long history in helping children, and individuals of all
ages, learn, grow, and thrive.
Thank you for your time.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lund follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jack Lund
Good Morning Chairman Dodd, Ranking Member Alexander and members of
the subcommittee. I'd like to express appreciation on behalf of the
Nation's 2,687 YMCAs for your work to ensure the health and security of
the Nation's children and families.
The YMCA is the Nation's leading nonprofit committed to
strengthening communities through youth development, healthy living and
social responsibility. At the Y, strengthening community is our cause.
About 35 million children in the United States live within 3 miles of a
Y and every day, we work side-by-side with our neighbors in more than
10,000 communities to make sure that everyone, regardless of age,
income or background, has the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive.
Last year, YMCAs across the United States had a direct impact on
the lives of more than 20 million people of all ages and backgrounds;
about 9 million of those were children and youth under the age of 18.
In New York City, we serve nearly 400,000, half of whom are youth and
teens.
By design, YMCAs are as diverse as the communities we serve and we
strive to meet the unique needs of our neighbors. But at the heart of
almost every Y is a belief that all kids deserve the opportunity to
discover who they are and what they can achieve. In each of the five
boroughs of New York City and in every congressional district in this
country, we have at least one if not many YMCAs where kids are getting
more interested in learning, making smarter life choices and
cultivating the values, skills and relationships that lead to positive
behaviors, better health, and the pursuit of higher education and
achievement of their goals.
challenges facing children and youth
With more than 35 years as a YMCA professional in cities from coast
to coast, I can attest to the YMCA's transformative impact on the lives
of individual children, adults and families, but also to the
surrounding community as a whole.
However, today's children are facing challenges unimagined a
generation or two ago. The culprits are not new, but they are
disturbingly real:
Unsafe streets or the perception of unsafe streets leads
parents to keep their children indoors and plugged into video games and
the Internet.
Budget cuts and increased emphasis on standardized testing
has led to the disappearance of physical education from the school day.
A lack of sidewalks in newer neighborhoods means fewer
kids can walk or bike to school.
The lack of supermarkets and the relative high price of
fresh fruits and vegetables has made junk food from the corner store
and fast food outlets the only choice for low-income families living in
so-called ``food deserts.''
The results are read in the shocking statistics: one in three
American children are overweight or obese; one in three Americans born
in the year 2000 will develop type 2 diabetes some time in their
lifetime--with black, Hispanic and Native American children facing the
greatest risk; American kids' ``screen time'' in front of the TV or
computer exceeds the hours they are in school.
For many children, support systems have disappeared. In an era
where the parents of 28 million school-age children work outside the
home, only 8.4 million K-12 children--or 15 percent--participate in
afterschool programs. As the Afterschool Alliance reported in a recent
study, 18.5 million additional children would participate if a quality
afterschool program were available in their community. Instead, so many
of these children are left to fend for themselves alone at home and
need to have access to an afterschool program that offers a safe,
nurturing space for them to learn, grow and realize their potential.
In 2003, in response to LARGE AND GROWING numbers of American
children and young people suffering from depression, anxiety, attention
deficit and behavior disorders, thoughts of suicide, and other serious
mental and behavioral problems, YMCA of the USA, Dartmouth Medical
School, and the Institute of American Values conducted research
entitled, Hardwired to Connect, The New Scientific Case for
Authoritative Communities. The research presented evidence that
indicated children are naturally predisposed to connect with others
outside their nuclear families, for moral meaning and for openness.
Meeting this basic, universal need for interpersonal ``connectedness''
is essential to health and to flourishing as an individual. But
surprisingly, our society has fallen short in meeting these essential
needs for all children, and large and growing numbers of our children
are failing to thrive, academically, socially, and emotionally.
The research concluded that such community-based organizations as
the Y, along with other neighborhood and faith organizations, are key
to creating the environments and providing the support to improve the
lives of American children and adolescents. The report also had
recommendations for what all levels of government, employers,
philanthropists, foundations, religious and civic organizations,
scholars, families and individuals could do. A full copy of this report
and a list of the recommendations is being included for the record.
At the Y, we offer a range of programs--or perhaps a better word
would be experiences--that contribute to closing the gap identified in
the Hardwired to Connect research and building the necessary tools to
help youth and teens reach their potential and develop values and
skills that they carry into adulthood. Core offerings include
childcare; before and afterschool care; tutoring; summer camp; civic
engagement and leadership development programs such as arts programs
and Youth and Government; and youth sports and aquatics instruction.
But these Y experiences are really more than meet the eye.
Consider:
Child care and afterschool care provide safe, nurturing
environments for children to learn, grow, develop social skills, and
engage in physical activity in which they might not otherwise
participate.
Sports and structured play not only builds healthy bodies,
but also builds social and leadership skills.
Swim instruction reduces the risk of drowning--a leading
cause of accidental death in children--and also instills confidence and
a valuable skill that can never be taken away.
Camps provide a safe, thriving community for young people
to explore personal interests, build self-esteem, develop interpersonal
skills, discover the creativity and health benefits of the outdoors,
and develop independence away from their parents.
Civic engagement leadership programs like Youth and
Government and Teens Take the City, a model city program we began in
New York 5 years ago, enhance knowledge, build character and give youth
and teens the opportunity to discover that they can make a positive
change in the world around them, and realize the individual talents and
potential they possess.
We believe that all of these opportunities are not just nice things
to have, but rather essential to the healthy development of all our
communities' children, in spirit, mind and body. Access to this
experience should be considered a universal American birthright.
childcare and afterschool
Two key areas where Ys lead the way in engaging children and youth
are childcare and afterschool care. Chairman Dodd, I do not need to
tell you that these programs are a lifeline for single parents and
working families, and provide children with a safe place to go after
school. Your leadership over so many years has proven your great
understanding and support of our Nation's children and families. With
TEN THOUSAND sites across the country, the YMCA is one of the Nation's
largest non-profit providers of childcare and afterschool programs. In
New York City alone, we serve over 15,000 children in 140 sites during
the critical 3 p.m.-6 p.m. time period, not simply bridging the gap
between school and home, but creating an enriching and supportive
environment for kids to continue to grow in their academic abilities,
social interaction and physical health and well-being. Our focus on
each individual's unique assets and talents takes shape in elements
that promote artistry, emotional development, nutrition and physical
activity, character development, sports, service-learning, as well as
critical literacy, math and hands-on science activities.
We see first-hand the difference an afterschool program makes in
the life of a child, contributing to their healthy development, and we
hear it from parents and teachers alike.
Many afterschool programs--at the Y and in other organizations--are
made possible through the U.S. Department of Education's 21st Century
Community Learning Centers funding and we know that many more would
participate if funding were available. Of the more than 1,200
applicants in 2006 to the Department of Education, only 325 were able
to be funded. And fiscal year 2010 funding will mostly go to support
current grantees. Currently, 207 21st Century Community Learning
Centers sites are in YMCAs.
At the New York City YMCA we have six 21st Century programs
currently operating for a total of $1,478,149. As you might imagine,
these are not only a very important program to hundreds of kids, but
they enable hundreds of their parents to continue to work, knowing that
their child is well cared for.
We look forward to working with the committee to protect and
greatly expand 21st Century Community Learning Centers now and in the
future.
Early child care provides millions of young children with the early
learning experiences they need to be successful in their later school
years. Finding affordable and quality child care remains a daily
struggle for working families across the country. Given the current
state of the Nation's economy, parents are losing their jobs, waiting
lists for access into child care providers are increasing and child
care providers' salaries are decreasing. Child care needs are growing
and funds allocated to address those needs are insufficient. We
encourage Congress to increase funding for Child Care Development Block
Grants over the current $2.1 billion.
health care needs
In early child care sites and our afterschool sites, we witness
daily that children have a broad range of health care needs. According
to researchers at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute and
the Kaiser Family Foundation, children need regular preventive care,
including dental, hearing, and vision care, for their healthy
development.
Through the Children's Health Insurance Program or CHIP, Congress
has made great progress toward increasing access to quality health care
for children. Since it was first introduced in 1997, CHIP has served a
vital role in providing our Nation's children with a safety net of
health coverage that has reduced the rate of uninsured children over
time. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of uninsured
children in this Nation dropped to 7.3 million in 2008, less than 10
percent of our Nation's children--the lowest rate in 20 years. YMCAs
often work with the social service network in our communities to ensure
families are on the register--but the system remains complicated for
families.
childhood obesity
And we cannot talk about the state of the American child without
talking about childhood obesity. Nearly one-third of our Nation's
children are overweight or obese, putting them at risk for a whole host
of chronic conditions that they shouldn't have to worry about until
adulthood--type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol
to name a few. Along with access to affordable health care, it is
likely the most pressing health issue facing our children today. So
what can we do about it?
As I mentioned previously, the Y offers a range of experiences that
help kids move more and educate them about making healthy choices. But
we also believe that our responsibility to support individuals of all
ages to adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles reaches beyond our walls
and our programs. It extends to the entire community. That's why we are
also committed to working with community leaders to influence policy
and systems changes to increase physical activity and improve access to
healthy foods.
The YMCAs Healthier Communities Initiatives, supported by the CDC
and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, focus on collaborative
engagement with community leaders, how environments influence health
and well-being, and the role public policy plays in sustaining change.
There are nearly 150 communities participating in these
initiatives--as well as six statewide projects including Connecticut
and Tennessee. These communities and States are finding that:
1. Families need access to healthy and affordable foods--we
encourage Congressional action that gives families access to high
quality nutritious fruits and vegetables. Several YMCAs have created
virtual farmers markets that procure healthy foods directly from
farmers and distribute it to low-income families at a vastly reduced
cost. Allowing families to use food stamps for programs like these
would make them significantly more appealing. Increasing the
reimbursement rates and streamlining the administrative process for the
USDA's Child and Adult Food Care Programs would encourage more
nonprofits to take advantage of these great resources.
