The welfare of children is at the heart of many of the goals of both the Republican and Democratic parties. Children in poverty perform comparatively poorly in school, have limited access to health care and are more likely to commit crimes as they grow older. Columbia University's National Center for Children in Poverty recently summarized Replica IWC child poverty rates gathered by the Census Bureau, focusing on the years 1979, 1993 and 1998. For the 1993 to 1998 period that spans the Clinton Administration, children are in fact better off. The child poverty rate fell from 22.5% to 18.7%. Short-term improvements are consistent with recent business cycle trends, indicating that the economic boom under the Clinton administration's watch has worked to lower the child poverty rate from its post-recession peak in 1993. Twelve states had a significant decline in their child poverty rate and only one had a significant increase. Longer term, child poverty rates should reflect real median household income and thus should continue to improve as the expansion continues. Real median income in the U. S. reached a record in 1998, surpassing its earlier 1989 peak. Improving median income alone, however, is not sufficient to make long-term structural improvements in child poverty. While the jobless rate is at a 30-year low and real median household income is at a record high, the child poverty rate remains above the 16.2% rate of 1979. Moreover, it remains significantly higher in 14 states and declined in only four. Other factors are driving the distribution of income that directly impact child poverty rates. Household structure is one such factor. For example, the share of households with children under 18 years old and headed by a single mother increased from 17.4% in 1979 to 21.7% in 1993. This share continued to grow during the 1990s, although at a much slower pace, so that by 1998 it rose to just 22.1 %. The structure of a state's economy also comes into play. In downstate New York or parts of California, rapid growth depends upon a narrow range of high-paying industries such as financial services or high-tech that works very well to support the well-educated and Breitling Replica Watches skilled workers, but provides fewer rungs on the ladder for less stalled workers. What is evident is that the easy period of improving child welfare that corresponds to the short-term business cycle is probably over. The task is now to remove some of the structural factors that contribute to long-term trends in child poverty: insuring that single parents have ' adequate income through job training, or through tougher requirements on child-support payments from absent fathers; liberalizing immigration laws so illegal household heads become legal and can more fully participate in the labor force; broadening training for more workers to take high-tech jobs; and spreading the high-tech economy to smaller communities. This creates problems for both political parties. The Democrats can't simply depend upon past performance to guarantee future returns. The Republicans may have to take a more activist role than that with which they have historically been comfortable.
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