ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 28, 1996 TAG: 9610280112
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
A GENERAL Assembly committee is considering a bill that would give divorced fathers a better chance to win joint custody of their children.
Proponents, including men's advocacy groups, contend that shared legal and physical custody will make divorced fathers more willing and reliable contributors to their children's financial support. Opponents, including women's advocacy groups, say it won't.
Which side is right? Hard to say, but one thing is clear: Inadequate child support from absentee parents who renege on their responsibilities is threatening the well-being of growing numbers of Virginia's children.
Discouragingly, the state's actions to date don't seem to have made much of a dent. In recent years, the legislature has authorized taking away driver's licenses and business licenses from parents who refuse to make child-support payments. The state has publicized lists of ``ten most wanted deadbeats'' - those flagrantly in arrears. As part of welfare reform, it is requiring unwed mothers who receive welfare to identify the father, so the state can try to track him down and collect child support.
As a result of such actions, the state collected $250 million in owed child-support payments last year. That was up from $218 million the year before, which is reassuring. But the grim fact is that some $850 million owed by absentee parents last year still went uncollected.
The state's caseload of deadbeats has grown from 208,000 in 1990 to about 390,000 today. An astounding 2,500 new cases are added to delinquent rolls every month. These figures translate into more than 500,000 Virginia children who aren't receiving financial support due them from their parents.
Caseworkers with the state's child-support enforcement division are overwhelmed. And, welfare reform notwithstanding, taxpayers could be overwhelmed by having to support youngsters whose parents have financially deserted them.
For the sake of 500,000 children, lawmakers need to keep pressing the search for ways to enforce child-support payments. The deadbeats, meantime, shouldn't have to wait for more direction from Richmond to do the right thing for their kids. They should look long and hard in a mirror.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB