America has proved that we can take care of our most vulnerable children, our families, our future.
But only when we want to.
Wartime? Economic crisis? Global pandemic? We’re on it.
“Children all too frequently go without sufficient and proper nourishment while rent, gas, and shoe bills are paid,” wrote Lucy H. Gillett, in the November 1936 edition of the Journal of Home Economics, just as the nation established a federal school lunch program to combat hunger and malnutrition in children during the Great Depression.
When Rosie Riveters left their homes to manufacture weapons during World War II, the federal government created a fantastic network of free and high-quality child-care centers. When mom picked the kids up after work, she even got a foil-wrapped, hot dinner to eat at home.
As the global covid-19 pandemic shut down jobs, schools and child-care centers, legislators created the American Rescue Plan, a lifeline that kept families from plunging into eviction, joblessness and hunger and helped stabilize child-care centers.
“We learned, at that time, if we want to solve child poverty, we help provide resources to families,” said Rachael Deane, who heads Voices for Virginia’s Children, a nonprofit sounding the alarm over the steep cliff the state’s children and families are about to fall off as federal funding programs end.
All told, our policy responses cut child poverty in half.
But as soon as each crisis that spawns good policy was over — after Wall Street recovered, after Japan surrendered, after the coronavirus was subdued — the funding was abruptly cut. And families, children in particular, suffer.
The figures on child poverty released this week should be a gut punch to every American.
A year ago, the rate was the lowest we’ve ever seen — just 5.2 percent. We were in Scandinavian territory, y’all, at the cost of about 100 F-35 jets annually.
For the roughly $12 billion a year it cost to expand the child tax credit, we ensured stability for millions of Americans.
So what did we do?
We killed the program, pushing millions of kids back into poverty and more than doubling the rate to 12.4 percent.
The consequences of our pandemic support ending were swift and enduring, for children and for those who care for them.
Parents are especially struggling to find affordable child care, as the places that provide it, once bolstered by pandemic aid, struggle to survive.
The challenge is even more pronounced for shift workers, single parents, student parents and families of color, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which found the cost of care for a single child averaged $10,600 a year in 2021.
When covid threatened the already janky network of child-care centers available to parents, the nation finally stepped into action and expanded benefits to child-care centers. It worked.
In fact, some of these centers not only survived — they thrived for the first time.
“We are doing our best to serve our communities, and ours here is a fairly low-income area,” said Juanterria Browne-Pope, who owns and runs Kidz with Goals, a 40-child day-care center in Hopewell, Va.
A mother of three who had a hard time finding affordable day care that worked with a nurse’s schedule, she opened the center with two other nurses as a solution to their child-care quandary.
The margins in her business were razor thin, and Browne-Pope had to keep pulling night shifts as a hospital nurse to keep her center open, ending that job at 7:15 a.m. just in time to do her second job caring for kids.
But the pandemic, it turned out, was good for her business, thanks to funding from the American Rescue Plan.
“Eleven months,” she said. “For 11 months I didn’t have to work two jobs.”
She was able to quit her night job and pay herself a living salary at her center. She bought new playground equipment and van accessible to those with disabilities. She gave her workers small raises and even offered a scholarship to families hit hardest by the pandemic.
That’s all ending in two weeks, when that federal funding ends and insurance rates for her center rise. Her penalty for staying in business taking care of kids? She took out a personal loan to prepare for the cliff her business is facing.
It’s a cascade effect when a single, proven program ends because politicians argue against it. Let’s look at what that means in numbers, according to a report by the Century Foundation.
In Virginia alone:
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88,265 children will lose their care
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1,383 child-care programs will end
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2,861 child-care workers will lose their jobs
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Virginia families will lose $280 million in earnings because they have to cut hours or quit jobs without child care
All for what?
On Wednesday, a group of Democrats introduced the Child Care Stabilization Act of 2023, a bill calling for $16 billion to firm up the nation’s collapsing child-care system.