2. Second, families need safe neighborhoods for their children to
play outside and programs that can help children explore nature in
meaningful ways, both structured and unstructured. Research from the
Children & Nature Network tells us that green space supports children's
quality of life and improves their physical, mental and social health.
Additionally research conducted by YMCA of the USA and funded by the
National Park Service gives insights into the barriers confronting low-
income minority children and youth to reaching the great outdoors. For
some urban youth, nature is seen as somewhere ``other than here'' and a
place that is hard to get to, expensive, and not perceived as relevant.
Fear, time and not knowing what to do also presented significant
barriers.
3. Third, families need to be able to walk their children to school
safely if the school is nearby--this means safe routes to schools in
the broadest sense. Communities need to be better connected through
trails and paths so parents can travel with their kids to various
destinations (parks, restaurants, libraries, etc.) and get physical
activity along the way.
4. Fourth, families need to be connected to community-based
organizations--like the Y--that provide a safe, healthy and physically
active environment.
5. Fifth, families, especially working families, need schools and
afterschool programs to provide adequate physical activity and healthy
foods.
Our Healthier Communities Initiatives have had success in improving
community walkability and pedestrian safety by changing zoning laws
that ensure the inclusion of sidewalks in new developments, increasing
access points to fresh fruits and vegetables by bringing farmers
markets to communities where healthy foods are not available, and
influencing policy to re-institute physical education requirements in
schools and afterschool programs. In New York City, our YMCA has been
an active partner with Columbia University and neighborhood residents
in the East Harlem Food & Fitness Consortium, whose work has led to the
opening of supermarkets in one of the country's most underserved
neighborhoods.
Simply put, we need to make the healthy choice the easy choice by
ensuring that our communities have adequate opportunities for children,
families and adults to engage in healthy behaviors in all of the places
where they live, work, learn and play.
federal solutions to obesity
At the Federal level, YMCA of the USA has supported a comprehensive
childhood obesity bill introduced by Representatives Kind of Wisconsin
and Bono Mack of California, the Healthy CHOICES Act, which includes
the Play Every Day Act, an increase in funding authority for the
Physical Education for Progress (PEP) program, the Moving Outdoors in
Nature Act and new authority for virtual farmers markets, farmers
markets and community gardens. We have also supported the Complete
Streets Act and efforts through the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act
to innovate afterschool environments to enhance healthy living
opportunities.
help for families
We also helped advance, and were very pleased with the inclusion of
the Community Transformation Grants in health care reform as they are
modeled after our healthy communities work. In fact the prevention
provisions in the bill will go a long way toward improving the health
of children and families and it is essential that community-based
organizations are engaged at all levels in the delivery of these
programs.
We also know that healthy habits start at home. The YMCA's Healthy
Family Home program sends healthy messages home and provides resources
and tools for families to take simple steps toward a healthier
lifestyle. Healthy Family Home focuses on three key areas--Play Every
Day, Eat Healthy and Family Time. Many YMCAs are incorporating Healthy
Family Home into their existing programming, but it is also available
to everyone in every community through the Web at
www.healthyfamilyhome.org. We launched a PSA campaign with these
messages in the New York City market earlier this year, and First Lady
Michelle Obama has even included the Healthy Family Home toolkit on her
Let's Move! Web site as a resource for parents.
While American children are certainly facing challenges on the road
to a healthy, active and productive adolescence and adulthood,
organizations like the Y are there to support and nurture them. But so
much more can be done.
We would very much like to thank this subcommittee, along with
Chairman Harkin and the entire Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Committee for the many opportunities you've given the YMCA to address
these issues.
As you move forward in your efforts to improve the health of the
Nation's children, please know that in the Y, you have a partner with a
nearly 160-year track record of building healthy spirit, mind and body,
and an on-the-ground presence in 10,000 American communities to address
these pressing social issues. Despite the challenges facing our
Nation's children and youth, we see bright spots every day at the Y,
and we are proud of our long history in helping children--in fact
individuals of all ages--learn, grow and thrive.
Thank you for your time.
Senator Dodd. Thank you very, very much.
Before I turn to Dr. Holzer, some of those, standing in the
back of the room, there's a bench back here. If some of you
want to sit down, you're more than welcome to do so. And if
members come in, you'll have to get up and leave, but in the
meantime, come on and sit down. If any you back there would
like to do that, just walk up here.
Dr. Holzer.
STATEMENT OF HARRY J. HOLZER, Ph.D., ECONOMIST, GEORGETOWN
UNIVERSITY AND URBAN INSTITUTE, WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Holzer. Thank you, and good morning, Senator Dodd,
Senator Alexander, and Senators Sanders and Casey.
I'd like to make four main points today about the economics
and the research evidence on child well-being in America and
how they will be impacted by the great recession.
My first point. Even in the best of times, child poverty
rates in the United States are very high, and many millions of
children live with unemployed parents, and growing up in poor
households or with unemployed parents has negative long-term
consequences for these children which often lasts for the rest
of their lives.
Now, in 2007, before the recession began, the child poverty
rate was 18 percent; and over 30 percent, in minority
communities. Nearly 8 percent of all children, in that year,
lived in severe poverty, with income no more than half the
poverty line; and again, much higher rates in minority
communities.
Now, when these children grow up poor, and then they become
adults, they will have lower levels of education, lower levels
of earnings and employment, higher rates of poverty and single-
parenthood, higher rates of crime and incarceration, and poorer
health than their middle-class counterparts. This will impose
costs, not only on those individuals and their families, but it
creates large negative outcomes and large economic losses for
the U.S. economy as a whole. I've done some work estimating
those costs, in an average year, as being worth $500 billion of
lost GDP, in terms of lower productivity, as well as lost
expenditures on crime and poor health.
But, even short-term increases in poverty or parental
unemployment can have negative long-term effects on children.
For instance, those whose parents suffer a permanent job loss
often have more difficulty progressing in school, and have
lower earnings, themselves, as adults, because of the lower
resources they have, the stress in their lives, and the weaker
perceptions of rewards for those who strive for success.
My second point. This recession, the most severe since the
1930s, will substantially raise child poverty and the numbers
living with parents who are permanently unemployed. Researchers
project that child poverty will rise to nearly 25 percent by
the year 2012; and in single-parent families, those rates are
expected to rise to roughly 45 percent. And this recession is
expected to be not only severe, but persistent. Economists
project high unemployment rates at least through the year 2015.
Accordingly, child poverty will also remain high through those
years, perhaps in the range of 22 to 23 percent, through 2015,
and declining mildly thereafter. And even among those not poor,
the fraction of children living with involuntarily unemployed
parents is now very high, as well, and will continue to be high
for several years.
Point No. 3. These high and persisting rates of
unemployment and poverty will likely scar children and youth in
many ways, causing them significant long-term damage. And Ms.
Zimmerman has already alluded to some of this. But, based on
clear empirical research, we believe that this recession will
damage educational attainment and earnings for many children
who grew up in families with high poverty or unemployment. And
because so many young people themselves will suffer long
periods of unemployment, their own future rates of employment
and earnings will also be reduced, because the lost periods of
work experience during their formative years of career-building
will not be easily replaced.
Finally, point No. 4. To limit the damage to children,
policy responses should focus, first, on bolstering employment
and income support among their parents, but also on providing
direct services to children, teenagers, and youth over the
short run, and indeed over the long run, as well.
Now, among parents, we first need to ensure access to an
adequate safety net during this continuing period of poverty
and unemployment. The American Recovery and Reconstruction Act,
ARRA, generated important extensions in several safety-net
programs. Unfortunately, many of these efforts will begin to
expire by the end of 2010. So, it's important that at least
some of these programmatic exchanges be extended for the next
few years, while unemployment and poverty remain high.
I believe Congress and the Obama administration should do
more to stimulate job creation in the private sector, through
targeted tax credits, and also in the public sector, through
direct public-service employment.
But, children and teenagers and youth, in school and out of
school, need direct assistance also. Programs that provide
important services, such as preschool and after-school care,
should receive extra funding during this period of high
unemployment, as should programs focusing on education,
employment, and training for in-school and out-of-school
teenagers and young adults. And where we have good evidence of
successful and cost-effective interventions for low-income
children and youth, these increases should be permanent, and
not limited to the period of the recession.
Now, of course, we all understand the terrible long-term
fiscal situation that the United States currently faces, and
our need to address these long-term problems very soon, both
through enhanced revenues and reducing entitlement spending.
But, important investments to relieve the serious negative
effects of poverty on children should not be sacrificed for the
sake of fiscal balance, because those actions would be penny-
wise, but pound-foolish.
Sensible investments would add very small amounts to the
national debt and would at least partially pay for themselves
over time through higher output and higher tax revenues. I,
therefore, urge Congress and the administration to take these
ameliorative steps, in a very urgent environment, to invest
more in these children, and in teenagers and youth, as well.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Holzer follows:]
Prepared Statement of Harry J. Holzer, Ph.D.
summary
I would like to make four main points today about the well-being of
children in America and how that will be impacted by the ``Great
Recession.''
1. Even in the best of times, child poverty rates in the United
States are very high, and many millions of children live with
unemployed parents. Growing up in poor households or with unemployed
parents has negative long-term consequences for these children, which
often last for the rest of their lives.
2. This recession, the most severe since the 1930s, will
substantially raise child poverty rates as well as the numbers living
with parents who are involuntarily unemployed. The recession will also
likely persist for many years, as will the elevated rates of poverty
among children.
3. These high and persisting rates of unemployment and poverty will
likely ``scar'' children and youth in many ways, causing them
significant long-term damage.
4. To limit the damage to children, policy responses should focus
on bolstering employment and income support among parents and on
providing direct ameliorative services to children, both over the
short- and long-terms.
______
I would like to make four main points today about the well-being of
children in America and how that will be impacted by the ``Great
Recession.''
