This is one in a series of monthly guest columns designed to focus the community’s attention on issues that affect our children. This column is part of a Shelby County initiative to remind everyone, in every aspect of daily life, to Ask First: Is It Good for the Children? For more information, call the Shelby County Office of Early Childhood and Youth at 385-4228 or visit www.shelbycountychildren.org.

Tomeka Hart

In any conversation about the good old days – you know, when children walked 10 miles to school, barefoot, in the snow, uphill both ways – someone inevitably will extol the miraculously beneficial, although highly distasteful, practice of having to down a spoonful of Father John’s every day. Father John’s was the answer to all that ails, and it was given to the children before illness struck to keep them healthy. Now if the children still happened to get sick, Father John’s was also used to treat the illness. Thus, it was a trusted resource for prevention and intervention, and it effectively took care of the babies.

While it appears that the practice of giving Father John’s to children on a daily basis stopped somewhere during the 1970’s, the notion that it is better to be proactive and work to prevent illness, and at the same time be prepared to intervene when it strikes, is still applicable today, and can be applied to situations and challenges facing children beyond physical health.  

According to the Children’s Defense Fund’s “Cradle to Prison Pipeline” report (2007), in America, “a child is abused or neglected every 36 seconds; a child is born into poverty every 36 seconds; every minute a baby is born to a teen mother; (and) black boys born in 2001 (have) a one in three lifetime risk of going to prison….Tens of thousands of children and teens are sucked into the (Cradle to Prison) Pipeline each year.”  

Specific to home, according to the report, an alarming number of children in Tennessee face neglect, physical and sexual abuse each year. Further, according to the Urban Child Institute’s 2009 Data Book, of the 15,000 children born each year in Memphis/Shelby County, approximately 59 percent of them are born to single mothers, and one in four live in poverty.

There is no question that children born to single mothers, who face abuse, and/or live in poverty, are much more likely to suffer the social ills that keep them from being successful at school and life. They often live in poor, broken, and unsafe communities, attend low performing schools, have little to no exposure to quality out-of-school learning activities, have inadequate health care, are constantly exposed to criminal and deviant social behavior, and lack the capacity, resources and encouragement to believe that they can and will succeed.   

Is any of that good for our children? Of course not! We need a Father John’s like treatment for our children. I feel strongly that our children’s Father John’s has to be a great education. Our children deserve the opportunity to thrive, and will do so when we resolve to provide them the best education we can – regardless of where they live or the challenges they face. When we do this, our children will grow into adults who are economically self-sufficient and able to properly take care of their families and their communities.

When we fail at educating our children, it costs us millions of dollars – in spending and loss of income potential. Investing in education would decrease the poverty and crime rates, decrease the cost of healthcare, and reduce the need for more spending on prisons. As the Children’s Defense Fund so aptly puts it, “education costs less than ignorance, preventive health care far less than emergency rooms, preventive family services less than out-of-home care, and Head Start much less than prisons.”

To be sure, when I speak of investing in education, I am not solely referring to more money for schools. Communities invest in education when people step up to mentor and tutor students, and volunteer their time to their local schools in other ways; when faith and community based organizations provide quality out-of-school learning programs; when the community demands quality early childhood programs for all children; when the conversation centers on how education should be adequately funded—not whether it should be; and when communities develop a common vision and comprehensive plan for youth that combats the cradle to prison pipeline by focusing on a conception to career continuum of services.

On average, the Memphis City Schools spends $10,394 annually on each student it educates.  Compare that to the State of Tennessee’s spending of about $23,725 on each prisoner it houses.  Imagine if the expenses were reversed, and then ask – would that be good for children?

(Tomeka Hart is president and CEO of the Memphis Urban League and a member of the Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners.)