Reuters reported April 19 that the U.S. poverty rate is twice that in Canada and Germany, and six times that in France, Belgium and Austria. "Parents are in the work force but are not able to earn enough to lift them out of poverty," said the CDF's Susan Martinez. "We need to get people into higher-paying jobs and get them good child care, good health care and other things."

The report noted that poor families spent about 35 percent of their income on child care, compared to 7 percent spent by other families.

In some ways, the state of childhood has improved: the CDF report said more children are covered by health insurance, and the juvenile crime rate has fallen. But only 31 percent of American 4th-graders read at grade-level. And 3 million children were abused or neglected last year, with up to 80 percent of them involved in alcohol or other drug abuse. Only one in four received treatment.

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