Protecting Children in Tough Economic Times | First Focus

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			June 21, 2011
	NEW REPORT Protecting Children in Tough Economic Times: What Can the United States Learn from Britain? A few months ago, First Focus chronicled the U.K.’s successful campaign to effectively halve child poverty in ten years. In recent years, though, the U.K. has been hit just as hard as the U.S. by the global economic crisis and subsequent recession, and as a result, their budget – as is ours – is now under serious pressure. Yet, it terms of maintaining budgetary priorities, the two countries are quite different. At a Congressional briefing hosted last Thursday by Senator Bob Casey, First Focus, and the Foundation for Child Development, a new report was released on the divergent responses. The report’s author, Jane Waldfogel documents the concrete steps taken by the U.K. to maintain its commitment to reduce child poverty in the midst of deficit reduction – even following a change in government to a coalition led by the Conservative party. These include a set of income support policies and investments in early childhood and K-12 education. It is important to note that despite these protections, the U.K. is still instituting severe cuts across the public sector – the deepest many have ever seen – and the longer-term effects on child poverty remain to be seen. Indeed, a member of the U.K. media featured at last week’s event cautioned against relying on the government’s rhetoric alone – highlighting the need for advocates, opposition parties, the media, and the public to maintain pressure on the government to keep its commitment. The political and legislative processes in the U.S. tend to treat the cost of spending on children as an economic loss in the present, rather than an economic investment in the future. This needs to change. Whether through an appeal to morality, economic rationale, or even an appeal to national pride (if the U.K. can do it, why can’t we?), we need to build will and build an agenda around protecting and investing in children in our federal budget. · Read the press release. · Download the report. · Read a blog post about this report *** First Focus wishes to acknowledge the Foundation for Child Development for their generous support to make this report and briefing possible. ***		RESOURCES FROM OUR BRIEFING: Last week, First Focus, in conjunction with Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) and the Foundation for Child Development hosted a Congressional Briefing to discuss the findings outlined in this report. Click here to review presentations and resources from the event.
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