{"id":509082,"date":"2022-01-29T11:38:46","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T16:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=509082"},"modified":"2022-03-10T12:51:59","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T17:51:59","slug":"brain-based-arguments-to-reduce-child-poverty-miss-the-point-509082","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/brain-based-arguments-to-reduce-child-poverty-miss-the-point-509082\/","title":{"rendered":"Brain-based arguments to reduce child poverty miss the point"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study<\/a> concluded that babies of poor mothers who received cash stipends experienced changes in their brain activity patterns. Advocates for the now-expired child tax credit hope the finding will help restore support for this and other federal anti-poverty programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot so fast,\u201d writes Mical Raz<\/a>, a professor of history and health policy at the University of Rochester<\/a>, and a practicing physician, in a Washington Post<\/em> op-ed<\/a> published in the newspaper\u2019s \u201cMade by History\u201d section. \u201cThis line of argument suggests that ending poverty in its own right is not a sufficient goal and that improving the brain function and biology of poor babies should drive policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raz draws on her own research while also tracing the history of anti-poverty policies in the US such as Project Head Start. She asks:<\/p>\n

If poor children\u2019s brains are \u201cimproved\u201d from cash benefits, does that imply that their brains are biologically inferior to begin with? Presenting social science interventions as having the potential of \u201cfixing\u201d poor children\u2014and among this group the overrepresented number of children who are from minority backgrounds\u2014has the distinct risk of fueling a debate about whether some children and families are innately and immutably inferior.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Based on a wealth of evidence, working to reduce child poverty is good policy in itself, she argues. With nearly 11 million US children<\/a> living in poverty, a rate far higher than in peer countries, \u201cthese children deserve better, and their advocates don\u2019t need to rely on the shape of children\u2019s brain waves to make that case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raz is the University\u2019s Charles E. and Dale L. Phelps Professor in Public Policy and Health, professor of history, and a physician at the University\u2019s Strong Memorial Hospital. The author of What\u2019s Wrong with the Poor? Psychiatry, Race, and the War on Poverty<\/em> (University of North Carolina Press, 2013) and Abusive Policies: How the American Child Welfare System Lost Its Way<\/em> (University of North Carolina Press, 2020), Raz is an expert on the history of US poverty and child abuse policies over the last half century.<\/p>\n