Eight states have child poverty levels above 20 percent

Currently, about 12.8 million American children are living in poverty. The U.S. Census Bureau's poverty threshold was developed in the 1960s by Mollie Orshansky, an economist for the Social Security Administration. This threshold is determined using changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). In 2018, a family of four making less than $25,465 was considered below the poverty line.

As indicated in the chart below from Truth in Accounting's State Data Lab, the 50 state average for child poverty was 17.1 percent in 2017. Ten states had child poverty rates above or very close to 20 percent. Here are the child poverty rates in those states and subsequently, the actual number of children classified as below the poverty line: Louisiana 31.5 percent which is 349,000 children, New Mexico 28 percent (135,000), Mississippi 27 percent (191,000), West Virginia 25 percent (91,000), South Carolina 24.3 percent (269,000), Alabama 22.2 percent (239,000), North Carolina 21.6 percent (490,000), New York 20.1 percent (824,000), Arkansas 19.9 percent (142,000), and Kansas 19.7 percent (138,000). So in a Louisiana classroom of 20 students, six or seven students likely have parents who are struggling financially. The three lowest, and only states with child poverty rates below 10 percent were: New Hampshire 6.7 percent, Maryland 8.6 percent, and Colorado 9.5 percent.

These statistics on child poverty in America are staggering and depressing, but the tangible implications are even more so. In the fall semester of 2012, I was attending Scott Community College in Bettendorf, Iowa, studying to become a social studies teacher. As part of a teaching observations course, I sat in on two classes per week at two different schools. One was a sixth grade class at Wood Intermediate in Davenport, which is in a lower-middle class area. The students were generally pleasant and fun to interact with. One morning I noticed a student named Ayden had his head and seemed to be in a bad mood. Mark (the teacher) walked over and asked him what was wrong. "Nothing," he replied dismissively, but admitted no one gave him breakfast after being asked a second time. Mark grabbed a Hostess Cherry Pie out of his desk and handed it to Ayden. "Why does he get a snack!?" another child asked. Mark briefly explained that Ayden didn't have food at home that morning, and her envy visibly disappeared.

A sugary processed pastry probably wasn't the best option for an 11 year old's emergency breakfast, but at least it was something. I didn't think much about that incident at the time, but am deeply saddened reflecting on it. Throughout my entire childhood my mom always worked hard to ensure that the needs of my sister and I were more than fulfilled. The notion of parents who are either too poor or too negligent to ensure their children have sustenance for the day was initially difficult for me to fully comprehend.

To mitigate the heartbreaking problems that kids like Ayden deal with, a nonprofit called the Children's Defense Fund urged the federal government to double the minimum wage and increase housing subsidies. However, a new report from the Congressional Budget Office showed that hiking the minimum wage to $15 an hour would cost 1.3 million jobs. The root causes of poverty entail so much more than just money. Hence the dozens of lottery winners who ended up broke within 10 years of striking it rich. Poverty also involves mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism, domestic abuse, poor educational opportunities, and various lifestyle choices. The good news is that there are plenty of apolitical steps we can all take to help lift the less fortunate among us out of poverty. They include donating to reputable charities, working in soup kitchens, getting involved in free job training programs, supplying your local food bank, volunteering for youth programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters, or spending a weekend with Habitat for Humanity among other organizations. I plan to get involved in some of these causes very soon and I hope you'll join me!

Jason O'Day is an online marketing and social media intern at Truth in Accounting, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that researches government financial data.

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*Correction: The previous version of this article featured an incorrect headline, "Seventeen percent of American children live in poverty". As originally noted in the body text, 17 percent is merely the average state child poverty rate (average of all fifty percentages). I apologize for the misleading error.