Are Programs for Children Getting Their Fair Share of the Federal Budget?
At the end of September, the Urban Institute released a major report, Kids’ Share: Report on Federal Expenditures on Children in 2014 and Future Projections, an examination of our society’s priorities as reflected in the federal budget. Federal programs for children include the safety net for our society’s poorest children and also support for particular programs in the huge institution that has evolved to serve roughly 90 percent of our children, public education. While the new report is relatively technical, its conclusions are not complicated. What was the federal government doing for our children in the United States in 2014, the most recent year for which data is available, and what can be projected for the future, assuming laws and priorities remain the same?
The Urban League concludes: “Federal spending on children has remained fairly flat, in real dollars, over the past three years. Between 2012 and 2014, spending fell for children’s education, nutrition, social services, and early education and care, and increased for children’s health. The largest declines in programs affected by the BCA (Budget Control Act) were in federal K-12 education programs.” Spending on education dropped by $1.8 billion, or 4 percent from 2013. “Other children’s programs with declines include Head Start; the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, child care assistance; and selected social service programs. Not all of this change was due to the BCA. In programs exempt from the BCA, the largest increase was in the children’s share of Medicaid…”
The programs most affected by the cuts are in the category of federal spending called “discretionary.” These are the programs whose funds are set each year by Congressional appropriation, unlike the category of “mandatory” spending which contains all entitlements, including the tax credits and other tax policy benefits. Only discretionary spending was affected by the 2011 Budget Control Act and the sequester that came later, but, “Tax policy (mandatory spending) accounts for 40 percent of federal investments in children. Child-Are Programs for Children Getting Their Fair Share of the Federal Budget? | janresseger:
