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.

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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.

The financial costs for victims and society are substantial. A recent CDC study, The Economic Burden of Child Maltreatment in the United States and Implications for Prevention found the total lifetime estimated financial costs associated with just one year of confirmed cases of child maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse and neglect) is approximately $124 billion.

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Adults who participated in a high quality early childhood education program in the 1970s are still benefitting from their early experiences in a variety of ways, according to a new study.

Click here to read more about why investing in early childhood education is essential!

The New York Times Economix Blog gives us a rundown of how voters in every state choose how much to spend on public programs benefiting children, with telling results. Click here to read more...

Every Child Matters has published a similar report titled Geography Matters. Click here to read more...

Members of the US Congress have come back to Washington DC as their Christmas recess has come to a close. We wanted to give you a few items of business that took place at the end of last year before we head to the pressing budget issues of 2012 and the election.

Congress Passes Omnibus Fiscal Year 2012 Appropriation Bill

In December, the House and Senate agreed to a $915 billion bill (H.R. 2055) that funds the nine remaining appropriations bills covering a wide range of government activities including defense, foreign aid, children’s services, public health, education and training, veterans, the environment, and homeland security.

The largest of the non-defense appropriations bill is the one that funds Labor, Health & Human Services (HHS), and Education programs.  It will provide $156.3 billion for FY 2012, $1.1 billion below the FY 2011 level.  Programs critical to low-income families that received additional funding include the Community Services Block Grant, funded at $714 million, an increase of $12 million above last year’s level, Head Start, funded at $8 billion, up $424 million over last year’s level, and the Child Care and Development Block Grant which receives a $60 million increase to $2.3 billion. The maximum Pell Grant award is maintained at $5,550.

Last year, five infants in California died as a result of whooping cough.

The California Health Department declared an "epidemic" and urged families to vaccinate their children.

Last month, new numbers were released showing the poverty rate at its highest point in at least two decades. An inoculation would be handy.

Politicians love children. We believe that to be true because they say it all the time (you know, things like "children are our future"). They also showcase their own kids during commercials, campaign with them if they're old enough, and even kiss babies when they get the chance.

So why, when they make their policy decisions and set their public priorities, do so few of our elected officials offer specific plans -- as they routinely do for budget cuts, military spending and an array of other matters -- for how they would provide children with better medical care, enhanced educational opportunities or increased prospects for success, for instance by reforming the foster care system so that more boys and girls can stop shuttling from home to home and can, instead, move into permanent, loving families?

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Americans are much more likely than citizens of other nations to believe that they live in a meritocracy. But this self-image is a fantasy: as a report in The Times last week pointed out, America actually stands out as the advanced country in which it matters most who your parents were, the country in which those born on one of society’s lower rungs have the least chance of climbing to the top or even to the middle.

Mitt Romney has stated he believes "the government should level the playing field to create equal opportunities,” but where is the evidence that he or his party cares at all about equality of opportunity?