More than one in six of all the children in the United States from ten to sixteen years of age are employed in some gainful occupation — that is, in working for wages for some employer. That comes perilously near the child of any reader of these pages. The margin of safety is too small. The danger to democratic institutions, which must depend on the vigor and intelligence of our citizenship, is too great. Child Labor strikes at the roots of democracy, and presents the greatest moral issue the American people have had to face since the Civil War. Our States cannot afford to let individuals enslave themselves before they have reached the age of discretion. —Samuel McCune Lindsay, in Woman's Home Companion for September (1906). [Cited in The Public, October 13, 1906.]
In 2006, 17.4% of our children lived below the poverty level. (In 2006, the FPG for a family of four was $20,000; for 2009, it is $22,050.)
In 2006, 20.7% of our children under 6 years lived below the poverty level, and 43.3% lived at less than 200% of the FPG.
I don't have drop-out rates at my fingertips, but do you doubt that there is a correlation?
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