1. Even in the best of times, child poverty rates in the United
States are very high, and many millions of children live with
unemployed parents. Growing up in poor households or with unemployed
parents has negative long-term consequences for these children, which
often last for the rest of their lives. Even before this recession
began, children had much higher rates of poverty than adults in the
United States. In 2007, the rate of child poverty was 18 percent, while
for the overall population it was 12.5 percent.\1\ Nearly 8 percent of
children (and just over 5 percent of adults) lived in ``severe
poverty,'' with incomes no more than half the poverty line.\2\ In that
same year, as many as a third of all children lived with nonworking
adults for part or all of the year, and many millions lived with
parents who had experienced involuntary job loss.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ In this discussion, we will use the traditional definition and
measure of the poverty rate in the United States, rather than a variety
of alternative measures that are currently under discussion. While
these alternatives are, in many ways, preferable and more informative
than the traditional measure, previous research mostly uses the
traditional measures when calculating the effects of poverty on
children. The use of one or the other would likely not dramatically
change our overall findings here.
\2\ See Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United
States: 2007. U.S. Census Bureau, 2008.
\3\ See ``Increasing the Number of Children Whose Parents Have
Stable Employment.'' KIDS COUNT Indicator Brief, Annie E. Casey
Foundation, 2009. Regarding rates of involuntary unemployment, we find
3-year involuntary job termination rates (excluding discharges for
cause) of about 7 percent for all adults and about 10 percent for high
school dropouts in the period 2005-07. See Henry Farber, ``Job Loss and
the Decline in Job Security in the United States,'' Working Paper,
Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University, 2009. Since younger
workers tend to have both more children and higher rates of job loss
than other workers, the fractions of children living with involuntarily
unemployed parents in each group is no doubt higher.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
While we have seen some significant progress during the past few
decades in raising academic achievement and in reducing exposure to
violence among poor children, many serious problems remain.\4\ When
they become adults, children who grew up poor still tend to have lower
levels of education, lower levels of employment and earnings, higher
rates of poverty and single parenthood, higher rates of participation
in crime, and poorer health than their middle-class counterparts. While
social scientists continue to debate whether it is low income per se
that drives these results as opposed to the behaviors and
characteristics of parents who happen to be poor, there is no doubt
that children growing up in such families have less opportunity to
succeed in life than those born and raised in the middle class or
higher. And these negative outcomes create large economic losses for
the U.S. economy as a whole, due to lower productivity of workers and
high rates of crime and poor health, as well as the poor individuals
themselves.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ For evidence on improving test scores over time among different
categories of children see Thomas Dee and Brian Jacob,``The Impact of
No Child Left Behind on Student Achievement,'' National Bureau of
Economic Research Working Paper, 2009. The evidence on declining
violent crime rates in the United States appears in Steven Levitt,
``Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Facts that Explain
the Decline and Six That Do Not.'' Journal of Economic Perspectives,
18(1), 2004.
\5\ See Harry Holzer, Diane Schanzenbach, Greg J. Duncan and Jens
Ludwig. ``The Economic Costs of Poverty: Subsequent Effects of Children
Growing Up Poor.'' Center for American Progress, 2007.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Even short-term increases in poverty or parental unemployment can
have negative long-term effects on children.\6\ For instance, those
whose parents suffer a permanent job loss often have more difficulty
progressing in school and have lower earnings themselves as adults.
These effects are likely attributable to the lower resources, higher
emotional stress and weaker perceptions of rewards for those who strive
for success among children whose parents are poor or suffer
joblessness.\7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ See Greg J. Duncan. ``Income and the Well-being of Children.''
Geary Lecture, Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin Ireland,
2005. For a more skeptical view on the role of money per se in the
lives of children and families see Susan Mayer, What Money Can't Buy,
Harvard University Press, 1997.
\7\ See Ariel Kalil, ``Unemployment and Job Displacement: The
Impact on Families and Children,'' Ivey Business Journal, July/August
2005; Philip Oreopoulos, Marianne Page, and Ann Huff Stevens, ``The
Intergenerational Effects of Worker Displacement,'' Journal of Labor
Economics, vol.. 26(3), 2008; and Marianne Page, Ann Huff Stevens, and
Michael Lindo, ``Parental Income Shocks and the Outcomes of
Disadvantaged Youth in the United States,'' in J. Gruber ed. The
Economics of Disadvantaged Youth. University of Chicago Press, 2008.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. This recession, the most severe since the 1930s, will
substantially raise child poverty rates as well as the numbers living
with parents who are involuntarily unemployed. The recession will also
likely persist for many years, as will the elevated rates of poverty
among children. Unemployment rates have more than doubled since 2007,
and now hover near 10 percent. Among the unemployed, 46 percent have
been out of work for 6 months or longer, while rates of job loss among
the unemployed are very high. Joblessness among some disadvantaged
groups, like teens and adult high school dropouts, is extremely high as
well.\8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ See ``The Employment Situation--April 2010,'' Bureau of Labor
Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. Among teens, the unemployment
rate in April was 25.4 percent while the rate of employment in the
population was 26.8 percent. Among high school dropouts, unemployment
was 14.7 percent but employment in the population was just 39.5
percent. High rates of job loss in this recession, and the tendency for
the long-term unemployed to have high rates of poverty, appear in Wayne
Vroman, ``The Great Recession, Unemployment Insurance, and Poverty.''
The Urban Institute, 2010.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Though we only have poverty data available through 2008 at the
present time, these data already show rising rates of poverty (19
percent) and severe poverty (8.5 percent) among children as the economy
began to tumble.\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ See Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United
States: 2008. U.S. Census Bureau, 2009.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
But these outcomes will almost certainly grow worse as data become
available for 2009 and beyond. Brookings Institution researchers
project that child poverty will rise to nearly 25 percent by the year
2012. In single-parent families, these rates are expected to rise to
roughly 45 percent.\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ See Emily Monea and Isabel Sawhill. ``Simulating the Effects
of the `Great Recession' on Poverty,'' Brookings Institution, September
2009.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This recession is expected to be not only severe but persistent.
The President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) projects annual
unemployment rates of 9.2, 8.2, 7.3, 6.5 and 5.9 percent over the
period 2011-15.\11\ At least the first two of these rates would usually
be associated with serious recessions, and the others with milder ones.
Accordingly, child poverty rates will likely remain very high as well--
perhaps in the range of 22-23 percent through 2015 and declining fairly
mildly thereafter.\12\ Even among those not poor, the fraction of
children living with unemployed parents is now very high as well, and
will continue to be over the next several years.\13\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\11\ See Council of Economic Advisers, Economic Report of the
President, 2010.
\12\ See Monea and Sawhill, op. cit.
\13\ See Julia Isaacs, ``Families of the Recession: Unemployed
Parents and their Children.'' Brookings Institution, 2010. She reports
that 10.5 million children, or 14 percent of the total, are now living
with unemployed parents at any moment in time. This implies that much
larger fractions will experience some time with an unemployed parent
over the next 5 years, and some of these spells will be quite lengthy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. These high and persisting rates of unemployment and poverty will
likely ``scar'' children and youth in many ways, causing then
significant long-term damage. As noted earlier, even short spells of
poverty or parental joblessness can lead to serious negative
consequences for children; and, if these effects are as persistent as
current projections suggest, these consequences might be even more
negative.
It is therefore likely that this recession will damage educational
attainment and earnings as adults for the children who grew up in
families with high poverty or unemployment.\14\ Given that so many
young people will themselves suffer periods of unemployment, their
future rates of employment and earnings will also be reduced, as the
lost periods of work experience during their formative years of career-
building are lost and not replaced.\15\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\14\ See Oreopoulos et al., 2008; and Page et al., 2008. Some
strong suggestive evidence on how children may suffer permanent
education and earnings losses when their families are pushed into
poverty during a serious recession also appears in Michael Linden,
``Turning Point: The Long-Term Effects of Recession-Induced Poverty,''
First Focus, 2008.
\15\ The terribly high rates of joblessness among all youth, and
especially minority or less-educated youth, are best documented by
Andrew Sum et al., ``Dire Straits for Many American Workers: The Case
for New Job-Creation Strategies in 2010 for Teens and Young Adults,''
Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University, 2009. The
long-term effects of such unemployment on the later earnings of these
workers are documented for young college graduates by Lisa Kahn, ``The
Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a Bad
Economy,'' Yale University, 2009; and, for young workers more broadly,
in Rosella Gardecki and David Neumark, ``Order from Chaos? The Effects
of Early Labor Market Experience on Adult Labor Market Outcomes.''
Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Volt. 51 (2), 1998.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
And, in this recession, large numbers of children have already or
will soon suffer homelessness as well, due to the high rates of home
foreclosure among the unemployed. Homelessness is particularly harmful
to children and can have lasting negative effects on them.\16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\16\ See Julia Isaacs, op. cit.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. To limit the damage to children, policy responses should focus
on bolstering employment and income support among parents and on
providing direct ameliorative services to children, over both the
short- and longer-terms.
For a severe recession that will likely persist as long as this
one, it is important to directly address the income and employment
deficits experienced by parents as well as the associated need for
enhanced services among children and youth.
Among parents, we first need to ensure access to an adequate income
safety net during periods of poverty and/or unemployment. The American
Recovery and Reconstruction Act (ARRA) generated important extensions
and improvements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP), Unemployment Insurance (UI), Medicaid and Temporary Assistance
to Needy Families (TANF) programs that raised both their coverage and
generosity. Unfortunately, most of these efforts will expire at the end
of 2010. It is important that these programmatic changes be extended
for at least the next 3 years or more, if unemployment rates remain as
high as currently projected.
