Noted experts speak out about the issues surrounding child poverty in the US

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/ehs-nes040116.php

Public Release: 1-Apr-2016
Noted experts speak out about the issues surrounding child poverty in the US
Academic pediatrics tackles this complex topic and offers a robust guide for pediatricians, educators, advocates, and policy makers
Elsevier Health Sciences

One in five children in the U.S. lives below the federal poverty level (FPL) and nearly half of children in America are classified as poor or near poor. Childhood poverty creates long-lasting, often permanent, physiologic changes through constant exposure to threats such as malnutrition, acute and chronic disease, toxic stress, social deprivation, and lack of opportunity. Because poor children and families are generally forced to cluster in specific neighborhoods, these changes also produce the higher crime rates, lower education levels, worse job prospects, and vicious cycles of intergenerational poverty that destroy entire communities.

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"Children remain the poorest members of our society even in good times, with rates that are unacceptably high for a developed nation," stated guest editor Benard Dreyer, MD, Department of Pediatrics, Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, NYU School of Medicine, Bellevue Hospital Center. "We hope that this synthesis will empower pediatricians and other pediatric health providers, local and national leaders who are striving to improve the lives and outcomes of children and families, and policy-makers and change-agents to use your agency and activism to address this critical issue."