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More than a billion people around the world lack access to safe drinking water, and their numbers are growing. To make matters worse, 40 percent of Earth's inhabitants — nearly 3 billion people — have no sanitation services, often forcing them to sully the little fresh water they have. In the United States, copious rains finally have brought relief to many water-starved parts of the country, but the West and Southwest continue to suffer from last year's severe drought. The drought has intensified the ongoing struggle between thirsty urban centers in the West and rural communities fighting cities' efforts to tap their pristine rivers. Environmentalists say conservation can alleviate the water shortages, but others contend privatization of water supplies and more investment in technology offer the most hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States is the only industrialized nation that fails to assure universal access to basic health care. Nearly 39 million people -- mostly adults and children in wage-earning families -- lack health insurance. Nor does holding onto a job guarantee coverage. Seven of every 10 Americans depend on their employers for their insurance, but in today's tight economy employers are chipping away at benefits, compelling employees to pay more of the cost and even eliminating coverage entirely. Four health-care proposals are being considered in Congress, but all would provide only limited benefits. Critics of universal coverage say the nation can't afford to insure everyone. But health-care advocates say the nation's piecemeal approach to insurance doesn't keep Americans healthy -- and costs more in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As U.S.-led forces continue to wage the Bush administration's war on terrorism in Afghanistan, calls are mounting for the United States to attack terrorism on another front: by boosting foreign aid. A coalition of international humanitarian agencies wants America and other industrial nations to double their aid levels as a way to alleviate the poverty, disease and illiteracy they say fan the flames of terrorism. They focus their call on the United States, which spends less on aid, as a percentage of national income, than any industrial nation. But critics say foreign aid has done little to improve living standards in the developing world, often lines the pockets of corrupt government officials and doesn't address the true causes of anti-U.S. sentiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

President Bush wants to require public schools to test all students in grades 3-8 in reading and math every year. Bush says testing will help teachers to improve student achievement and allow parents and public officials to hold schools and school districts accountable for their performance. The proposal has bipartisan support in Congress and seemingly broad approval from the public. But many educators say the emphasis on testing forces them to spend too much time on test preparation at the expense of more important learning. Some advocacy groups also say that standardized testing has a built-in bias against minority youngsters. And Democratic lawmakers oppose Bush's voucher-type plan to allow students at "failing schools" to use federal aid to attend private schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long U.S. economic expansion has been a boon for housing. Prosperity has driven the homeownership rate to a record 67.7 percent, putting two-thirds of the country's households into their own homes. By all measures, Americans are better housed than at any time in the country's history. Yet, there's a black lining to this silver cloud: For millions of Americans -- many of them middle-class families -- it is impossible to find decent, affordable shelter. The stock of existing low-cost housing is shrinking rapidly, while production of modestly priced housing is stalled. Meanwhile, wages at the bottom quarter of the earnings scale haven't kept pace with housing inflation. An economic slowdown isn't expected to drastically ease what some call an affordability crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New government statistics show that amid the nation's prosperity 31 million Americans --including 12 million children -- suffer from hunger or face the risk of hunger. Most are minorities and single moms with children. Food-bank operators say that as housing costs continue to rise and wages stagnate, many working families with children are forced to line up at food banks to feed their families. Meanwhile, participation in the federal food stamp program has declined by more than 7 million persons over the past three years. Skeptics say the decline proves that the hunger problem is exaggerated, but advocates for the hungry blame the lower participation on tightened eligibility criteria and red tape. Indeed, they say overcoming skepticism about hunger is one of the biggest problems they face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosecutors traditionally measure their success in convictions and tough sentences. But locking up the bad guys doesn't always lead to lasting reductions in crime in poor neighborhoods. Some prosecutors believe poverty, poor education and a neighborhood atmosphere of neglect just keep breeding new criminals. Saying they want to prevent crime before it starts, some prosecutors are setting up after-school programs to keep kids out of gangs, demolishing abandoned buildings to prevent drug dealing and attending neighborhood meetings to learn local concerns. But critics question prosecutors' qualifications to solve social problems. Moreover, they ask, if prosecutors become champions of purely local interests, will they neglect their duty to prosecute the worst criminals? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin America has made great advances toward democracy over the past decade. Mostcountries are now accustomed to relatively free elections and peaceful transitions of power. But poverty rates and economic inequities remain high in many countries. And even though political violence has subsided in the region, crime rates are high. Some democratic governments are too weak to deal effectively with civil-disorder issues, and many are rife with corruption. Critics say that Peru and Venezuela illustrate the continuing threat to democracy from authoritarian or stridently populist leaders. But Mexico's election of a new president from the opposition party provides a hopeful sign for democratization in the United States' closest Latin American neighbor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The child-poverty rate has declined slowly since 1993, and the rate of black child poverty is the lowest in history. But 13.5 million American children still live in poverty -- the highest rate of any industrialized country. Conservatives attribute the decline to welfare reform, which forced millions of single welfare mothers to go to work. But child advocates like the Children's Defense Fund say that progress in reducing child poverty has slowed markedly and that cuts in social service programs made the poorest families poorer. Meanwhile, child advocates question why states are amassing huge surpluses in federal welfare funds and why food banks and homeless shelters are seeing more and more children of the working poor, even as Congress dawdles in raising the minimum wage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet is revolutionizing the world economy, but some parts of the global village are being left behind. The growing gap between the information-rich and the information-poor means many rural and low-income areas -- and much of the Third World -- could lose out on jobs and economic development. Many public-private partnerships are trying to bridge the digital gap. In addition, President Clinton plans to seek up to $50 million in grants to help poor families get on-line, and pressure is growing to make high-speed Internet access universally available. But critics argue that lingering government regulations are preventing the free market from solving telecom access problems. And some in Congress want to scale back the popular "e-rate" program, which subsidizes Internet connections at schools and libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asthma, a chronic breathing disorder, is rapidly increasing in the United States and many other industrialized countries. Asthma affects more than 17 million Americans, including more than 5.3 million youngsters, and the incidence rate has nearly doubled since 1982. Experts disagree about the causes of the epidemic-like increase, but many now believe the most important factors are indoor air contaminants that trigger the allergic reaction associated with asthma attacks. Medications can relieve asthma symptoms and control the inflammation of the airways that causes asthma, but asthma advocates say some doctors are not aggressive enough in prescribing treatments. Meanwhile, researchers are looking for more effective treatments and trying to determine the origins of the disease in hope of finding a cure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because states rely heavily on local property taxes to fund education, richer districts can raise more money than poorer districts. As a result, students in low-income districts often attend overcrowded, underfunded schools offering woefully inadequate educations. State courts generally have split evenly on the question of whether unequal funding is constitutional, but a new generation of lawsuits is challenging not only the equity of funding but also the adequacy of the education being offered to students. Meanwhile, some educators are asking whether wealthier districts should be forced to aid poorer districts, and even whether increased spending on education boosts academic achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This month, Florida could adopt the nation's first statewide tuition voucher program. The Florida plan would give students at "failing" public schools state-funded "opportunity scholarships" that could be used to attend any school of their choice, including private religious schools. At least four other states are considering similar legislation. The constitutionality of using taxpayer money to send children to parochial schools was left unclear when the Supreme Court refused to hear a case challenging the voucher program in Milwaukee. Opponents say vouchers siphon money from struggling public schools. Furthermore, they argue, there is no definitive proof that student performance has improved in districts with voucher programs. But public support for vouchers and other school-choice plans appears to be growing, especially among minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When homelessness began attracting national attention in the early 1980s, U.S. cities initially responded by providing the barest of accommodations -- a roof and one meal. That response was borrowed from the past, when the typical homeless person was a white, middle-aged alcoholic. But today's new generation of homeless is young, poorly educated and increasingly composed of families, often from minority groups. Many also suffer from severe mental illness