Child Support

* Regarding your Sept. 1 editorial in support of a county crackdown on deadbeat dads: Might more deadbeat dads cooperate if they knew that the child-support payments which they would be making were, indeed, going to benefit their children?

I was surprised to learn that a custodial parent has a right to receive child-support payments, but the deadbeat dad has no right to an accounting as to whether the payments are spent on behalf of a child. I have become aware of a custodial parent’s unusual priorities with regard to child-support payments.

Of course, the courts cannot micromanage a custodial parent, but there must be a reasonable middle ground to encourage payments by deadbeat dads and to assure the interests of a child.

VAN AJEMIAN