“The lack of affordable child care in America is holding our families, workers, and economy back,” one of the bill’s backers, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), said in a statement.
So far, none of the Republicans — not even the ones branding themselves as “pro-baby” — have supported the bill.
It’s not an American problem, it’s a Republican problem.
Because of how Republicans have rigged the system, it being a Republican problem necessarily means it’s an American problem.
I sincerely doubt either side, Republican, Democrat, or 3rd party actually cares about the children.
No, it is an America problem.
Red plus Blue equals The Party. And our collective federal government has made this.
Its not the government its the PEOPLE, quit scapegoating the horrible apathy on the representatives that are just doing what they are demand to by their horrible constituents.
Oh ya.
I see all those constituents out there protesting for lowered taxes in the rich.
Get your head out of your ass dude. America is an oppressed nation. Oppressed by the corrupt government. Placated by the myth that your vote means anything.
I know its not a popular message but I say it with honesty; the public sucks. Ignorant people worthy of being peasants. They cling to their superstitions, pitchforks, and the scraps that they have been allowed to have. It’s garbage in, and garbage out.
Democrats love to virtue signal then do nothing, at least Republicans are honest about the fact they are heartless peices of shit.
“Honest” is not a word that I would use to describe the last Republican party of the last 10 years or more.
It seems futile to try and guilt people into doing the right thing when one political party in the US is actively campaigning against helping and feeding poor children.
“Why would we subsidize a free lunch for school kids? Their deadbeat parents should get fourth and fifth jobs!”
Kids: Freeloaders.
- this msg brought to you by monsters
I agree but also More money for more kids isnt a great policy for sustainability either.
the Time to ration having kids was like 40 years ago but I know people like their little budding ponzi participating youths to keep our retirement benifits from faltering. Guess its cool we can to pump and dump our population once we reach crit mass, all because freedom, so I guess that’s something.
Moral of the story we damned if we do and damned if we dont. But I opted for vasectomy at 22 as having no kids is my solution to not being able to feed them. Pick your poison
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There isn’t a lack of will. The will is being used to suppress black folk. No less than three Presidents have floated national health care, but they can’t discriminate against black folk, so everyone suffers.
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That money that’s going to kids and families who need it is money that’s not going directly to people who are already rich, and as such can only be made available during dramatic crises. Boring, ongoing crises, like the housing crisis and the poverty crisis and the climate crisis don’t count.
Only crises that affect the bottom line quality
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Remember, if a US elected politician ever says something along the lines of “It’s for the kids” or “Think of the children” while trying to pass a law, then it is without a doubt not about the kids.
Lots of things are holding us back.
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Too much risk starting a business. There is no guarantee you will get a job as good as you left if the business fails. You can lose the opportunity cost on investments so you can retire or cover a major expense. Health insurance is usually provided by jobs, so you risk access to medical care.
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Health insurance is provided by employers. Changing job carries risk of getting insurance that will screw you over or have more out of pocket costs than any raise can make up for.
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Housing costs are so high moving is risky. Buying a place to live at these levels could land you underwater if the market crashes.
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Transportation almost requires a car, which are money pits even if you get a reliable car that is efficient and you DIY maintenance. You still need parts, insurance, registration, taxes, and fuel. Driving in the United States of Asphalt sucks because traffic jams are frequent in many areas. Since it is practically mandatory, you get to share the road with high people, irresponsible people, people driving cars that are unsafe to even look at, sleep deprived people, and people that for whatever reason can’t drive well.
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Child care. We get so little parental leave that isn’t even paid leave and pay out the ass for early childhood care. If you have more than 2 small children, it is probably cheaper to hire a private nanny.
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Shitty shit. Shitty toys. Shitty furniture. Shitty appliances. Shitty clothes. Shitty shingles. Shitty carpet. There is a lot of shitty shit out there that should never have been made that is long term more expensive than good shit. All that shitty shit filling our shitty houses that we drive home in shitty canyoneros took energy and materials provided by or extracted using fossil fuels. Then it was shipped using fossil fuels. Then when a fire/tornado/hurricane/whatever wrecks our shitty shit we have to pay a shitty insurance deductible and a higher shitty premium.