Congress and the Obama administration should also do more to
stimulate job creation in both the private and public sectors. The
payroll tax cuts designed to spur private job creation that have so far
been enacted are too small to have much real effect; and public sector
job creation efforts, including public service employment jobs for the
poor, are not widely planned. These efforts would help reduce the
enormous unemployment rates for these populations.\17\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\17\ See Timothy Bartik, ``Not All Job Creation Tax Credits are
Created Equal,'' Economic Policy Institute, 2010; and Harry Holzer and
Robert Lerman, ``Time for a Federal Jobs Program,'' Cleveland Plain
Dealer, November 23 2009.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
But children need direct assistance too. Programs that provide
important services, such as preschool and aftercare programs, should
receive extra funding during this period of high unemployment. Given
the terrible long-term effects of homelessness on children, direct
efforts to prevent homelessness among families with children need
attention as well.\18\ And, where we have good evidence of successful
and cost-effective interventions for low-income children and youth,
these increases in funding should be permanent, and not limited to the
period of recession.\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\18\ See Julia Isaacs, op. cit.
\19\ See Lawrence Aber and Ajay Chaudry, ``Low-Income Children,
Their Families and the Great Recession: What's Next in Policy.'' Urban
Institute, 2010.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Of course, we all understand the terrible long-term fiscal outlook
that the United States currently faces, and our need to address these
problems very soon (through both enhanced revenues and reduced
entitlement spending, in my view). But important short-term investments
to relieve the serious negative effects of poverty and unemployment on
children should not be sacrificed for the sake of fiscal balance. Such
sensible investments would add only miniscule amounts to the national
debt (and its ratio to Gross Domestic Product) and would at least
partially pay for themselves over time through higher output and tax
revenues.\20\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\20\ For instance, additional Federal expenditures of $150B would
add just 1 percentage point to already high ratios of debt to GDP that
are forecast for this decade, but would largely or fully offset over
the longer term by higher earnings and income among the poor and by the
higher tax revenues these generate.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senator Dodd. Thank you very, very much, Dr. Holzer.
I'm going to do something a little out of the ordinary,
because I'm going to be here for the entire time, but I'm so
pleased that Senator Sanders and Senator Casey have spent as
much time with us this morning, and knowing they have
additional schedules, I'm going to turn to my colleagues first
for any questions they may have and then I'll finish up, in the
end, with some additional questions.
Senator Sanders.
Senator Sanders. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
And let me thank all of the panelists for their excellent
testimony.
Unlike Chris Dodd, I'm not a nice guy, so I'm going to ask
you some really hard questions. Let me start off with a pretty
simple one.
As a nation--I agree with Mrs. Powell, who described the
situation regarding our kids as abysmal. I think it's an
international disgrace, that we have the highest rate of
childhood poverty in the industrialized world. Why is it that
countries, like Denmark, Sweden, Norway, have less than 5
percent of their kids living in poverty and we have 22 percent
of our kids living in poverty? That's a pretty simple question.
That's my first question. Why don't we just start with Mrs.
Powell.
Mrs. Powell. Part of it is the social structure of those
countries. In a country like Denmark, for example, where it
provides services for all of their citizens, in a socialistic
kind of way, this allows them to provide the supports that
children need. They are mandated by the State, and they are
carried out that way. And I think it's probably true in the
other countries that you mentioned. In a democracy, it's not so
easy to do that.
Senator Sanders. You're not suggesting Denmark and Sweden
are not democracies.
Mrs. Powell. No. No. No. But, in our form of government, it
is not so easy to do that.
Senator Sanders. In a more conservative form of----
Mrs. Powell. Yes. Yes. But, I would say that their success
is because of their form of government and their supply of
social services to the population.
Senator Sanders. Mrs. Zimmerman.
Ms. Zimmerman. I had the opportunity to actually live in
Sweden, and my children went to school in Sweden. And I agree
with Mrs. Powell, the services were--children received
healthcare, education was not only a constitutional right, but,
interestingly, safety was a constitutional right. So, in the
country's constitution, children have a right to an education,
with safety. Every school had a bully-reduction team. The first
thing you signed, as a parent, the second day of school, was a
sheet saying that you understood what safety meant for your
child, both in the neighborhood and at the school, what you
would do if you saw anything unsafe, etc.
One interesting thing that happened. We, here, talk a lot
about family structure and family decline as being a core
factor for children. In Sweden, interestingly, the divorce rate
is higher than it is here. Women actually, there, are in
employment opportunities that men are not. There's more female
physicists, etc. But, in spite of the divorce rate, children do
better there than they do in this country.
Senator Sanders. Mr. Lund.
Mr. Lund. I think those countries have exceptionally low
rates of immigration. And in New York City, 40 percent of our
citizens are new Americans. They're new Americans who were born
somewhere else. That's an American tradition. That's what makes
America such a special place. But, it's important to understand
that arriving immigrants find themselves on the lower rungs of
the economic ladder, and, of course--what we hope----
Senator Sanders. But, African-Americans are not immigrants.
Mr. Lund. I don't disagree.
Senator Sanders. But, they are the lower end, and we're
hearing the situation----
Mr. Lund. I'm not suggesting that that's not the case. I am
saying that----
Senator Sanders. Immigration is----
Mr. Lund [continuing]. Because of the high rate of
immigration here in the United States, that I think that does
present a challenge.
Senator Sanders. That is a factor, but you're not
suggesting that is the whole issue, are you?
Mr. Lund. I am not.
Senator Sanders. Yes.
Mr. Lund. I am not. But, the American tradition is that
immigrants move up the ladder, as they have for many hundreds
of years, and it's our job to make sure that that happens.
Senator Sanders. Dr. Holzer.
Mr. Holzer. Senator, I would stress two things.
First of all, there's a much higher level of government
spending, as a percent of GDP, in those countries. And, of
course, Scandinavians are willing to live with a much higher
rate of taxation than American citizens are, and they spend a
lot of that money on direct services for families.
But, I would also emphasize the structure of the economy,
and especially the structure of the labor markets in those
countries, tolerates much less inequality than we tolerate in
ours, and a range of institutions and government interventions
in those labor markets protect them from the massive range of
inequality that we have in the United States.
Now, as an economist, I don't believe we can necessarily
import all of those institutions and regulations into the U.S.
economy. And, like every economist, I worry sometimes about
whether institutions and government intervention create
inefficiencies.
But, I would say that, even here in the United States,
there's a whole range of institutions and legislation and
regulation--higher minimum wages, more collective bargaining,
government assistance, and subsidies for higher-wage
employers--all of which I think we could have at a greater
level in the United States, that would start to reduce some of
the extremes of inequality that we tolerate in America.
Senator Sanders. Dr. Holzer, you made a point about being
penny-wise and dollar-foolish. If we ignore kids--if, as Mrs.
Powell said, 70 percent of our--if we lose--30 percent of our
kids graduate high school; many of these kids are going to end
up in jail, and many of these kids are going to end up in
government assistance. Isn't one of the differences between
other countries and our own is that they invest in their kids
with strong childcare, with strong healthcare. And, at the end
of the day, they have more productive, taxpaying citizens,
rather than 3 million people, as we have, ending up in jail, at
$50,000 a shot. I think it costs more money to keep somebody in
jail than send them to Harvard University. Is that sensible?
Mr. Holzer. Yes, Senator, I agree with that. We pay much
higher costs down the road, dealing with the effects of
incarceration, poor health----
Senator Sanders. Poor health, right.
Mr. Holzer [continuing]. Poor health is enormously
expensive. Low productivity.
Senator Sanders. Now, when we talk about obesity, is it--
and Mr. Lund made a very important point about that--is it also
fair to say that you're going to see a disproportionate amount
of that among lower-income people?
Mr. Holzer. There's no question about that.
Senator Sanders. So, it becomes a class issue, and not just
an abstract health issue.
Mr. Holzer. That's right. Now, the one thing all four of
us, I think, agree on is that, when we make those investments,
we want to make sure that they're cost-effective. We want to
make sure that there's been good evaluation research, because a
lot of things don't work. And, of course, I also agree that the
role of parents to teach responsibility has to go hand in hand
with public support. Those are not mutually exclusive.
Senator Sanders. Right.
Mr. Holzer. It shouldn't be one or the other; it should be
both.
Senator Sanders. OK.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Dodd. Very good.
Senator Casey.
Senator Casey. Thank you, Mr.----
Senator Dodd. By the way, let me just say that--about both
Bernie Sanders and Bob Casey. While I'm kind of winding down a
career here, both of these individuals have expressed a strong
interest in this subject matter, and I'm pleased, as I leave,
knowing there'll be a couple of people around here who care as
much about these issues as they do--and both Senator Sanders
and Bob Casey, particularly, have shown a strong interest in
the matter.
I thank you immensely for that.
Senator Casey. I want to thank the Chairman for his
leadership on these issues all these years. And when he leaves,
we're going to figure out a way to keep calling him back for
help, over time, because we'll need his help, because these
challenges are enormous. And we're going to keep calling upon
you, no matter what you do next.
I do want to note, for the record, something, in a
lighthearted way, but it's significant--the chairman of a
committee allowing lower-echelon members to ask questions
first, that never happens around here.
[Laughter.]
Providing seating for members of the audience, that doesn't
happen too much around here. But, we're grateful.
And I wanted to make two points before asking a broad
question. Not an easy question to answer, but, I think, one
that should be on the table.
The two points I want to make first, though, are the point,
made earlier by Dr. Holzer, about the recession, joblessness,
the economy, or lack of enough jobs, to put it simply, having
an impact on children--long-term, short-term. We sometimes
forget that. But, those of us who are advocating for programs,
programmatic increases, new strategies as it relates to early
learning or child poverty or nutrition or childcare, a whole
range of issues that relate to kids--we sometimes forget that
the best--sometimes the best strategy is just job creation, and
especially now. I think we learned, in the 1990s, as a
country--and I think a lot of Democrats learned this--that
making the pie bigger is actually better than trying to fight
for ever-dwindling slices of the pie.
