Maryland CS guidelines

The November 4 Washington Post contained a story about a proposed
increase in Maryland child support guidelines. The following is an
e-mail that I sent to the reporter who wrote the story.




"There's a great deal of misunderstanding about child support.
Your story was clear and well-written, but in any future stories you
write about child support, I hope you will keep in mind the following
three points:

"(1) Apparently, Maryland officials are talking about "the first
increase in 20 years in recommended child support payments." However,
the fact is that the state's existing CS guidelines (like those of
most states) are tied to the incomes of parents. See
http://www.dhr.state.md.us/csea/help.php. So if parental income
rises, the child support amounts rise with it. If, on top of this,
the numbers in the state guidelines are raised, non-custodial parents
are being told that the state doesn't care about their ability to pay,
which is linked to their income levels.

"(2) Because of the continued glass ceiling on paternal custody,
child support is nearly always money that fathers pay mothers. This
one-way flow of funds has very significant political repercussions. In
most states, fathers are effectively ignored when changes in child in
child support are under consideration. It would be worth talking to
fathers' representatives in Maryland in the context of any future
stories on this subject. (Incidentally, if Maryland is like other
states, there is no requirement that all, or even any, of the child
support be spent on the children.)

"(3) You may want to consider asking Maryland child support officials
about the proportion of cases in which child support is being paid by
mothers to custodial fathers. Many like to skate over this aspect by
habitually talking about 'non-custodial parents' in this context.
However, it is very likely that in Maryland only a handful of fathers
are receiving child support -- because (a) only a small number of
fathers have custody, and (b) many fathers consider themselves lucky
to get custody of their children, and do not also seek child support
from their exes."