[John Edwards] Leadership missing in war on poverty, Edwards says

from The UB Reporter

By KEVIN FRYLING

America's leaders in Washington—not its citizens—lack the will to fight the war on poverty, former U.S. senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards said Monday at UB.

"What's missing is not the will of our people," he said. "What's missing is national leadership."

Edwards, now Alumni Distinguished Professor and director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Law, visited UB to present the keynote address at the Western New York Poverty Symposium, held in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.

I see (poverty) as a great moral cause, not a complicated issue," he said. "The solutions may be complicated, but the issue itself is not.

"We have 37 million people in our country, which is the richest nation on the planet, who wake up every single day worrying about feeding and clothing their children, worrying about having a decent place to live," he said. "For the wealthiest, most powerful nation on the planet, that's not OK. The United States of America is better than that, and I think it's important to demonstrate, both to ourselves and to the world, that these are the sorts of issues America cares about."

He called the response of volunteers and organizations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina evidence that widespread desire exists in the nation to address poverty.

Although he praised actions taken under the Clinton Administration, such as welfare reform, an increase in the minimum wage and the expansion of earned income tax credits, Edwards said the United States has not launched a serious, comprehensive effort to reduce poverty since the "War on Poverty" in the mid-1960s.

He added that social welfare programs are pointed in the right direction, but additional supports are needed. African-American men are being left behind, he said, and current job programs often lack the means to guarantee that single mothers with no transportation are able to get to work, as well as provide child care for their children.

"It's been decades and it's clear this is a problem that will not solve itself," said Edwards. "It's something that requires all of us to be engaged in: individuals, faith-based groups, charitable organizations and state, local and federal government."

In his introduction of Edwards, President John B. Simpson highlighted UB's efforts to work in partnership with government and state and regional leaders to alleviate poverty in Western New York.

"We are committed to working with educators at every level—from kindergarten to postgraduate—to help break the cycle of poverty," said Simpson, adding that all students deserve equitable preparation and access to a "first-class education."

"It too often remains the case in Western New York and throughout the nation that students are cut off from that basic right," he said.

Further regional context was provided by Kathryn Foster, director of UB's Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth, whose opening remarks outlined the demographic state of the poor in Buffalo Niagara.

"Though poverty visits all roofs, it is not distributed evenly in Western New York," said Foster. "There is a wide disparity by place."

The highest rates of poverty in the region—31 percent—are found among Native Americans living on the Cattaraugus Reservation. Next is the City of Buffalo (21 percent); Southern Tier counties (14 percent); inner-ring suburbs, such as Tonawanda and Cheektowaga (8-11 percent); and Clarence (2 percent).

Foster added that Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks in the metropolitan region are close to four times as likely as whites to live in poverty.

"I would certainly point out the manner in which schooling is structured in New York State," noted symposium panelist Robert Bennett, chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents. "It's entirely segregated, including in Niagara and Erie counties."

The panelists, seven in all, also talked about numerous other factors rooted in the system that enable poverty to spread.

"We place a lot of emphasis on the individual when in fact we need to be looking at larger issues: health care, child care, access to education and living-wage jobs," said Bill O'Connell, executive director of the Western New York Homeless Alliance. "It's the systemic issues that we don't pay enough attention to."

"We're dealing with poverty in terms of managing the people that are poor, but we're not trying to manage them out of poverty," added Nathan Hare, executive director of the Community Action Organization of Erie County.

Despite significant setbacks, however, local programs do exist to fight poverty. Lauren Breen, clinical instructor in the Community Economic Development (CED) Law Clinic in the UB Law School, pointed to the Voluntary Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, an initiative that puts cash into low-income pockets in Buffalo. She said the program's volunteers, who include students from the Law School, provide free tax services that employ earned income-tax credits to return a total of $20 to $25 million annually to taxpayers in Buffalo and Erie County.