So, economic growth and job creation have to be central to
what we're doing. And I think there's some good news there, by
the way, not often emphasized here. But, the Recovery Act--the
two words, ``recovery'' and ``reinvestment''--we're going to be
seeing the benefits of that over time.
Just a year ago, in January, February and March of last
year, we're losing at least 600-, and, in several of those
months, 700,000 jobs every single month. That has reversed, so
we're actually in positive territory, even though the
unemployment rate is still unbearably high.
That strategy has paid dividends. The Recovery Act is not
real popular now. In 15 years, it's going to be wildly popular.
But, it'll take a while for people to see the full effects of
it.
Creating economic growth is central to this whole strategy.
Second, we have to recognize--I could stand here and--and a
lot of us could--and say, ``We ought to increase this program
or that program by X amount of dollars, and increase taxes on
the wealthy, to do it.'' I think a lot of us think the wealthy
in this country have not paid their fair share, especially in a
time of economic hurt. But, we have to assume that, for the
near term, that the reality of extra revenue won't be there--or
at least we have to have varying scenarios. We want to have a
strategy where we have more revenue to make these investments.
We might want to have an intermediate strategy.
But, let's assume, for purposes of this broad question,
that we have limited revenue, or at least a lack of political
will in Washington, to make the investments that a lot of us
want to make. In that scenario, in that bare-bones scenario,
how do we prioritize, here? Literally in the next year or two,
how do we prioritize? If the patient is on the table, with
multiple injuries, how do we prioritize on these issues? Do we
say, ``We can't invest in this strategy now, we have to wait on
that, but we have to attack hunger and homelessness,'' for
example? Or do we say, ``No, we can't afford to wait on
investments in early learning, we've got to do that now''?
I want to get the sense--in a very limited time, I know--
but the sense of how we prioritize, with the realization that
we shouldn't just limit ourselves to that bare-bones budget.
But, I think it's a reality we have to confront.
Mrs. Powell, do you have----
Mrs. Powell. Well, it's hard to know how you pick out one
thing first and say, ``This is''----
Senator Casey. Right.
Mrs. Powell [continuing]. ``What we have to do.'' My
thought on the subject is that, as we approach each one of
these problems that we have, fiscally and otherwise in the
country, we have to keep uppermost in our mind the impact that
it has on children. Too often the programs that support
children are the first ones that are cut. And this goes a long
way to producing the situation that we have.
So that, in thinking about what you're doing, money is not
the complete answer. We have to energize the will of the
American people, with the support of our congressional leaders,
to address the needs of young people.
As far as children are concerned, all of those issues are
important. There's no one place to start. Just be conscious, as
you are making appropriations, etc., that we do not cut the
programs that support children, or do not cut them as deeply,
as they are cut.
Senator Casey. Mrs. Zimmerman.
Ms. Zimmerman. Senator Casey, our State passed a law saying
that we needed to reduce child poverty by 50 percent within 10
years. Once that law was passed, the challenge was, What do we
do first? What's cost-effective? What do we do, with limited
dollars?
Some of the findings are germane to your question--we
brought together the right, left, and center best experts in
the country on poverty reduction. And I had the privilege of
staffing this process. And we said to right, left, and center,
very famous people, ``We're only going to do what you agree on.
Anything you disagree on, we're not bothering with.'' They were
to meet for X number of times. They got so engaged, they met by
phone continuously. They recommended that we focus on family
income and earnings potential, education, income safety nets,
and family structure and support. Those were the five areas.
Then we brought in the Urban Institute and said, it's part
of your question,
``Given limited funds, and given time constraints and
our law, that we're trying to reduce poverty by 50
percent in 10 years, can you do an economic model
analysis for us and tell us what we should do first, or
what we should combine so the ingredients combust in
the best way?''
And they said the following: Provide childcare subsidies to
families with incomes of less than 50 percent of the State
median income; provide education and training programs to
result in associates degrees for half the adults with high
school diplomas; help high school dropouts get their GEDs;
increase employment by 6 percent for the unemployed; increase
participation in safety-net programs by 85 percent, such as
food stamps--so, feed people--and LIHEAP and subsidized
housing; and last, ensure child support payments.
Now, some of those are costers, but many are not; many are
really making sure that we pay attention to education.
Senator Casey. So, you had a strategy and you had goals.
Ms. Zimmerman. There is a peer strategy here, a clear
report. Sometimes, for example, we know now that preschool is a
good thing--quality preschool--and home visitation is a good
thing. But, the truth is, when you've had a child who's had
both home visitation and preschool, that child does much
better. So, we need to be asking, not just which policies, but
which do we combine.
Senator Casey. I'm on borrowed time, by the way, so I will
be----
Mr. Lund. Senator Casey, I think you hit the bull's-eye
when you said ``jobs.'' And, you know, one of the things those
of us who have spent a career in social services have realized
along the way is, if, at the end of the day, a family is as
impoverished as they were at the beginning of the day, then
we're not doing enough. And so, our strategy, in addition to
providing services, also includes an economic development
strategy. We're building YMCAs in poor neighborhoods. And when
we do that, we provide employment, we tend to be a community
anchor, we provide a lot of services, and we attract additional
investment. And we're doing that over and over again in places
like the Rockaways and Coney Island, and it's a strategy that
seems to work for us.
Senator Casey. Thank you.
Mr. Holzer. Senator, I'd like to start by answering your
question, by actually focusing on the budget situation, because
I think it is widely misunderstood in this city and across the
country.
We have serious budget problems in the United States, but
we don't have a severe budget crisis in the short run; we have
a long-run budget crisis. As every student who's ever taken a
macroeconomics class knows, it's not only inevitable that
you'll have deficits during a recession, it's a good thing; it
helps stimulate the economy. Our problem is the long run
projections.
Similarly, nondefense discretionary spending is only one-
eighth of total Federal spending in the United States, and it's
been declining as a share of GDP for decades. The problem is on
the entitlement side, especially the costs of the retirement
programs, and on defense and homeland security spending.
I think we should, first, find where the real problem is,
and start to make progress addressing those long-term budget--
and not squeeze nondefense discretionary spending, especially
those parts that are important investments.
Now, in terms of what I would invest in, direct job
creation, both in the private and the public sector; for
children: education, healthcare, and nutrition; and for
teenagers and youth: higher education, employment, and
training. I think those are very, very high priorities. We
shouldn't cut corners on those programs. Again, wherever
there's evidence of clear cost-effectiveness, we should make
those investments, and make the appropriate budgetary savings,
where they belong, where the problems really exist.
Senator Casey. Thank you.
Senator Dodd. Thank you very much, to my colleagues. Those
were very, very good questions.
I want to go back to Mrs. Powell, in your testimony, you
talked about a national council on children and youth. I think
you're hearing how benefited we have been in Connecticut
because, a number of years ago, we established a permanent
Commission on the Status of Children. And so, rather than--20
years ago was the last time we really looked, nationally, at
the condition of children. It was a commission formed in 1987,
began to do its work in 1989, made a report 1991. And as a
result of that, there were quite a few initiatives that
actually were adopted at the national level--tax credits for
children--so there were a whole lot of things that came out of
that commission, which I think helped and benefited. Whether it
did enough or not is obviously a legitimate question. But,
nonetheless, they produced some results. But, it was a
temporary commission, and we've had these commissions.
And the fact is--I even hesitated to make this suggestion,
because too often I can almost hear the collective yawn of the
country, ``My lord, another commission. Just what we need in
the country, another commission to form. We have commissions on
everything. Rather than address a problem, we form a
commission.''
But, I think the idea of doing exactly what we did in
Connecticut--and I think your response to Senator Casey's
question about, ``How did Connecticut begin to address this?''
is a good example of how this can work, where, instead of just
sort of collecting data and information that sits on a shelf
somewhere, what we did in the State is actually, then, in a
vibrant and robust way, invite very disparate people,
ideologically across the spectrum, to begin to look at these
issues, to sort of strip out the ideology from the debate.
This really ought not to be an ideological debate. It's a
ludicrous commentary on our times that we're unable to come to
some decent conclusions about what needs to be done to get this
right. We're so blessed with intelligent, thoughtful people in
this country, on an awful lot of issues, that this is one that
really deserves that kind of consistent attention.
And so, I wonder if you might just comment, beginning with
you, Dr. Holzer, on this idea of having--I think we've got to
start someplace. And not that it's going to necessarily provide
the answers, but if you start asking the right questions, and,
in an informative way, begin to think about these matters on a
regular basis, a seamless way, year in and year out, it seems
to me you raise the possibility of getting better results.
What is your attitude about a national council, as Mrs.
Powell has suggested--or commission, whatever you want to call
it?
Mr. Holzer. Senator, I would strongly support the creation
of such a commission. I think, first of all, gathering ongoing
research, not only on the effects of child poverty on children,
but also on what works and what doesn't, on cost-effectiveness,
I think, remains an ongoing challenge. And I think a commission
like that could collect the information and disseminate it to
the public in a way that could really matter.
I'll cite one precedent for that, actually, in the last few
years. The Center for American Progress had a Commission on
Reducing Poverty that issued what I thought was an outstanding
report, in the year 2007, which then led them to create a
campaign called Half in Ten, reducing the rate of child poverty
in half over the next 10 years. Of course, unfortunately,
because of the economy, it's going to go the other way. But, I
think that's an example of how a good report and research can
be used effectively to create a policy agenda that makes a lot
of sense. And I would certainly support other efforts in an
ongoing commission to make those efforts.
Senator Dodd. Mr. Lund, any quick comments on that?
Mr. Lund. Well, Senator, you answered the question with
your question. And that is, if we have so many commissions--and
I'll suggest everything from artichokes to xylophones--how
could we not have a commission that focuses exclusively on
children?
Senator Dodd. Well, let me ask--I'm going to go back,
because I think there's a tendency to think that things have
just gotten in a clear trajectory, in terms of child poverty.
