Daily News editorial: Campaign should focus on childhood poverty

WHILE PONDERING a new report that details the state of children's economic, physical and educational health in the region, we were overtaken by a disorienting sensation. How are we supposed to process this clearly important issue that has implications for November's election when it has nothing to do with tax returns, overweight beauty queens or 3 a.m. tweets?

The report, issued Monday by Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth, is a good reminder that the well-being of this country's children is life-and-death stuff. Fortunately, Hillary Clinton is planning to address issues related to children and families in her local visit Tuesday to Haverford. We hope she gets a look at the report that details the state of child poverty in the suburbs.

Discussions about poverty in general and childhood poverty in particular usually shine a single spotlight on Philadelphia. After all, we have the dubious distinction of the highest level of deep poverty of any major city in the country. Indeed, the number of children living in poverty in the city is staggering: around 130,000. That's been the consistent story about the city for years.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Census announced that the national poverty rate has shown improvement, eight years after a brutal recession. Overall, poverty dropped 1.2 percentage points, the biggest drop since 1999. Median household income rose by 5.2 across the board; that's due not only to more jobs, but more higher-paying jobs.

But that doesn't mean we "solved" the poverty problem. More than half the states showed no gains, and Philadelphia's poverty rate remained unchanged. And while the Philadelphia suburbs have seen some gains, the number of children living in poverty is still a concern.

The PCCY report points out that 48,000 children in Delaware, Mongtomery, Bucks and Chester counties live in poverty, 7,000 more - 17 percent - than were living in poverty in 2009. (PCCY's report on Philadelphia is scheduled to be released in about a month. Find the current report on pccy.org.) While health coverage has improved, educational "health" - in the form of achievement and resources - also has seen a downturn.

By measuring three points of well-being for children, PCCY's report underscores the fact that poverty can't be looked at in isolation from other factors such as health and education; the three are inextricably linked. That's why solving this problem also relies on a set of policies that range from increasing household income beyond the minimum wage, making quality child care affordable, expanding pre-K and better funding the schools.

In fact, it's far more complicated than either presidential candidate has let on. Donald Trump's acknowledgment of poverty is found in shallow promises to expand jobs and his apparent belief that all blacks live in poverty. Clinton has talked about many measures related to poverty like family leave, higher wages and affordable housing, but neither candidate is discussing the larger issue of turning the poverty story around - including which public policies over the last few years have been most successful in achieving the declines in the poverty rate that we learned from last month's census report.

Still, nearly 20 percent of children in this country live in poverty, the largest category of the poor by age. Unless we can address how serious this is, greatness isn't possible for America.