Half in Ten
In an exciting and somewhat unusual turn of events, four of the leading progressive organizations on the national scene have teamed up to cut poverty in the United States in half within ten years. The campaign, appropriately named “Half in Ten,” is being spear-headed by the Center for American Progress (CAP), the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), and the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN) and is being chaired by former Senator John Edwards. At first glance, this is a motley crew.
These four organizations, while all well known and progressive, usually do quite different work. CAP is primarily a think-tank and producer of policy papers; LCCR is a coalition of organizations (including the URJ) that works to protect people’s civil rights; ACORN does community-organizing, usually at the local level; and CHN is a loose coalition of organizations (including the RAC) that promote policies at the federal level to help low-income Americans.
That these organizations have come together says something about the changing dynamic of the progressive movement. It shows that the gears are finally churning in unison. Look at the goals of the campaign:
(1) Elevate and sustain a focus on the situations facing the poor and middle class today
(2) Build and strengthen an effective constituency to demand legislative action on poverty and economic mobility
(3) Advance specific legislative and policy proposals that will deliver real benefits to struggling American families
Educate people by putting the issue in the spotlight; build a grassroots movement of people now knowledgeable and committed to the campaign; use this people-powered movement to push for legislation that will cut poverty in half in ten years. Together, these four organizations bring to the table the different qualities necessary to make this campaign work.
Now what would this legislation look like? Is there public policy that actually could cut poverty in half within ten years?
CAP thinks so. They produced a report last year called “From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half.”
The 12 key steps of their plan (omitting the details of each, which are in the report):
1. Raise and index the minimum wage to half the average hourly wage.
2. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit.
3. Promote unionization by enacting the Employee Free Choice Act.
4. Guarantee child care assistance to low-income families and promote early education for all.
5. Create 2 million new “opportunity” housing vouchers, and promote equitable development in and around central cities.
6. Connect disadvantaged and disconnected youth with school and work.
7. Simplify and expand Pell Grants and make higher education accessible to residents of each state.
8. Help former prisoners find stable employment and reintegrate into their communities.
9. Ensure equity for low-wage workers in the Unemployment Insurance system.
10. Modernize means-tested benefits programs to develop a coordinated system that helps workers and families.
11. Reduce the high costs of being poor and increase access to financial services.
12. Expand and simplify the Saver’s Credit to encourage saving for education, homeownership, and retirement.
One aspect of the Half in Ten campaign may give one pause, however: its chairman. As the vice presidential candidate for the Democratic Party in 2004 and a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, John Edwards is by no means a non-partisan actor. In many ways, he is a great pick. He made poverty the centerpiece of his 2008 campaign (and somewhat less so in his 2004 run); between campaigns, he headed the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Regardless of the accusations of hypocrisy that he faced in his 2008 run, the man is clearly associated with the cause of ending poverty. Finally, he’s got name recognition. But he is a Democrat through and through, which hurts the non-partisan credibility of the campaign. That said, CAP is also strongly associated with the Democratic Party and no one would accuse the other organizations of being bastions of conservatism, so perhaps it does not matter.
What does matter is that this campaign is a-brewing. Hopefully in ten years poverty will be cut in half. And then a new campaign can begin to cut poverty in half. And then another. And another…
If you want to get involved, sign up to get email updates from the campaign; if your congregation wants to get involved, contact one of the organizations leading the campaign, or the RAC—we’ll be keeping an eye on this.