But, Dr. Holzer, you've done some research, and--I don't know
if you know the answer to this, or not--but, when was the
lowest level of child poverty? And why did that occur? At least
in recent times.
Mr. Holzer. Senator, I don't have the exact numbers here,
but in recent decades, the lowest rates were likely at the end
of the last decade, in the period of 1999 to 2000, because
child poverty tends to track adult poverty, and adult poverty
tracks the strength of the economy. And so, overall poverty--
given all the limitations of how we measure poverty, which
itself is controversial--but, overall poverty fell to the rate
of about 10 or 11 percent at the end of that decade, because of
the booming economy, and also because efforts were made for the
economic growth and productivity to be widely shared at all
parts of the spectrum. I think, actually, welfare reform played
some positive role in getting more parents work, but it was
welfare reform, accompanied by a range of supports for low-
income workers, like extensions of childcare, your income tax
credit, etc.
Now, even in the best of times, child poverty remained too
high. And in those years, I believe child poverty was still 15,
16 percent. Nevertheless, the economy is a very important
determinant of those trends over time, as well as policy
changes.
Senator Dodd. Well, the poverty was around 15 percent in
the late 1960s and early 1970s, rose in the 1980s, to around
20, and then declined again in the 1990s. But, it's been
interesting, how it's moved. And again, you can begin to track
where--again, going back to the early days--in fact, Head
Start, with Ed Zigler, and so forth, when that--1960s and so
forth, the efforts that were made--begin to involve people in
some of these areas. So, it's actually had--there's a direct
correlation, it seems to me, at various times; not that it's a
perfect correlation. But, where the Congresses and
administrations and the country as a whole has focused some of
its time and attention and resource allocation on children and
their families, we've actually made impacts on this thing. I
think there's an assumption that, despite the investments at
various times, everything just increased in a straight line.
And, in fact, it's quite the opposite.
There's a direct correlation. When we made investments, we
actually had an impact on all of this. When we failed to do it,
it moves again.
There's a history, here, that we can look at, that begins
to demonstrate that well-thought-out ideas involving both
public/private nonprofit sectors can make a difference. And
sort of getting back to that notion again, tapping into all of
this talent and ability that is out there, we can make that
kind of a difference.
I'm very interested in that.
Mrs. Powell, the statistic that jumped out at me in your
prepared remarks, and I just haven't been able to get it out of
my mind, since yesterday, reading your comments--10 percent of
minority students who enroll in college--only 10 percent
minority students who enroll in college will graduate. Ten
percent. Only 10 percent who enroll in college will graduate.
Just fill me in. Why is this occurring? There are some obvious
answers.
Mrs. Powell. There are a number of answers. Recession plays
into it a great deal. Needs to drop out of school and go to
work and have an income. The cost of higher education often
weighs on young people. They simply cannot pay for the
education that is offered to them, and have to drop out.
Last month, I spoke at Kentucky State University's
commencement. That institution has a program to bring people
back who have not completed their college education, allowing
them to enter, at whatever state they are in their careers, and
earn that college degree that they need. But, there are very,
very many--most of them, financial--reasons for people not
completing college.
Another problem exists. We spend a lot of time on
underprivileged children and children in inner cities, pushing
them to college, preparing to get them there, and then, once
you get them there, you leave them.
Senator Dodd. Yes, right.
Mrs. Powell. For many of them, this is a culture shock, and
they're not able to function in that environment without
support.
The Harlem Children's Zone, in their support of young
people in their amazing graduation rates that they have in the
area that they cover, all of those children that go to school,
go to college, have a mentor that stays with them through their
college career. And this is often what is necessary for
underprivileged children to function in a higher academic
system.
Senator Dodd. Yes. Let me ask Elaine Zimmerman--and, again,
ask those who want to jump in, here. The YMCA obviously does
this, so, in a sense, you've already commented on your answer
to this question. But, I wonder how we can, at every stage or
level of our government involvement, encourage more parental
and community involvement with young people.
This is what, again--you don't want to oversimplify this,
but at the root of it--because, as Ms. Powell, said--long
before a child enters that preschool or kindergarten, it all
begins.
And parents want to be good parents. I mean, they begin
with the notion--it's just unnatural for a parent not to care
about their children. So, begin with that notion. You're not
beginning with people who don't care about their offspring.
They do. Deeply.
The question is, How do we nurture that at a governmental
or community-based level--to nurture that natural instinct of a
parent to want to see their children have a better life than
they do, at least that they'll be protected and secure? We just
don't seem to have done a very good job of that. And how can we
do a better job of that?
Mrs. Powell. In communities, providing programs and
facilities for new parents. Again, I referenced the Harlem
Children's Zone that runs a parenting class, and volunteers go
out and seek people on the street, ``If you're pregnant or
pushing a stroller, come to the Baby College.''
Senator Dodd. Yes.
Mrs. Powell. There, they have a training program on how to
be a good parent. I don't know how we institutionalize this,
but as we, at America's Promise, work with communities on their
high school graduation rates, that is part of it, of helping
parents understand what it is they need to provide to their
children, and working with programs within communities so that
they can have this ability.
Senator Dodd. Mr. Lund, let me ask you--because the YMCA
has had a great tradition for years. I've often thought, do
you--talking about mentoring in schools, for instance, early
stages--that an awful lot of parents had bad experiences
themselves in school--dropped out, whatever else--so that that
environment of a school setting can be an intimidating venue,
as parents, themselves. And yet, to the extent we all know
that, with Head Start, 80 percent--in fact, it's under law--
requires that there be parental involvement with Head Start
children. We get about 80 percent participation. By the first
grade, on average in this country, there's less than 20 percent
participation by parents in the education of their children.
Just drops off like a cliff.
Instead of mandating these things, which I think is a bad
idea--to the extent we could get other parents or other people,
volunteers, such as you see--those home visits can make a huge
difference. Instead of inviting, necessarily, the parent to
come to the school in that--early stages, but actually getting
parents to visit other parents in their home settings, so you
begin to tear down the barriers of that venue being an
intimidating place--I wonder if you've ever tried anything like
that, and what success you may have had with it.
Mr. Lund. We've had a lot of success with it. And I think,
as Mrs. Powell said, the Harlem Children's Zone, Boys and Girls
Clubs, the YMCAs, we demystify the institution. We're a safe
place, not just for kids, we're a safe place for their parents,
as well.
In New York City, teenage pregnancy is an epidemic. And the
good programs are programs that require young parents to
participate in parent education programs. It's not that they
don't want to do a good job for their kids; they just don't
know how.
Senator Dodd. Yes.
Mr. Lund. And so, I think there's a real role for private-
sector organizations to play in this regard, because we really
are a destination for people that live in our neighborhoods,
and we're seen as a lot safer than the schools.
Senator Dodd. Elaine, you wanted to make a comment?
Ms. Zimmerman. Yes. There is an important sentence, that is
a familiar sentence around the country, which is, ``But, I'm
just a parent.'' Very frequently heard. What we've done in this
country is, we say that parents are children's most important
teacher, but we've marginalized parents since about revenue-
sharing time. And we service parents, but we don't treat them
as partners.
As soon as you shift and begin to treat parents as
partners, they come back. And in our State, as you know, we
began an effort to teach parents how change happens for
children, and to invite them to the policy table, to invite
them to participate. The Parent Leadership Training Institute
in our State, now fully diverse, cross-class, has over 2,000
graduates, with parents now on school boards and city councils,
bringing other parents to the table, bringing parents to
libraries. We've shifted the attitude toward parents, and
parents have come forward, the poorest of parents.
What I've learned is that parent engagement is actually a
civic issue, and we have overserviced and distanced parents so
they do not believe that they have a right. ``Just a parent''
is a sentence that says that they've become a marginalized
constituency. That's our fault.
Mrs. Powell. One of the problems that exists--in Head
Start, parents are encouraged to be a part of that, but once
the child goes into first and second grade, the parents are
pushed aside.
Now, part of the problem is, a classroom teacher doesn't
have time to be engaging a parent as well as a child. But,
somehow we have to keep those parents engaged throughout the
child's school career, and by making them a part of it.
That's what PTAs are supposed to do, but we all know that
they're not always as well attended as they should be. You're
usually talking to the choir when you're talking to parents in
the PTA.
But, within social organizations, like the YMCA and other
neighborhood things, like THEARC, in southeast Washington,
reaching out to parents and making them a part of the programs
that are going on will go a long way to keeping parental
involvement.
Senator Dodd. Yes.
Mrs. Powell. They do not hand over their responsibility to
someone else.
Senator Dodd. I'm from a large family, by today's
standards; not so large when I was growing up--one of six. And
two of my siblings are teachers--one at the university level,
at Georgetown, in fact; and a sister who taught for 41 years in
the public school system, started out in the American
Montessori system--Nancy Rambush, in the late 1950s. And when
she finally retired, teaching the inner city of Hartford, CT,
it was just overwhelming.
What we ask teachers to do, having now watched--well,
having--of course, I've been teased in--someone once said,
``Well, you had children rather late.'' I said, ``I decided to
have my own grandchildren.''
[Laughter.]
With a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old.
[Laughter.]
But, going and watching how hard teachers work. They work
very, very hard. It is incredible, the amount of energy you
need in a room full of 5- or 8-year-olds, for 6 or 7 hours in a
day--it just takes a lot. But, they've been asked to assume so
many additional responsibilities, and it's overwhelming to
them. And so, there's an exhaustion that's taken over among the
teacher corps, particularly in areas where they're asking to
take on a lot of--well, you don't get a lot of parental
involvement. There are not a lot of people showing up. There's
not a lot of field trips where people have the time or the
ability to go along, or even how to do it. We've got to figure
out a way to do this, other than overloading----
Mrs. Powell. Add to that the problem that teachers don't
get paid enough for what they do.
Senator Dodd. Yes, exactly.
