On the one hand …

Census reveals progress by blacks
By James G. Lakely
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

More black Americans today are finishing high school, going to college, moving to the suburbs and earning higher salaries than in previous decades, while the trend of single-mother households is in historic decline, a new report shows.

According to a report released yesterday by the Census Bureau, the percentage of black families led by unmarried females is 43 percent, the lowest percentage since at least 1980, when 40 percent of black families were led by an unmarried woman.

The percentage of black single mothers hovered around 50 percent in the mid-1990s. The decline came, some social scientists say, because of the 1996 welfare reforms that required work and limited the time one could receive federal benefits.

"Didn't that decline start when welfare reform was enacted?" asked David Almasi, director of Project 21, a conservative black think tank. "We reformed the welfare system, which so many people blamed for causing the chronic social problems of the black community. [Welfare] rewarded the splitting up of families."

Dr. William Spriggs, executive director for the National Urban League Institute for Opportunity and Equality, said welfare reform had very little to do with the decline of single-mother black households. The vibrant economy of the latter half of the '90s raised all boats, he said, creating a stable environment in which two-parent families could prosper.

… and on the other hand
From the NY Times
Report Finds Number of Black Children in Deep Poverty Rising
By SAM DILLON

The number of black Americans under 18 years old who live in extreme poverty has risen sharply since 2000 and is now at its highest level since the government began collecting such figures in 1980, according to a study by the Children's Defense Fund, a child welfare advocacy group.

In 2001, the last year for which government figures are available, nearly one million black children were living in families with after-tax incomes that were less than half the amount used to define poverty, said the new study, which was based on Census Bureau statistics and is to be released publicly today. The defense fund provided a copy in advance to The New York Times.

The poverty line for a family of three was about $14,100, the study said, so a family of three living in extreme poverty had a disposable income of about $7,060, the study said.

In early 2000, only 686,000 black children were that poor, the study said, indicating that the economic circumstances of the United States' poorest black families deteriorated sharply from 2000 to 2001.

… "The study shows that in the first recession since the welfare law took effect, black children who have the fewest protections are falling into extreme poverty in record numbers," Ms. Weinstein said. "So as we consider our federal policies, are we going to help children who need help the most, or rich people who don't need help at all?"

posted by Prometheus 6 at 4/30/2003 06:12:23 AM |