How Poverty Is Crushing the Future of American Kids

Their Parents Can’t Earn a Living Wage, Their Schools Are Underperforming, and The Rest of Us Are Looking the Other Way

As the presidential election season kicks off, we can expect to be inundated with partisan debates about our nation’s biggest problems and how to address them. But there is one matter on which every candidate agrees: the growing gap between rich and poor needs to be addressed.

In 2013, the average income for the wealthiest 10 percent of U.S. families rose 10 percent from 2010—while the income of the bottom 40 percent declined. Where does the Horatio Alger story of bootstrapping fit into this picture? Is America still defined as …

April 18, 2015

Don’t Freak Out if You’re Not Lusting After a Baby

You Don’t Have to Be Selfish, Shallow, or Self-Absorbed to Decide Not to Become a Parent

by Sarah Rothbard | April 16, 2015

Why do some adult men and women choose not to have kids? Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum had only seen the topic addressed in a “really glib, flippant way.” …

Why I Quit High School Football

I’d Waited My Whole Life to Play, But the Hits and the Pain Outweighed My Desire for Glory

by Rian Bosse | April 14, 2015

I wore football pads, real pads, like the pros wear, for the first time when I was 12 years old, walking out onto the practice field at the start of …

Why Can’t We Accept That Some Women Don’t Want Kids?

There Is No ‘Normal’ American Family Anymore. But Heads Still Shake When It Comes to Women’s Reproductive Choices.

April 13, 2015

It used to be that the Cleavers—dad working an office job, mom raising two boys full-time—were the model American family. But the past several decades have seen dramatic changes—recent studies …

The Colorado Mountain Town That Owns My Heart

The One Constant in My Nomadic Childhood Was Crested Butte

by Stacia Affelt | April 8, 2015

I roamed the country in my youth, but Crested Butte, the charming mountain town that owned my heart, kept me from straying too far.

Despite living in six different states over …

How Do You Talk to Kids About God?

For Secular Parents, Explaining Sex Is a Cinch, But Tackling Religion Can Be Terrifying

by Wendy Thomas Russell | April 6, 2015

Talking openly with children about sensitive subjects is hard. It always has been. In my parents’ generation, the three-letter taboo was S-E-X. My older sister was 13 when my dad …

The Loneliness of America’s Poor Kids

Political Scientist Robert D. Putnam Explains the Toll Inequality is Taking on Children with Less Educated, Less Connected, Less Wealthy Parents

Don’t Sweat the Squalor?

Five Leading Economists Reflect On Whether American Wealth Disparity Is Inherent to the American Way

Give California’s Kids Barstools for Christmas

It’s Clear That the Next Generation Doesn’t Matter in a State That Prioritizes Bars and Restaurants Over Schools

To End the Stigma Around America’s Poverty Crisis, Teach It in the Classroom

Instruction on the Nature, Extent, and Causes of Poverty Will Challenge Entrenched Narratives Around It—And Open the Door for Policy Change

Get More Zócalo