or substance abuse. To help such people, providers are building small, resource- centered facilities designed to change peoples' lives, even if it means singling out those individuals with the motivation to improve. Critics say this approach discriminates against the hard-luck cases. Others say the emphasis should be on preventing homelessness in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States spends more money on health care per person than any other country. Yet an American baby is less likely to reach its first birthday than a baby born in 21 other nations. Experts trace the problem to the inability of pregnant women from poor families to get early and continuous prenatal care. Without it, doctors can't screen for potentially serious medical problems. If untreated, these conditions can cause birth defects, the leading cause of infant death in the United States. Early prenatal intervention also can help pregnant women improve their diets and stop abusing alcohol, tobacco and other drugs that greatly increase the chance that they will give birth to low-birthweight infants, which are far more likely to succumb than other babies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Well over a decade after the federal government banned most leaded paint and ordered leaded gasoline phased out, the number of children defined as victims of lead poisoning is actually growing. That's because health officials now know that even low levels of lead can cause serious permanent neurological problems. They also know that particles of lead -- one of the most toxic substances in the environment -- can be found almost anywhere, often spread by tailpipe emissions from cars that used leaded gasoline. Critics of efforts to control lead poisoning say not enough is being done and that children -- particularly minority children living in run-down inner-city housing -- are needlessly suffering from what health officials call the most preventable of all childhood diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politicians across the country are pushing proposals that use welfare benefits to try to change the behavior of families receiving government assistance. Wisconsin's "Learnfare" program, for example, cuts a family's welfare benefits if children skip school too often. A new law in New Jersey will deny additional benefits to single women if they have more children while on welfare. Welfare advocates call such proposals punitive and question their effectiveness, but the public appears to approve of the idea. The debate over what is often called "the new paternalism" comes as welfare rolls are reaching record levels. As the political season heats up, candidates in both parties are promising further reforms of the welfare system, but the exact shape of those changes -- and their effects -- remains to be seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toxic-waste dumps, sewage-treatment plants and other pollution sources rarely are found near middle-class or affluent communities. Inner-city neighborhoods, rural Hispanic villages and Indian reservations are far more likely to suffer. But a burgeoning new movement is helping poor communities across the country to close the door on unwelcome dumps and factories. Charging that they are victims of environmental racism, activists are winning court battles on the ground that siting polluting facilities among disadvantaged people violates Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But business representatives and residents of some affected minority communities say that the movement is stifling their opportunities for economic development and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gap between the incomes of poor and wealthy citizens is larger in the United States than in any other industrialized country. Last year, for the first time in almost two decades, low unemployment and increases in the minimum wage helped boost the earnings of Americans at the bottom of the pay scale. But tax policies and the use of stock options as part of corporate executives' compensation packages are helping to divert a growing portion of the nation's wealth to the richest Americans and away from the poor and the middle class. If the current economic boom continues, unskilled workers and those at the low end of the compensation pool will continue to benefit, experts say. But the disparity in Americans' incomes is not likely to disappear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An influential report last year presented a blistering indictment of public education in America, especially the quality of teacher training. The National Commission on Teaching & America's Future said bold steps are needed to professionalize the nation's 2.7 million public school educators. Supporters of that view, including lawmakers, education experts and national teachers' unions, are pushing initiatives ranging from toughening licensing standards to eliminating poorly performing teachers. Advocates hail the new emphasis on teaching as unique in the long history of attempted education reforms. But some skeptics say that reforming teaching without making more fundamental changes in the nation's public schools won't accomplish nearly enough. Others question where the funding would come from. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime has been going down in the United States since 1991. In New York, Fort Worth and other cities, police are cracking down on quality-of-life offenses like public drinking and aggressive panhandling and claiming credit for the big drops in violent crime that follow. But New York, traditionally a high-crime city, is responsible for a big chunk of the nationwide decline. Skeptics credit the declining statistics to the improving economy, the fading of the crack wars and the maturing of the baby boomers, rather than new policing tactics. The only way to drive down crime in the long run, these experts argue, is to mend the nation's social fabric, especially racial and class disparities in education and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public schools have gone to greatlengths in recent years to improve educational services for students who had previously been neglected, such as low-income pupils or youngsters with disabilities. But they have paid less attention to providing special instruction and programs for gifted students. Advocates of gifted and talented education say schools are failing in their responsibility to help their brightest pupils achieve their full potential and are squandering a valuable national resource needed to compete in a global economy. But critics of gifted education say special programs for gifted youngsters benefit only a small, predominantly white and middle-class minority of students and divert resources and political support from broader educational reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In one bold stroke, the federal government has terminated its 61- year-old welfare program and given the states the leading role in charting welfare policy. But Washington also has made clear that it expects the states to help many more welfare recipients go to work. This adds up to an enormous challenge for states. Welfare-to-work efforts and public employment traditionally have cost more than simply writing benefit checks for welfare recipients. But federal spending for training and welfare promises to decline over time. Moreover, states will have to face the prospect that many welfare recipients could eventually lose welfare benefits completely, even though they may be unable to find jobs that pay enough for them to become self- sufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feed the hungry, teach the illiterate, transport the elderly, staff the museums - the quintessentially American willingness to lend a hand is demonstrated annually by 93 million volunteers. Giving of oneself has long been a way to build civic-mindedness and learn about the world beyond one's back yard. But in the current climate of shrinking government, volunteerism is emerging as more than just a conscience-comforting avocation. Lawmakers are counting on a new burst of commitment to offset pending cuts in social service, education and community development programs. But what is the proper role for government in promoting volunteerism? Conservatives are wary of too much bureaucracy and a "politicized" agenda. Liberals see government as a necessary catalyst that plugs holes in the social safety net. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States boasts the world's most advanced emergency medical system. But over-reliance on the emergency room for non- emergency needs - particularly by the poor and uninsured - has long prevented the specialty from being a hospital profit center. The movement toward managed care has prompted health insurers to seek cost savings by steering patients away from the emergency room except in true emergencies. Specialists worry that their prerogatives in defining such emergencies may be superseded by non-specialists reviewing cases after the fact. They also argue that emergency departments deserve ongoing financial support because, without universal health insurance, the emergency room will remain the only source of health care for many Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifteen years after homelessness emerged as a national issue, experts still disagree on how many people are homeless, what causes homelessness and whether other Americans are losing sympathy for the homeless because of "compassion fatigue." Local ordinances targeting the homeless suggest that sympathy is indeed declining. At the same time, opinion polls show strong support for publicly funded programs to help homeless people get back on their feet. The Republican-controlled Congress, meanwhile, seems intent on overhauling the nation's welfare system in ways that could add to the woes of the homeless. Some welfare-reform advocates argue that private caregivers could make up for reduced public aid. But churches and charities say their resources already are stretched to the limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. economy is in its fifth year of recovery. Profits are up, interest rates are under control and unemployment is low. But the glowing statistics tend to overshadow a troubling increase in the number of working Americans living in poverty. While higher-income workers have enjoyed a steady improvement in earnings, the poorest workers are losing ground. What's more, their prospects for climbing beyond the bottom rung of the career ladder are dimmer than ever, because advancement in the new technological age depends increasingly on skills most poor workers lack. As Congress prepares to enact cuts in social programs from Medicaid to welfare, the working poor may find new holes in the safety net of public programs they count on to make ends meet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of schools are rushing to get on the information superhighway. They view the ability to navigate telecommunications byways as vital to survival in the information age. Added impetus comes from school reformers, who say computer networks can link schools to the "real world," bring vast new stores of information into