Ending Child Poverty
The United Kingdom’s Commitment, the United States’ Challenge
June 15, 2006
About This Event
Ending Child Poverty: The United Kingdom’s Commitment, the United States’ Challenge
Featured Speakers:
The Right Honorable John Hutton, M.P., UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Peter Edelman, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center; Co-Chair of the Center for American Progress' Task Force on Poverty
Moderated by:
Mark Greenberg, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress
Event Coverage
Governments can effectively decrease child poverty by implementing progressive policies. This message was bought to the Center for American Progress on Wednesday by The Right Honorable John Hutton, M.P. and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in the United Kingdom.
Hutton joined Peter Edelman, professor of law at Georgetown University, on a panel entitled “Ending Child Poverty: The United Kingdom’s Commitment, the United States’ Challenge.” Using the example from Britain’s success in reducing child poverty by 17% since a government commitment to the problem in 1999, Hutton relayed strategies for success and lessons learned.
Both Hutton and Edelman agree that empowering families through work is critical for ending child poverty. Effective policies include raising the minimum wage, family tax credits, improving employment adjustment for those that lose their jobs, and increasing public investment in income equivalents like health care, child care, and housing. Implementing these policies within a framework of specifically defined targets helps to make them politically effective.
According to Hutton, the central issue is building the right incentives for work while also having a meaningful social safety net. “It’s a bad thing to have millions of people on welfare. It’s a sign of economic weakness.” It is a sign of economic strength, he said, to have full employment and a system that helps those that cannot help themselves.
Child poverty creates far-ranging consequences for society, and early intervention can prevent problems later in life. Hutton and Edelman cite education as a key area for breaking the long-term poverty cycle. Hutton noted the “important role of education in breaking down barriers to social mobility.” Ample data suggests that impoverished children are less likely to be successful in school, more likely to have low-paying jobs, and more likely to commit crimes. Tackling child poverty means developing solutions that involve all levels of government, according to Edelman. “This is not just a matter of federal responsibility, but the federal government is not doing enough.”
Hutton places child poverty within the larger context of globalization. Rapid changes in the global economy resonate throughout our societies, and we face a choice. “Do we want to progress together, grow together,” he asked, “or do we want to grow apart?” As the future character of the North Atlantic democracies is shaped, successfully tackling poverty is part of the answer. “We are a decent society,” said Hutton, “and poverty is an insult.”
Resources
Video
Note: All video provided in QuickTime (MPEG-4) format.
Note: All video provided in QuickTime (MPEG-4) format.
Event Transcript
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Program: 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Admission is free
Center for American Progress
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Washington, DC 20005
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Biographies:
John Hutton entered the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in May 2005. He was previously Minister of State with responsibility for Social Care at the Department of Health in 1999. He took on responsibility for Health in June 2001. Before his election to Parliament he was a Senior Law lecturer at the University of Northumbria. From 1994 to1997 he served on the Select Committee for Home Affairs. He was PPS to Margaret Beckett, both while she was President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1997-8), and in her role as President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (1998). Mr Hutton was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in Oct 1998. Mr Hutton was born on the May 6, 1955 and was educated at Westcliffe High School and Magdalen College Oxford. He has three sons and one daughter.
Peter Edelman is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and poverty law. A member of the faculty since 1982, he has served in all three branches of government. He took leave during President Clinton's first term to serve as Counselor to HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and then as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Professor Edelman has been Associate Dean of the Law Center, Director of the New York State Division for Youth, and Vice President of the University of Massachusetts. He was a Legislative Assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and was Issues Director for Senator Edward Kennedy's Presidential campaign in 1980. Prior to working for Robert Kennedy, he was a Law Clerk to Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg and before that to Judge Henry J. Friendly on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He also worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General John Douglas in the Civil Division, and was a partner in the law firm of Foley & Lardner. Mr. Edelman has written extensively on poverty, constitutional law, and children and youth. His article in the Atlantic Monthly , entitled "The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done," received the Harry Chapin Media Award. Professor Edelman has chaired and been a board member of numerous organizations and foundations. He is chair of the recently created District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission, and is currently board president of the New Israel Fund and board chair of the National Center for Youth Law. In addition, he is a board member of the Public Welfare Foundation, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the American Progress Action Fund, and a number of other nonprofit organizations. He is currently a member of the American Bar Association Presidential Task Force on Access to Justice and a co-chair of the Center for American Progress's National Poverty Initiative Task Force. Mr. Edelman has been a United States-Japan Leadership Program Fellow, was the J. Skelly Wright Memorial Fellow at Yale Law School, and has received numerous honors and awards for his work, including the William J. Brennan, Jr. Award from the D.C. Bar in 2005. He grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
Mark Greenberg is the Executive Director of the Task Force on Poverty for the Center for American Progress. Over the course of this year, CAP’s Poverty Task Force is charged with developing recommendations for addressing poverty in the United States. Mr. Greenberg is directing the task force while on leave from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), where he is the Director of Policy. In 1997-98. Mr. Greenberg studied welfare reform developments in the UK while based at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of York through the Atlantic Fellowships in Public Policy Programme. In 2003, he authored an overview of recent developments in lone parent employment in the United States for the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions, and in 2005, he co-organized a U.S. study delegation to the UK, examining the commitment to end child poverty. Prior to coming to D.C., Mr. Greenberg worked at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid in Florida and the Western Center on Law and Poverty in California. Mr. Greenberg is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
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