I was reading an article about how poverty affects education--you know me it's one of my favorite topics--ok let me reword that because it's not my favorite topic by any means--for those who know me you knew what I meant--but for those who do not know me well-- what I meant was fighting for those in poverty and children who live in poverty is a BIG cause of mine and I will speak and fight for them until I can't speak and fight anymore! OK so back to the article.....
So I was reading how poverty affects education and in this article they mentioned an anti-poverty contract and I of course had to click on the link and find out what this meant...boy am I glad that I clicked on it because this article is fabulous and eye opening! The author Greg Kaufmann is passionate about the subject of poverty and brings up some great points that all of us need to consider. I am going to blog about the main points that struck me...if you want to read the whole article--and you really should because it's great--here is the link to the full article: http://www.thenation.com/blog/172287/week-poverty-antipoverty-contract-2013
Point one: What can the anti-poverty movement do in politics?
Kaufmann's point was many times people focus on the fact that there is lack of desire in political leadership to fight poverty when they should be asking what can we do to change this? Are we who know the facts when it comes to poverty making ourselves visible when the issue of poverty comes up in Congress? I think it's a valid point because so often there are people who say they want to fight and then they do nothing--so make yourself visible and stand up and fight for those less fortunate!!
Point two: Raise the minimum wage
I know this is an issue that many of us have heard about and most Americans believe that this should happen--but what I didn't realize is that the minimum wage has only been raised three times in the last 30 years!!! I had to read that statement several times and each time I found myself saying WTF?!! Hello that's awful because a lot has changed in 30 years!! Cost of living has gone up, inflation, etc. Another point that Kaufmann brought up was the fact that people who receives tips minimum wage is $2.13 and has been so since '91--due to this food industry servers in the US are being paid sub-poverty wages and are likely to need food stamps to survive. I think it's awful that a waiter waitress are barely scrapping by and are working full time! Something needs to change and that's why I think it's important to stand up for legislation like The Fair Minimum Wage Act!
Point three: Affordable childcare for Working Families
This is a topic that is close and dear to my heart. In this article it talked about how full time childcare can range anywhere from $3,600 to $18,200 annually per child! WHAT?!!! If you are a family that is living in poverty you can't afford a cost like that--and even if you are middle class family that's stretching the budget a lot. The teacher in me knows the value of a quality childcare facility and numerous studies prove that if your child has a quality education from the start that it will impact his/her education greatly--for the better! The article talks about how there is federal assistance for childcare for those who need it, but currently only 1 in 7 children who qualify for it are being reached. There are major reforms that need to be made for this type of assistance and if we would make this a priority we would see the rewards because as mentioned before research has shown the value in how much of a positive impact a quality early childcare program has on the child's future education.
I think I'll end it here because this blog is getting a little long and I could ramble on and on about it--and Lord knows I have already rambled enough...but here is the main point y'all--let's stop just saying we want a fighting chance for those living in poverty and we want this and that to change--LET'S STAND UP AND ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING Y'ALL!! Make your voice heard and do your homework before you just assume that people are lazy, and just want to live off the government forever--in most cases this isn't the truth--in most cases you have people who are just trying to get by and it's about time that their voices are heard to!!
As always feel free to share this blog and Peace be with you all,
~Alicia~
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