Minority Set-Asides

TREVOR COLEMAN: A painful cycle for kids born out of wedlock

February 4, 2002

BY TREVOR COLEMAN
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

The people of Detroit take pride in being the home of the world's largest auto manufacturers and the center of the country's soul and techno music industry. When a Detroit sports team finishes first, the outpouring of support is huge.

The city, however, can also claim national leadership in a much less celebrated category. You won't read much, hear much or see people cheering in the streets for the fact that Detroit leads the nation in children born out of wedlock.

It is a profoundly disturbing statistic with frightening implications for the future viability of this region. Although the percentage of Detroit births to unmarried women fell from 75 percent in 1994 to 71 percent in 1998, unmarried women still accounted for a higher proportion of births in Detroit than in any of the 50 largest cities overall.

Babies born to women with less than a complete high school education made up more than one-third of those births. That placed Detroit far ahead of the rest of the cities studied in the report by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation. And it relegates thousands of children to poverty, with all the problems that come with it, from poor health to poor schools to unsafe streets.

"It makes them less likely to graduate from high school, more likely to become teen mothers, involved in delinquency, and more likely to end up jobless," said Sheldon Danziger, a professor of social work and public policy at the University of Michigan.

So when you consider that the vast majority of Detroit's boys or girls do not have the benefit of a mature, responsible, loving and focused man to help their mother raise, train, protect and nurture them into adulthood, the demand for immediate action is clear.

While certainly a function of economic conditions, this phenomenon of illegitimacy is also largely a consequence of a changing value system, said Isabel Sawhill, a Brookings Institute scholar who specializes in welfare reform and out-of-wedlock births.

"Attitudinal data show a huge shift in the public attitude about out-of-wedlock child bearing," Sawhill said. "The younger generation sees it as another life choice; 30 years ago it was frowned upon and stigmatized."

The loosening attitudes had a particularly devastating effect in low-income communities because the moral ambivalence interacted with economics.

"Some people argue what happened is well-paying jobs in manufacturing areas disappeared from places like Detroit and left a lot of unskilled, uneducated minority males jobless or in low-paying jobs," she said. "Combine that with poor schools, and the result is a lot of single parents. The males simply were not good marriage material."

Another factor was a welfare system that enabled young women to have babies outside of marriage. If men became poor bread winners, then the welfare system became the substitute, Sawhill said.

Whatever the causes, it is simply abnormal to have a city of this size, with all its potential, mired in this condition.

Harvard University scholar William Julius Wilson suggests that the most effective way to deal with the problem is to help make poor young men more economically viable, and thus marriage-worthy.

He said that will require better schools, recreation facilities, and economic policy that creates good jobs. It will also require an expanded earned income tax credit, child care and other measures.

The intervention, however, must begin before the children become adults.

"The critical point at which we have to intervene is in preschool years," said Jane Zehnder-Merrell, project director of Kids Count in Michigan. "We must have a strong child care system because children are at the highest risk without strong child care.

"The future is bleak," she said, "unless there is a political will to make an investment in these kids and families."

TREVOR W. COLEMAN is a Free Press editorial writer. You can call him at 313-222-6456, or write him in care of the Free Press editorial page, or via e-mail at coleman@freepress.com.

No child out of opportunities

February 8, 2002

In response to your Feb. 1 editorial "Out of Wedlock: Epidemic illegitimacy requires strong city response" and Trevor Coleman's Feb. 4 column, "A painful cycle for kids born out of wedlock": The issue is not whether kids are born legitimately or illegitimately, but, now that they exist, how do we treat them? What programs and services will society provide to them to facilitate their growth and development? To what extent will we love them, care for them and accept them as they are?

The current level of poverty and dysfunction in Detroit has nothing to do with one being legitimate or illegitimate. Perhaps, if there were a greater interest in developing Detroit so people can live in it rather than make a profit, it would have a profound impact on the lives of our children. And it would perhaps create a quality of life that escapes our children today and reduce out-of-wedlock births.

I see this issue as one of denial of opportunity, access and the appropriate adult attitude under which all Detroit children can grow to their potential. I see no purpose in rehashing the problems of out-of-wedlock children. But I do see children being continuously betrayed and routed into hopelessness and a future without meaning and purpose.

As long as we look at the end results and not the cause of the wretched conditions under which our kids live, we will come to the erroneous conclusions that multigenerational poverty, poor schools, crime, drug abuse, urban blight and black-on-black violence are directly caused by out-of-wedlock children. Nonsense!

To continue to describe human beings born as illegitimate is a mean-spirited endeavor and says nothing about what our obligations and responsibilities are to them.

