Dear Editor,
I would like to bring your attention to an issue that is vital to the well-being of families and children all across America.
The requirement that parents obtain court ordered child support often hurts families and children by exiling the obligated parent. The child support system is fundamentally flawed because it is based on the assumption that you can replace a parent with money.A new study by Child Care Matters, the Department of Public Welfare's 1999 ``Child Support Cooperation Requirement'' has shown that requiring single parents to obtain court ordered child support as a condition of receiving subsidized child care benefits has had disastrous results.
The Press Release detailing the results of the study can be found at: http://www.ancpr.org/court_ordered_child_support_ofte.htm
Three quotes from the study illustrate just how court ordered child support endangers families:
1. Linking the receipt of child care subsidies to the child support "appears to injure the security and stability of the family".
2. "Families resist the court-ordered support system for complex reasons having to do with their assessment of family well-being, and the child's relationship with the father....The result is that these working moms have to choose between maintaining relations with the father or obtaining court-ordered child support."
3. "A large number of families already have voluntary agreements that keep fathers financially responsible and emotionally involved in their children's lives. Of the 92 providers surveyed, 62% said parents had voluntary agreements. Thus, many fathers are providing support for their children outside of the formal legal system. "
Clearly, many families are better off, by their own assessment, making decisions among themselves relative to such issues as how a parent should support his or her children. The government, albeit with good intentions, often gets in the way of the best efforts of parents.
Increasingly draconian child support enforcement procedures are hurting more families and children than they are helping. I urge your readers write to their elected officials in Washington and in our State Capitol, demanding that they oppose any further increase in child support enforcement, and to scale back the extent to which the federal and state governments impose themselves into the private affairs of families.
To facilitate communication with elected representatives on this issue, the Alliance for Non-Custodial Parents Rights, ANCPR, has created a Legislative Action Center which to date has resulted in over 35,000 letters to Congress. For more information on this and other issues having to do with Family Law, I urge your readers to see the website of ANCPR at http://www.ancpr.org.