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America can take of it’s entire population, every single person within it’s national boundaries regardless of their status and situation and make them the healthiest, happiest, most well off people on the planet … the country just doesn’t want to
Stop thinking of America as a singular entity that makes decisions. Think of it as millions of individuals scratching and clawing to get everything they can.
I think it’s more like a few hundred individuals scratching and clawing to get everything they can (and do) … while the rest of the millions just try to get by.
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Most success is built on hereditary and inheritance.
If you are born poor … chances are very high that you will stay poor … sure there are success stories but the majority of the poor stay poor all their lives, no matter how hard they work.
If you are born wealthy … chances are very high that you will stay wealthy … and chances are also high that you will become even more wealthy. None of it based on talent, hard work, experience or ability … it’s all based on luck of the draw.
Ever played video games? What happens when your character spawns with all powerups, weapons, supplies and equipment fully loaded? It’s a pretty fun game and you get to go pretty far. What happens when your character spawns in a death trap, surrounded by hostile characters and you have no weapons, no equipment and no wealth? It isn’t fun and you’ll probably end up getting killed pretty fast or you end up struggling through the game for hours before you get do anything enjoyable.
Everyone likes to talk about success stories and that one off person that worked like a dog to become a millionaire … no one ever likes to talk about the endless millions and billions of people that work far more than they have to and never scratch their way out of poverty.
To be fair America could solve most of its problems if it wanted to. The politicians are just owned by too many private/corporate entities and choose to blame the other side instead of fixing what needs to be done.
We are in a rare moment in American history with no active wars, legal or otherwise.
Any Pentagon funding is going into the scary black box terrorization of other countries that, at this point, we are only doing to spend up armament from bloated military contract deals.
That aside, we still don’t fairly tax the rich.
Shit…
Worth pointing out when the religious right wing tries to re-brand “Pro-Life” as “Pro-Baby”.
It’s actually more accurate than pro-life, but it’s still as absurd as calling a car a giant cup holder.
Man, you phrase it like that and I am TOTALLY Pro-Cupholder. LOL.
Republicans: we love fetuses. Babies can go fuck themselves with a pineapple, but we loooove fetuses.
It’s creepy, really
You want to end child poverty, easy make both their parents earn livable wage with which they can sustain a family .
who is against that & labor protection and unions >> both parties
Brought to you by the WaPo, owned by the world’s third richest person, Jeff Bezos.
What?
Jeff Bezos bought the Washing Post 10 years ago. An article on child poverty that is a result of corporations like Amazon aggressively avoiding or lobbying to pay almost no taxes is the height of twisted irony. Good on his writers and editors having the backbone to do it, you’d think he might have trouble sleeping but apparently not.
People like to pretend he has editorial control
2 cherry-picked OP EDs don’t prove anything lol
This is the best summary I could come up with:
When Rosie Riveters left their homes to manufacture weapons during World War II, the federal government created a fantastic network of free and high-quality child-care centers.
But as soon as each crisis that spawns good policy was over — after Wall Street recovered, after Japan surrendered, after the coronavirus was subdued — the funding was abruptly cut.
For the roughly $12 billion a year it cost to expand the child tax credit, we ensured stability for millions of Americans.
“We are doing our best to serve our communities, and ours here is a fairly low-income area,” said Juanterria Browne-Pope, who owns and runs Kidz with Goals, a 40-child day-care center in Hopewell, Va.
On Wednesday, a group of Democrats introduced the Child Care Stabilization Act of 2023, a bill calling for $16 billion to firm up the nation’s collapsing child-care system.
“The lack of affordable child care in America is holding our families, workers, and economy back,” one of the bill’s backers, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), said in a statement.
The original article contains 898 words, the summary contains 170 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
