chanel
Silver Member
City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. wants to hold fathers responsible for their children's well-being. Vallone intends to introduce a resolution in the council urging the state to require a father's name on a child's birth certificate before a mother is eligible for public benefits.
Start with the fact that, as Vallone notes, "more than $5 billion in child support has gone uncollected" in New York.
Vallone says unmarried fathers "can get away with not including their names on birth certificates -- making it easier to stay completely out of their children's lives, especially financially. A mother is also eligible for state child-care benefits without ever acknowledging a father.
Even more important than the measure's financial impact is what it can do for kids. As President Obama himself observed two years ago: "Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime, nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.
Read more: Time to ensure dads are in kids' lives--Editorial - NYPOST.com
This should be a model for every state in the union. Comments?