classrooms and teach children to become lifelong learners. Skeptics see the current fascination with technology as an expensive diversion and warn that the inherent conservatism of schools will thwart the reformers' dreams. The outcome may hinge on whether Americans accept the reformers' vision of a complete overhaul of the education system, and whether society matches its zeal for installing computer hardware with a commitment to train teachers to use it effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflecting widespread dissatisfaction with the national welfare system, Bill Clinton pledged an "end to welfare as we know it" during the 1992 presidential campaign. Now it appears unlikely that Congress will act this year on the welfare reforms proposed by Clinton. That means the states will continue to set the pace on reform. In recent years the states have been experimenting with a wide range of programs -- from limiting benefits to two years to denying additional benefits to welfare parents who have more children. Some observers say these and other state experiments, typically being tested in one or two counties or communities, will show the country what works and what doesn't. But others question the use of states as testing grounds at the expense of people in need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charitable groups are approaching the giving season with a mixture of perennial optimism and concern about new public wariness. The aftershocks of last year's scandal over executive perks at the United Way are still rippling through the nonprofit community, while a slow economy has forced many employees and corporations to reduce giving. Critics from the left and right continue to raise age-old questions about deserving and undeserving poor, the appropriateness of workplace solicitations and the responsibility of the wealthy to donate more generously. Criticism, however, has been part of the charity world for centuries. Many groups, among them the venerable Salvation Army, report that the American tradition of philanthropy -- unique in all the world -- is alive and well. GRAPHICS: Photo, Salvation Army bellringers are welcome at shopping malls, according to a recent poll. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the usual stereotype, public housing provides shelter primarily for drug dealers and gang members -- in teeming high-rises where decent tenants live in fear. While many "projects" are indeed troubled, most facilities around the country provide safe, clean and affordable accommodations for nearly a million and a half low-income families. Over the years, however, severe budget cuts and the targeting of apartments to very-low-income families have turned many housing developments into isolated, and racially divided, warehouses for the poor. The Clinton administration is tackling some of the problems head on. It is proposing a new rent structure and expanding on innovative ways to integrate and clean-up the projects or, in some cases, to move tenants into better suburban neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vaccinations can prevent many childhood diseases that once killed or permanently injured thousands of youngsters every year. But in the United States today, millions of preschool-aged children have not received all of the recommended immunizations against such scourges as polio, diphtheria, whooping cough and measles. To close the immunization gap, President Clinton in February outlined a plan to provide free vaccinations to more children and help public health agencies improve outreach. But Clinton's plan carried a hefty price tag. It also came under fire from vaccine manufacturers, who disputed the president's contention that they were to blame for the increased cost of immunizations. Clinton cut back on his plan for universal vaccine distribution, and now Congress is considering other changes before taking final action on Clinton's program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After years of decline, teen birthrates in the U.S. began rising in the late 1980s. This disturbing trend distinguishes the United States from Canada, Sweden and other developed nations, where a higher proportion of adolescents postpone childbearing to continue their educations. More young teenagers are having sex, but their use of contraceptives is inconsistent. The link between childbearing and marriage is becoming increasingly tenuous as growing numbers of women in all age groups choose to become parents without husbands. Some observers blame the welfare system for fostering out-of-wedlock births, while others believe that hopelessness about the future is the root cause. Most experts agree that reversing the trend will not be easy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When President Lyndon B. Johnson and War on Poverty chief R. Sargent Shriver launched Head Start with great fanfare in 1965, there was confidence the preschool program would start impoverished children on the road to success. Now, with President Clinton poised to expand the program to serve every poor child in the nation, experts question whether Head Start children actually experience lasting benefits. Serious questions have been raised about virtually every benefit claimed for Head Start -- educational, social and health-related. Even Head Start's defenders are disturbed by the poor quality of staff and facilities at many centers. The prospect of more than doubling federal spending on the program has intensified the debate over boosting enrollment versus improving quality for a limited number of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]