Join fight to reduce child poverty

By Bruce Lesley, Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Nevada’s rising child-poverty rate is alarming (“23 percent of Nevada children live in poverty,” lasvegassun.com, July 21). But what’s appalling is that political gridlock obstructs action to reduce devastating child-poverty levels.

Today, Democrats and Republicans offer solutions that are nonstarters for the other party. With no incentive to compromise, nothing gets done.

The United Kingdom faced the same logjam and broke it. The U.K.’s “Child Poverty Target” committed the national government to ending child poverty by a certain date, making all political parties accountable. Accountability bred compromise, and compromise bred progress. During the effort’s first decade, the U.K. cut child poverty in half.

Legislation establishing a child -poverty reduction target in the U.S. is pending in Congress (HR 2408), sponsored by lawmakers from high-poverty communities such as Baltimore and Oakland, Calif. Urge your congressional representatives to join them.

Let’s not lose another generation of Nevada children to poverty.

The writer is president of the First Focus Campaign for Children.