THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606050002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 49 lines
Here's good news for most of us: Roughly 27,800 noncustodial parents delinquent in court-ordered child-care payments coughed up $12 million after being told that their Virginia driving permits could be suspended if they didn't.
But the overwhelming majority of noncustodial parents warned not long ago in a state Division of Child Support Services letter to pay up or else have yet to respond. The child-support division sent its message to 146,000 addressees.
Twelve million dollars beats zero dollars all hollow, but - and here's the bad news - it is merely a dent in the $808 million - closer to $1 billion than a half-billion - owed for the care of Virginia children.
The failure - the inability, in all-too-many instances - of legions of noncustodial parents to help pay for rearing their offspring has disastrous consequences for the deprived children and their single mothers and for society.
Single-parent households contain a disproportionately large number of America's poor. Children from poor, single-parent households constitute a disproportionately large percentage of the children who perform wretchedly in school, commit street crimes and deal drugs. When they are grown, children from poor, single-parent households provide the bulk of inmates among the fast-growing U.S. prisoner population (now totaling more than a million in prisons and jails) and a considerable number of women on welfare.
If there were fewer single-parent households, there would be fewer poor households and fewer youngsters in trouble or headed for trouble or welfare. If more noncustodial parents helped support the children they fathered, fewer of America's young would grow up in poverty. If more men had jobs with decent pay and benefits, more noncustodial parents would make regular child-support payments.
There are limits to what government can do to make noncustodial parents do right financially by their children living in poverty when many noncustodial parents can barely support themselves. The endless stream of divorces and out-of-wedlock pregnancies produces more problems than government can ameliorate to any great degree.
Withholding tax refunds from fathers who don't support their children is one way to get some of the money owed for child care. Legally taking a portion of pay earned by nonsupportive noncustodial parents before it gets to them is another. Suspending motor-vehicle-operating permits is yet another. Every little bit helps. But nothing helps enough, not by a long shot, to improve the lot of millions of blameless poor youngsters. by CNB