Mrs. Powell. A teacher in our society is probably the most
important person that assures the success of this country. If
we don't have teachers, we don't have anybody who knows how to
do anything.
Senator Dodd. And the burnout is just overwhelming.
Mrs. Powell. The burnout is overwhelming.
Senator Dodd. Overwhelming. So, I always worry--sometimes,
when this thing--we've kind of shifted again, but somehow we've
got to figure out a way to balance this. And I think that--
that's a great line, Elaine; ``Just a parent,'' I think says an
awful lot.
Mr. Holzer. Senator, can I make a comment, also, on the----
Senator Dodd. Sure. Yes, please.
Mr. Holzer [continuing]. Parent issue? I agree with all the
comments my colleagues have made here, but we're missing an
important dimension, I think, about these parents. Their
lives--low-income parents, working in the low-wage labor
market, and especially if they're single parents--are very,
very stressful.
Senator Dodd. You bet.
Mr. Holzer. And often very unstable, and a whole range of
things that go on in jobs. Parents often can't go to meetings
at their schools because of the demands of the workforce, just
the time it takes to commute back and forth, and work. And, of
course, the jobs themselves are very unstable.
I think, in addition to all these important suggestions,
there's a range of services--we need to make parents' lives
more stable and less stressful. It starts with things like paid
parental leave and sick leave, which every industrial country
in the world manages to provide, except for ours. It starts
with more effective childcare and more steady childcare for
working parents, transportation assistance.
I think all those things would make the lives of parents
less stressful, so then these other services that my colleagues
have talked about might then be more effective in that kind of
an environment.
Senator Dodd. Now, you're preaching to the choir. I mean,
I've been trying to----
[Laughter.]
I've been--that paid leave bill--took me 7 years to just
get the one unpaid-leave bill through, back some 20 years ago.
I couldn't agree with you more. Obviously, those--recognizing
the very points you've made----
In fact, I was looking at some numbers--and they may have
come from you, Dr. Holzer--and I'm trying to find them--here it
is; I think it should be. Census Bureau 2008 data show that a
typical American household made less money that year than they
did a decade ago. Typical family. And as incomes fell for the
typical family, costs for the basics of a middle-class life--
homeownership, healthcare, childcare--rose so much that two-
breadwinner families had less discretionary income than a
single-breadwinner family had, a decade previously. That's a
pretty stunning statistic.
Things were just flat. While we're watching salaries at
some levels in our society skyrocket here, in fact, the average
middle-income family was basically falling further and further
behind.
Your point, I guess, one I wanted to make when you said it,
wasn't just holding down the one job; it's holding down the
second or the third job--or four jobs, in some cases--with a
two-parent household. And then tell me how you're going to find
the time, in that case, to be that mentor, to go on that field
trip, to do all these other things that we all recognize would
be valuable.
The direct correlation between the ability--I've tried to
have a leave policy that would just provide 24 hours a year for
a parent to be able to make the case and say, ``I need to be at
that PTA meeting. I need to be at that sporting event. I need
to go have that session for an hour with my child's teacher to
understand how they're doing,'' that that would qualify as
leave. Rather than just the sick child and the sick parent,
but, here, understanding how valuable a limited amount of time
can be to be at those kind of events or to participate on a
regular basis, can make a difference.
I obviously haven't gotten very far with the idea, but
that's the point of trying to----
Mrs. Powell. Well, we also say, with that first promise of
ours, ``a caring adult in every child's life,'' it doesn't
necessarily have to be limited to the parent.
Senator Dodd. That's true.
Mrs. Powell. There are opportunities for others to be
mentors in a young person's life, and there are many, many
success stories of young people who have succeeded because of
that mentor who is outside of the family, but someone who gives
their time and talent and interest to the well-being of a young
person.
Senator Dodd. Yes.
Elaine, can you just--let me jump back to the commission
notion with you for a minute. And again, you've had a wonderful
experience in Connecticut. I love the fact that it's gone from
getting data, and then doing something about it. Give us some
advice and counsel--if you take Mrs. Powell's concept, and the
one I've mentioned here--what would you have us do to make a
commission at the national level effective, so it isn't just a
place where we're going to gather once a year to listen to data
collected by a bunch of people--how do you make those
translations?
Ms. Zimmerman. Yes. I think that's such a key question,
because we do find entities that end up counting data, sort of
like collecting tuna-fish cans in a cabinet. It seems to me
that we would need to collect what works, to only look at
outcomes, so that we're not just looking at numbers, but what's
proven. We also need, in this country, to do what you did in
healthcare, we need to look at prevention. If we had a
commission, which would be so wonderful, nationally, but one of
its mandates was not just to gather data and research, but to
look at how to prevent problems, essentially creating a stock
portfolio for children on what works, what's proven, where do
we have a return on investment because the outcomes work, and
then how do we look at economic modeling with that, so what
builds upon one another so it will have the grandest impact for
the best outcomes for children in this country?
I think if we built that in, at the onset, so it was not
just data, but prevention, outcome, and what should best be
combined to combust the best results?
Senator Dodd. I'm going to ask you--in fact, I'd like to
ask you, Mrs. Powell, and you, Elaine, and any others who want
to participate--help us, maybe, craft this over the coming few
weeks and months and see if we can't put together, not just the
idea of writing a bill that says ``form a commission''----
Mrs. Powell. No, a national council on children would
provide a coordinated national action plan.
Senator Dodd. Yes.
Mrs. Powell. It would raise the visibility of the needs of
children in Federal policy and solidify our commitment, as a
Nation, to the needs of young people. It would go a long way to
have a council, where the needs of children are brought there,
and are constantly assessed, looked at, and seeing what is the
next step forward. But, having a constant coordinated national
policy effort.
Senator Dodd. Well, I'm going to invite you to help us
write this----
Mrs. Powell. Yes.
Senator Dodd [continuing]. In the coming days.
Mrs. Powell. And this council, once a year, could say what
the goals are for that year, and how well they have met the
goals of the past year.
Senator Dodd. The idea is to establish sort of a report
card.
Mrs. Powell. A report card.
Senator Dodd. Right.
Mrs. Powell. But, one that takes stock of what has actually
happened, and not sit there and formulate policy about what we
ought to do.
Senator Dodd. Yes.
Mrs. Powell. We've done that for a long time.
Senator Dodd. Long time. Go back--in fact, Senator Harkin
pointed out, a week or so ago, there was a wonderful report
done by Corporate America on what needed to be done in
education, over 20 years ago. It's got some wonderful what you
ought to do, but----
Mrs. Powell. We've got lots of what we ought to do.
Senator Dodd [continuing]. Ought to do, yes, not how to do
it.
I was very curious, Dr. Holzer, you made a very good point,
I thought, earlier, and I've thought a lot about this, as well,
and--on food and nutrition. And again, the obesity issue, we're
all familiar with.
I tip my hat to the First Lady of our country, Michelle
Obama, for making this a priority issue. In fact, she's worked
awfully hard at it. We've done a lot of work up here over the
years in trying to address this question. It's been difficult.
Again, Senator Harkin, who chairs the committee now, has
talked about just how we can get vending machines and soft-
drink companies and so forth out of school buildings and the
like.
But, you made a very good--I think you made this point; and
maybe it was Mr. Lund--and that is, of course, the absence--
these deserts on nutrition. And we see this all the time, where
the only food stores are these small stores that have more
highly concentrated fat and poor quality food in them. But,
that's the only choice. You live in the only place you can go.
Mrs. Powell. That's the only place they have to go.
Senator Dodd. And how do we turn this around? How do we
actually make a difference? I think, Mr. Lund, you mentioned
that you actually had some success in this. I want to know what
you did.
Mr. Lund. We did. We are part of the Food and Fitness
Consortium in East Harlem, and we worked with local government
to do our very best to attract supermarkets to make an
investment. And what attracts the supermarkets is knowing that
they're not going to be Fort Apache, they're not going to be
the only economic investment that's being made in that
community, and making sure that we attract additional
investments so that there's a critical mass of economic
success--has been a model that's worked for us.
Mrs. Powell. In New York City, one of our poster children,
for example--one of our things is ``schools as hubs,''
delivering services in a community, the place where they know
the children's name, and they can reach out to the parents.
At P.S. 50, in New York City, it's a public school that
sits in the middle of a housing project. In that school, there
is a program to bring parents--mothers, particularly--into the
school for nutrition training, cooking classes on how to
prepare healthy food, and then they work to help these mothers
bring in fresh produce and have their own business, selling to
the people in the housing projects.
Ms. Zimmerman. Great.
Mrs. Powell. Because there are no supermarkets anywhere
near there.
Senator Dodd. No, I know.
Mrs. Powell. The mothers soon saw the importance of good
health and nutrition when one of their members in the class
died because of her obesity and high blood pressure, etc.
Senator Dodd. Yes.
Mrs. Powell. In this school that serves as a hub, there is
a free health clinic for children, run by the Children's Aid
Society. There is an autistic charter school, where the other
children mentor the autistic children. And City Year is in
there, working with the children in that school to do projects
in the community. This is one way to deliver those services to
help educate a contained community about what is necessary for
good health.
Senator Dodd. Yes. Maybe we ought to bring together--that
would be interesting--I know there are good people in some of
these chains that--
Mrs. Powell. There are many good things.
Senator Dodd [continuing]. The people with Whole Foods have
gotten to know, and--obviously high-end, but high-quality food,
and--you know, the markets now--we're seeing more--we know that
produce and stuff that's consumed within 15 miles of where it's
grown is healthier in many ways. And there's this sort of a
trend to move in this direction. But, how we can begin to see
to it that these providers of nutrition, and those who seem to
understand the value of it, and there's an appetite for it----
Mr. Lund. There have to be economic incentives for the
providers.
Senator Dodd. Yes. No question about it.
Mr. Lund. And that's really a key.
Senator Dodd. But, we ought to figure out how to do that,
because if you don't, all you're left with is what you have
today. And you've got to break that cycle, it seems to me. It's
another aspect of all of this.
Well, we're just touching on these things, and there are so
many things to talk about. I could stay all day with you,
discussing these issues.
I like the idea of us getting something where there's going
to be a permanent place to start doing this, other than sort of
this lurching--all of a sudden we pick up the paper, I guess,
like USA Today, who made the point about one in five living in
poverty, and then there's a raft of congressional hearings for
a few weeks, then everyone, you know, comes around and bellows
at one another, and then the next issue hits the front page,
and we move on. We need to have some consistent, year-in/year-
out efforts in this regard, so we're not waiting for the next
headline to provoke a congressional hearing on it.
You've set the table for us here today, and that's been
very, very helpful. Obviously there are a lot of people who
could be sitting at that table to offer advice and counsel on
how to go from here to there. My hope is we can get this idea
going on a way--at least we've got a place now to really think
about results-oriented--not just what-you-ought-to-be-doing
recommendations, but actually how to do things. And then, from
that hopefully we can breed some real, solid thinking.
And seeing us move, Dr. Holzer, those numbers again,
getting those numbers--pushing those numbers back down would be
a great contribution.
I can't thank you enough for being here this morning.
I'll leave the record open for colleagues who may have some
additional questions for you, and ask you to participate.
And we'll stay in touch with you now as we go to the next
stage of hearings, we're going to focus on for some very
specific pieces of this, and maybe you'd have some
recommendations of some people that we might listen to.
In fact, Mrs. Powell, maybe just some of the suggestions
you've made, some of the people who are at P.S. 50 might be
some good witnesses for us to bring to the table of how
something worked in a community like that.
Mrs. Powell. Yes, you need people who have programs that
work----
Senator Dodd. Work. And so, we'll come back----
Mrs. Powell [continuing]. So we can share how to do that.
Senator Dodd. Thank you.
Thank you all very much for being with us this morning.
The committee will stand adjourned.
[Additional material follows.]
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
Response to Question of Senator Sherrod Brown by Alma J. Powell
Question 1. The kind of collaboration that you have built is
exactly what we would like to replicate in Ohio and in other States.
That is why I am preparing to introduce legislation--called the DIPLOMA
Act--that will help communities coordinate, integrate, and provide
services to strengthen student achievement, ranging from early
education to tutoring and extended learning time to health care and
social supports. Schools cannot do it alone but they can be a central
place for connecting children and families to the support they need to
be successful. What are the essential elements to building and
sustaining these partnerships?
Answer 1. The essential elements to making these partnerships work
is to ensure that all sectors of a community are represented
(corporate, nonprofit, civic and policy, faith and young people etc.)
Each participant should understand their stake in the work, with clear
goals and benchmarks to meet those goals set.
At America's Promise Alliance (the Alliance) we have always
believed that the success and well-being of children is the
responsibility of all of us, which is why the structure of these
partnerships must be all-inclusive. Moral significance aside, our young
people are the future leaders of this Nation. They will be the ones to
lead, sustain and grow our communities and if we don't invest in their
success then we do so at the peril of the entire Nation. Nowhere is
this more evident than in the high school dropout crisis we currently
have in this country where 1.3 million teenagers drop out each year.
The academic success of a child is determined just as much by what
happens outside the classroom as inside. It's about the whole child,
and therefore requires a whole community. We all have a stake in their
success.
If you're a taxpayer or concerned about our economy, you certainly
have a stake. That's because each year of dropouts will ultimately cost
our economy around $320 billion in lost wages, productivity and tax
contributions. Instead of becoming productive citizens, 4 of every 10
dropouts will depend on public assistance. And dropouts are eight times
more likely to be incarcerated.
If you own a business, you also have a stake. That's because
dropouts have just one-third the consumer buying power of a college
graduate.
The Alliance has had some great success in leading, supporting and
uplifting this type of collaboration across the country. We see it in
communities--large and small, several of them in Ohio--that we've
recognized as one of the 100 Best in the Nation for children. And we've
also seen it recently in Detroit. Viewed as one of the most
demonstrative examples of the dropout crisis, Detroit found itself with
the lowest on-time graduation rate of the Nation's largest cities just
5 short years ago. But Detroit was the first city to host one of our
Dropout Prevention Summits in April 2008. At this summit, the idea to
form a new partnership to help Detroit's most troubled schools was
born. That partnership, called the Greater Detroit Education Venture
Fund is now working to improve graduation rates at the 30 high schools
in southeastern Michigan currently graduating less than 60 percent of
their students.
The strength of this partnership lies not only in the passion of
the people involved to really change course for the children in this
city, but also in the broad support and sector diversity that makes up
this partnership. Led by the United Way for southeastern Michigan in
collaboration with AT&T, Ford Motor Company Fund, the Skillman
Foundation, the Fund has attracted support from the corporate,
philanthropic, government, community-based and education sectors, as
well as parents and young people themselves.
In the 2 years since its inception, the Fund has launched five
``turnaround schools'' in Detroit and after just 1 year in the
turnaround model, projected graduation rates for the class of 2013 at
these schools now range from 71 percent to 95 percent. One 9th grader
started high school with a 1.8 GPA and now has a 3.0.
This partnership has grown and thrived in a city hit hard by an
economic downturn which demonstrates how its structure is one made for
success.
Response to Question of Senator Sherrod Brown by Jack Lund
Question 1. School is letting out for the summer, and many children
will lose access to the academic, social and nutritional supports they
have during the school year. Just as many kids in high poverty
environments backslide academically during the summer, they also
backslide nutritionally. I worry that the participation in the summer
meals program is much lower than the school year program. Do the YMCAs
participate in the summer feeding program? How could we help you enroll
more children?
Answer 1. At the YMCA of Greater New York, the majority of our day
camps (38 of 47) use the USDA Summer Feeding Program (SFSP) for lunch
for our campers. There are many camps that use the program for
breakfast as well. I would say an estimate of over 7,000 campers have
lunch through the school program. The camps involved also have the
opportunity to get lunches-to-go for campers when they are going on a
trip.
We bring most of the campers to a school feeding site and also have
what they call ``satellite meals.'' Satellite meals are when the school
provides meals that the camp picks up and feeds the campers at camp
instead of at a school.
Some challenges have been that where the feeding site or satellite
site is too far from the camp, the distance has made it too difficult
to either go to or pick up the food. If it were possible to have
feeding done at the schools we occupy for camp that would be ideal.
During the school year we are provided snacks at the majority of
our afterschool programs. Some of the programs (those with 100 or more
children) may be given dinner (a hot meal) instead of a snack. It
depends on the school and services available.
Although the program has gotten better with healthier choices it
can be improved. It would be great for all children to receive snacks
like fresh fruit.
Nationally, I know that YMCA of the USA (Y-USA) has recently
increased the promotion of the Summer Food Service Program in YMCA
camps by working with the USDA and a national nonprofit (the Food
Research Action Council). Just this year, Y-USA has hosted national
webinars for local Ys, utilized the newsletter that is sent to all Ys,
and sent informational postcards to 800 camp and child care programs at
Ys. In addition, Y-USA Government Relations and Policy Staff here in DC
have also been working with your Senate colleagues on the HELP
Committee (particularly Senator Franken) on introducing legislation to
promote nutritious offerings in the ``out-of-school settings'' both
after school and in the summer.
If you would like any more information on the New York City YMCA
offerings, that of Ys nationwide, or the policy work of YMCA of the
USA, please contact Kevin Shermach on my staff in New York City
([email protected]) or Richard Bland ([email protected]) of
the YMCA of the USA staff in DC.
Response to Question of Senator Sherrod Brown by Harry J. Holzer, Ph.D.
Question 1. How long-term unemployment affects next generation of
workers and what policies might help?
Answer 1. We have little direct evidence on how long-term
unemployment among parents affects the job prospects of children and
youth in the future. However, we have some reasons to believe that
there will be some negative and long-lasting impacts on some of these
youth.
For one thing, long-term unemployment is correlated with parental
poverty and with involuntary/permanent job loss, and there is direct
evidence that these factors tend to hurt children's educational
attainment and earnings over the long run. These factors--often
associated with parental loss of resources and stress--are quite
negative for children. If the unemployment is accompanied by housing
changes and especially homelessness, the effects can be particularly
negative for kids.
Furthermore, high unemployment among adults comes hand in hand with
high youth unemployment rates, which will recover very slowly in the
coming years. The lengthy periods of joblessness for youth are known to
generate long-lasting ``scars'' on their earnings potential, as Lisa
Kahn (Yale) and Till von Wachter (Columbia) have shown.
In terms of policy responses, I wouldn't necessarily target the
children of the long-term unemployed per se, as there are many other
categories of young people who need assistance. Rather, the appropriate
assistance should be made more available to anyone who needs it,
including these young people.
I would expand any kind of short-term work experience efforts that
are also linked to skill-building and credentialing for youth. These
efforts include jobs programs--not just summer employment efforts
(which are too late for this year) but year-round programs for youth,
as long as they are enrolled in school or a legitimate training
program. Funding apprenticeships and customized on-the-job training for
youth and young adults makes sense, especially if we can obtain some
employer buy-in. High-quality Career and Technical Education (CTE) for
high school and community college students, as accomplished by Career
Academies and Tech Prep, fit the bill as well. ``Sectoral'' training
(as encouraged by the SECTORS Act) and career pathways also make much
sense, as the training is directly relevant to and often interacts with
real jobs and work experience.
Alternatively, we can encourage more of these young people to go to
(community) college and get credentials rewarded by the labor market
they otherwise wouldn't get. The higher credentials would then offset
their loss of work experience. But it would be crucial that they obtain
serious credentials in areas where we expect employment growth to
resume in the not-too-distant future.
Whereupon, at 11:40 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]