Bob Parrott Detroit
 

Stop the excuses

I felt both enlightened and saddened by the unimaginable statistics Trevor Coleman provided regarding the important issue of children born out of wedlock. As I continued to read the comments about poor jobs, poor schools, and males not being "marriage material," I became incensed. Since when did the quality of jobs, public education and male marriageability have something to do with these women's ability to say no to sex?

The sooner society begins eliminating excuses for irresponsibility and ignorance the better.

Michael D. Reed Northville
 

Stick to city basics

If the issue of illegitimate births were not serious, the Free Press' position that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick should make it a priority would be laughable. The City of Detroit fails to keep the lights burning and demolishes abandoned and decrepit buildings at a snail's pace. Until recently, the city couldn't even plow the roads. Now the mayor is supposed to fix a complicated social and moral problem?

Rather than engage in social engineering, Kilpatrick should focus on the root causes of Detroit's decline. Detroit must lower taxes, pick up garbage off the streets, reduce crime, streamline the process to open a business, and work to improve the city's education environment. Successfully accomplish this lengthy list of improvements and the social climate will improve.

The last thing Detroit needs to do is throw money it doesn't have at failed welfare programs.

Steve Sutton Farmington Hills
 

Personal responsibility

It didn't take a crystal ball to foresee the mess Detroit is in with regard to children being born out of wedlock. A problem of this magnitude is not the result of any one policy or set of circumstances. However, the No. 1 culprit is basic liberal policies with the hallmarks of ignoring personal responsibilities and the encouragement of an "it's all about me" attitude.

Liberal ideas sound progressive and compassionate on the surface, but the second-order effects of these policies are devastating mostly to women and children. Without a doubt, the Free Press is a major contributor to Detroiter's poor attitudes and lack of values resulting in these types of problems.

As you continue on your liberal path, expect more devastating problems for those you believe you are helping. I suggest that you attempt to help people wake up to realities and press hard for traditional family values, personal responsibility, and an attitude that suggests we should at least consider what is best for our civilization as a whole.

David J. Valice Troy

Prenatal Shame

Detroit's care rating deserves a crisis response

February 9, 2002

One more report saying Detroit fails its future generations. One more report ranking Detroit at the bottom of the national pack on prenatal care. One more reason the state must not only restore outreach programs for expectant mothers but increase benefits as well.

Detroit has the highest percentage of premature and underweight babies among the nation's 50 biggest cities and is third worst at getting prenatal care to pregnant women, according to the latest report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Child Trends. One of the biggest problems is that women don't know what's available to them. That makes the state's announcement last month that it was cutting outreach programs -- Detroit takes a half-million-dollar hit -- all the worse.

Poor prenatal care and low birth weights portend huge problems for children -- and the communities in which they grow up. Physical problems and diminished learning ability take a major toll. Hospital bills and special education are expensive. Lost potential is heartbreaking.

The Bush administration's announcement that it would extend the State Children's Health Insurance Program to pregnant mothers -- excepting its misguided attempts to stir up abortion politics -- is but one step in the right direction. So much more is needed.

More flexibility in the welfare-to-work programs so women can take time to seek care. Better public transportation to get them to and from physicians' offices. More outreach to help more women know what's available to them -- and to draw more doctors back to the city, where the need is so great.

The health of mothers and babies is one of the best measures of a community's health. It's time for the state and the city to make a better commitment to Detroit's future health.

Gay Adoption

It's a matter of basic fairness to homosexual couples

February 5, 2002

The American Academy of Pediatrics was both careful and thoughtful in reaching its policy decision in support of adoption rights for homosexual couples. The respected 55,000-member organization reached the same conclusion any pediatrician would: Do what's best for the child.

"Denying legal parent status through adoption . . . prevents these children from enjoying the psychologic and legal security that comes from having two willing, capable and loving parents," the policy says. The academy cited research showing as many as 9 million U.S. children have at least one gay parent, and a lack of data showing any harmful effect to children from being raised by gay parents.

In addition to the benefits of a two-parent household, allowing a gay partner to adopt a child helps ensure the child equal access to Social Security, health care and other benefits that children of heterosexual couples can take for granted.

The policy does not suggest special treatment for gay couples who wish to adopt. They should be subject to the same rigorous scrutiny as any applicants for adoption. But sexual orientation alone should not be grounds for denial, as it is in Florida. Seven states and the District of Columbia now permit gay adoptions, either by law or court ruling.

Critics will say the policy endorses a deviant way of life and trivializes the contribution each gender makes to a child's development.

Such arguments rest on assumptions that homosexuality somehow precludes loving, nurturing, responsible parenthood, and define the qualifications of human beings by their bed partners.

This is not an issue of sexuality, but of fairness -- to gays, lesbians and children.