Public Policy - Public Administration

“Four years into a period of a deep recession and persistent economic crisis, only now has the p-word—poverty—finally surfaced (Albelda, Jan/Feb 2012, p. 11). For those of us that have; a roof over our heads, stable income, health insurance, and have an abundance of groceries in our pantry, we often never think of those in the United States that are below the poverty line and struggling to put food on the table. The battle for the single mother to make it in this tough economy is the policy issue I will be focusing on. The poverty rate for single mothers and their children is only rising: from 32.5% in 2009 to 34.2% in 2010 (Albelda, Jan/Feb 2012). Poverty has always been a concern, however now with the growing population and the increasing rate of single mothers, it has become a problem on the federal level as well as state and local governments. Compared to other high-income countries, the poverty rates for the United States are remarkably high (Legal Momentum, 2012). The United States has implemented a few programs not only to help assist single mothers, but all poverty stricken individuals in the U.S. I will be discussing the positives and negatives that have come out of some of these programs, the organizations and officials involved in the issue, in addition to alternate policies and my thoughts of the problem along with my opinion and thoughts of my ideas for a new policy. To completely understand poverty in the U.S. it is important to understand how poverty is measured in the United States. The U.S. uses poverty thresholds that are issued every year by the Census Bureau. A family is considered poor if its pretax money income is below the poverty threshold (National Poverty Center, 2013). According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census in 2010 the poverty threshold for a single parent of one child was $15,030 and for two children $17,568 (National Poverty Center, 2013). Now the question remains, how many single mothers are below the poverty line? In

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