In June, the National Fatherhood Initiative published its research quantifying the amount of federal dollars that are provided to father absent homes through anti-poverty programs. This first of its kind report, entitled “The One Hundred Billion Dollar Man,” estimates that in 2006, taxpayers spent $99.8 billion. That’s nearly $100 billion – $100,000,000,000 – spent on assistance to single-mother households in a single year.
The research, conducted by Steven Nook and Chris Einolf, examined total expenditures for fatherless households for the following programs: Earned Income Tax Credit, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), child support enforcement, SSI payments, food stamps, school lunch, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Medicaid, SCHIP, Head Start, childcare, energy assistance, public housing, and section 8 rental subsidies. Child support enforcement, TANF, and childcare subsidies had the highest amounts of single-mother participation, between 87 and 90 percent for each program.
“The One Hundred Billion Dollar Man” also validates The Parenting Network’s previous blog entry about the social costs of father absence. Nook and Einolf contend that:
Children of single mothers pay their own costs for the absence of a father, as well. Such children do less well in school than children of two-parent families, have more emotional and behavioral problems, have worse physical health, are more likely to use drugs, tobacco, and alcohol, and are more likely to become delinquent; teenage girls in single-mother households are more likely to become pregnant, and teenage boys in single-mother households are more likely to become teen fathers.
And these harmful affects of father absence do not stop once the child reaches the age of majority:
In the long run, adults who grew up in single-mother households attain lower levels of education, earn less, and are more likely to be incarcerated, are more likely to have out-of-wedlock births, and are more likely to be divorced.
To recap, 23.3% of children in America live with their mothers only. In Milwaukee, nearly 40% of all households are headed by single-mothers with that number rising to near 70% in certain zip codes. How much is this costing us – not just in taxpayer dollars but also in terms of the health, safety, and well being of the children our community? What does this mean to Milwaukee’s future?
The Parenting Network is interested in reading comments from the community on how to combat the father-absence crisis in Milwaukee. What are your thoughts?
