A Larger Set of Facts on Child Support Services

Mike Geanoulis submitted the following to be distributed:

In a recent effort to justify the 17 million dollars it spends annually to force obligors to pay court ordered child support obligations or suffer the loss of certain privileges and freedoms, the New Hampshire Division of Child Support Services (DCSS) published, among other things, data showing that 64% of ordered support was collected for all accounts - no small achievement, it would seem. The report, designed to convey a sense of satisfaction for taxpayers fed up with the deadbeat problem, was picked up from the Associated Press by newspapers across the state.

For those familiar with the larger set of facts on the matter, however, the report seemed more like a misleading accounting of failure and ineptitude. (read more to continue...)

Was 64% supposed to be a measure of success? Collections rates were already 59% 20 years ago, when collection services were but a gleam in bureaucrat's eyes. Maybe DCSS could take credit for the increase of 5% over 20 years, but certainly not the 59% proven collectible by the ordinary methods of long ago. Since growing numbers of parents are more involved with their kids these days and so more inclined to pay by those methods, it's entirely possible to make the case that DCSS can take credit for little or nothing.

The average reader was not made aware, moreover, that draconian enforcement services have proven to be, to a considerable degree, unworkable for a variety of valid reasons, not the least of which are parental alienation, unrealistic attitudes about ordinary incomes, and the negative impact on living standards when households split in two - grist for another essay.

Worse still, were the false promises given by the promoters of that self-described "growth industry" to make things better for children and families. Twenty years ago, roughly 20,000 of the state's children were in the old variation of child support enforcement where negligent obligors were summoned and ordered to pay up or go to jail. Children had inadequate living standards then because they were insufficiently
supported, to be sure.

Today, partly because of a child support philosophy that unwittingly promotes single parenting and discounts the value of marriage - an institution long ago discovered to be the best way to incubate the next generation - 40,000 children, or 100% more, are trapped in systemic poverty. Never mind, for the sake of financial argument, the attendant pathologies and low wellness levels associated with unstable conditions, the number of children seeking adequate financial support has roughly doubled over the 20 years DCSS assumed its role of enforcement and collections.

There seems to be a connection between the advent of enforcement services and the increasing numbers of single parents who see independence as a viable lifestyle. Whatever the truth, the fact remains that in absolute numbers, more children are mired in poverty under the purvue of DCSS administrators now than ever before, in spite of, or maybe even because of, the substitute-father role of DCSS, secular progressive attitudes about neo-families, and ignorance about a statistically insignificant increase in collections rates that arguably should have been credited, instead, to growing rates of parental involvement. DCSS should probably give itself credit for nothing except the decay of healthy family formation, growing fatherless rates, and higher numbers of children wallowing in poverty and instability.

Research from the University of Arizona (Braver) shows that obligor parents who feel like parents to their kids can brag of compliance rates exceeding 90%. Parents who feel like parents are more inclined to work harder to support their children. Maybe lawmakers should be made aware of that data so they might revise the way DCSS does business and accounts for their alleged successes.

Actually, we do not need DCSS in its present form. What we really need is a rediscovery of the importance of two natural parents in children's lives and a serious effort to educate young men and women about the
importance of serious commitments as the best way to provide for the children they bring into the world - preferably by way of traditional marriage ceremonies complete with vows.

Mr. Geanoulis is a resident of New Castle, NH. He served on the first NH Governor's Commission on Child Support and currently sits on the NH Commission on the Status of Men.