Congratulations on becoming the President of the United States! Being President of the United States is a big responsibility, and there are many issues to address. Poverty is one of these issues. I personally think it is a really big issue because it just doesn't affect people in other countries, it affects people all over the United States. Poverty is when a person can't make ends meet. Everyone should be able to live a decent life.

The poverty rate keeps rising. The New York Times states,"The poverty rate rose to 21.2 percent in 2012, from 20.9 percent the year before meaning that 1.7 million New Yorkers fell below the official federal poverty threshold." According to the Huffington Post, studies revealed 45.6 percent of New Yorkers are barely making ends meet." As a resident of New York this concerns me. People should be able to make enough money to pay bills, insurance, to buy clothing, housing etc. 

Can you believe that some kids who live in poverty don't even graduate from high school? "The longer a child lives in impoverished neighborhoods the greater risk that they won't graduate from high school" according to a recent study by the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This is terrible. If a kid does not graduate from high school, he/she can not go to college. Without a college education, he/she can not get a decent paying job.  So these individuals will continue to live in poverty for most of their lives unless we do something about it.

There are many ways that we can reduce poverty. The Michigan College Access Network is trying to create free scholarships to college for students who are living in poverty. This is called "Promise Zones". If more people had an education we could break the cycle of poverty. I think that this idea is something that all states should explore. I urge you to look into funding projects like "Promise Zones" to help reduce the poverty level nation wide.

A concerned citizen,

Amanda