by Marsha Welch

Created on: July 25, 2008   Last Updated: September 10, 2009

In a perfect world, all children would have enough money for a public education. After all, a public education is free, isn't it? Maybe to some, a public education seems free, but to the 20,000 people within my county who live in poverty, public education is not entirely free. These families must provide their children with money for lunch, money for school supplies, project materials, school appropriate clothing (which gets more complicated every year) and locker fees. Then there are the additional expenses of school pictures, class rings, graduation invitations, prom dresses and tuxedos, prom pictures and other non-essentials which are more or less expected for a child to have a well-rounded educational experience and self-esteem... Children who live in poverty-stricken households suffer ridicule, and damage to their self-esteem. How can we expect these children to succeed in life if the beginning of their life is so desperate? Many would like to point fingers and say that if the parents would place more effort, the children wouldn't have these problems, but according to the Alabama Poverty Project's research:

"In 1990, 60% of the poor in the U.S. were not able to work due to their age (too young or too old), disability, or the lack of jobs. All of these are circumstances clearly beyond the control of the individual."

Others would say that people in impoverished households receive plenty of help from our tax money. To that the APP responds:

"Most poor citizens do not receive aid from the government, either because they are not eligible, not willing to apply, or do not know that they are eligible.
In Alabama, only a minority of welfare recipients receive ANY cash aid at all. Among those who do receive AFDC payments, an average of $29 per child each month or $348 a year was paid (1990). Compared to the income tax deduction of $2,450 per child, it is clear that the middle class families have more government- supplied incentive to have kids than the poor do. In fact, the fertility rate of women on welfare is less than the fertility rate of all U.S. women of child bearing age.
The average Food Stamp allotment in 1990 was 79 cents a meal per person. For a poor person, no amount of "good management" can result in sufficient nutritious meals throughout the month while on Food Stamps. We imagine what we see someone buy on food stamps is what they buy every week, but most food stamp recipients do one big shopping trip a month and try to make it last through the month."

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