Walter Smith is the executive director of D.C. Appleseed, an advocacy organization working to solve policy problems affecting District residents. Most recently, it released a 200-page report on the D.C. government’s child support system, which, after two years of research, it found to be dysfunctional.
How does a broken child support system affect student achievement and school improvement?
The one thing the District is not doing well is its child support program, and there’s a direct connection between parental support and a child’s ability to succeed in school. Over 65 percent of the kids in Washington, D.C., are in child support, many more than are in the public schools. But by and large, they’re the same kids. And last year, more than one in four of the kids who should have gotten child support didn’t get any.
What’s the first move you would make to improve D.C.’s child support program?
The first thing I would do is recognize that the child support program doesn’t fit the demographics of the city. We have primarily designed a program to go after deadbeat dads. And though there are many deadbeat dads, there are many more dead-broke dads. We’ve got to have mediation services. We’ve got to have job training. We’ve got to have links to parental support. We’ve got to design a program that will give fathers an opportunity to reinvolve themselves in their children’s lives.
Does the D.C. child support bureaucracy need an overhaul?
A lot of what needs to be done to have a successful child support program is going to involve a coordination of many agencies of the District government, for example, the Department of Employment Services.
How do you choose which issues demand D.C. Appleseed’s attention?
We look for issues where we think there is a need for a thorough, objective independent analysis and where we think the issue lends itself both to finding answers and the chance to succeed through a concerted advocacy effort.
