Non-Profit Soapbox

RANDOLPH COUNTY, N.C. – Living in rural North Carolina, Linda Sue Jones doesn't see her teenage son as the archetype of a national trend.

But 15-year-old Josh, as a boy who lives in the South in a household headed by a single woman, is characteristic of the exploding numbers of children in the USA living in poverty — numbers exacerbated by the recession that has pushed many families into poverty for the first time.

Click here to read more...

On Monday, the Obama Administration released its budget proposal for 2013. While not every federal children's program is funded at the levels needed, the budget makes substantial new investments in areas supported by ECM. Specifically:

• Early care and learning – The budget supports a deepening investment in the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge to build statewide systems of high-quality early learning and development to close the school readiness gap. The budget includes over $8 billion for Head Start and Early Head Start to serve 962,000 children and families, maintaining the expansion which began in 2009. The Budget provides $300 million in new resources to improve child care quality and prepare children for success in school.
  

• Child nutrition – The budget provides full funding to support the 9.1 million individuals expected to participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC) program. The budget supports continued implementation of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which  increases children's access to healthy meals and snacks.
  

• Reducing child abuse and neglect – The budget provides $2.5 billion over 10 years in new funding for states that show im­provements in measures of child welfare outcomes, including child abuse and neglect. The federal incentives would help states finance in­novative services and continuous improvement in foster care.
  

• Child Poverty – The budget permanently extends expansions of the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit to provide a larger credit to 11.8 million families with 21.3 million children. The expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit is worth up to $600 for families with three or more children, benefitting 5.8 million families with 12.5 million children.
  

• Children with Disabilities – The budget provides $8 million for the Special Olympics, which aims to increase participation among people with intellectual disabilities in social relationships and other aspects of community life.
  

• College Affordability – The budget maintains a commitment to the 10 million students who receive Pell Grants by sustaining the $5,635 maximum award. The budget proposes to make the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent. AOTC helps more than 9 million students and their families afford the cost of college.
  

The President's budget proposal now goes to Congress. It represents a good first step, but children need your support if it is to become law. Please contact your Representative and Senators and tell them you support a federal budget that invests in children. This is particularly important in 2012 as Congress must make tough budget choices or every children’s program could be cut by almost 10% next year because of agreements Congress made in 2011. We oppose any effort to cut Head Start, child care, nutrition, or any other program that promotes child well-being. The needs of children are in competition for the same resources with much more powerful forces in the Congress. It is more important than ever to make your voice heard: click here.

During an interview last week in which Mitt Romney announced his apparent lack of concern for the very poor because “We have a  very ample safety net”, Mr. Romney appears to turn his back on the nation’s 16 million children—22% of all children—who live in poverty. We suspect Mr. Romney wishes he could retract and reframe his response.  No matter.  Mr. Romney commendably says he wants to assist America’s struggling middle class, but the working poor and their children also are struggling. One big reason is because an already overburdened safety net is failing to contain the explosive growth in poverty caused by 2008’s economic meltdown. But even prior to 2008 our poorest children were struggling. For more than a decade every credible examination of child well-being in the rich democracies ranks the U.S. near the bottom. Sky high rates of imprisonment, child abuse, and school dropout are all highly associated with child poverty.