DeAnne
Mike CrowlHillary Clinton’s Plan to Reduce Child Poverty
February 28th 2008 19:32
Giving Every Child a Chance
Hillary Clinton’s Plan to Reduce Child Poverty
Fighting to give every child the chance to live up to his or her god given potential is the cause of Hillary’s life. It is the reason she entered public service as a young staff attorney working for Marian Wright Edelman at the Children Defense Fund. It has been a driving force behind her commitment to serving her country for the past 35 years. But when nearly 13 million children go to sleep every night living in poverty, it offends the core notion of America as a land of opportunity. Despite our country’s wealth, the U.S. has the highest rate of child poverty among all industrialized countries.
Today, Hillary is offering a plan to address this blight on our nation’s conscience and our economic future. She announced two bold new goals an ambitious agenda to deliver real solutions for children in poverty and their families. Hillary’s plan will move America towards:
* Cutting child poverty in half by 2020 - lifting at least 6 million children above the poverty line.
* Ending child hunger by 2012, providing nourishment to the 12.4 million children who currently go hungry.
To achieve these goals, Hillary will:
* Close the early opportunity gap with a comprehensive Zero-to-Five education initiative, including nurse home visits, early Head Start, child care and universal pre-K;
* End child hunger by strengthening the food stamp program, improving our food safety net and providing greater access to healthy, fresh food;
* Provide economic opportunity to low-income families by raising the minimum wage, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and new job training opportunities; and
* Strengthen our families by working to prevent teen pregnancy, support responsible fatherhood, and make sure child support payments go to help lift children out of poverty.
The Problem
Today, 12.9 million children live in poverty and roughly five million children live in extreme poverty - that is, in families with incomes of less than half the poverty level. Child poverty has actually increased under the Bush Administration. Poverty is especially prevalent among African-American and Latino children. One third of all African American children and 28% of all Latino children live in poor families, compared with 10% of white children. Nevertheless, 35% of all poor children are white, making them the largest group of children living in poverty. And while we celebrate America as a place where an individual’s circumstances of birth should not determine his or her life chances, the fact is that economic mobility is now in decline in America. Children born in poverty are likely to live in poverty their whole lives. A Pew Charitable Trusts study found that the United States now has less economic mobility than most advanced nations. The policy initiatives outlined below are designed to restore America’s commitment to economic mobility and give every child a chance in life.
Hillary’s Plan
A $1 Billion Child Opportunity Fund to Promote Innovative Solutions to Reducing Child Poverty. Across the country, communities and states are overcoming odds and finding innovative ways to reduce child poverty and strengthen families’ economic circumstances. Yet too often these programs remain isolated in one region or community because there is neither the capital nor the communication necessary to bring them to scale. To address this issue, Hillary will create a $1 billion Child Opportunity Fund, which will identify and invest in the most promising practices and apply rigorous evaluation approaches to ensure tangible results. The fund will be designed as a public-private partnership. The government will leverage federal dollars by soliciting contributions from private sources and requiring that states provide a match for projects supported through the Child Opportunity Fund. And the fund will be run based on social venture capital principles, challenging promising programs to go to scale and produce real results.
Setting a Bold Goal of Ending Child Hunger by 2012: 12.4 million children in America - 17% of all children - live in households considered to be food insecure. Research shows that preschool and school-aged children who experience severe hunger have higher levels of chronic illness, anxiety, depression, and behavior problems than children with no hunger. As President, Hillary will formally charge the Secretary of Agriculture with developing and implementing a plan to end child hunger by 2012. She will recommend several steps to achieve toward that goal, including:
* Fixing the Food Stamp Program. The average benefit in the food stamp program is only $21 a week per person and many people end up receiving only $10 a month. The take-up rate is far too low - about one-third of eligible families aren’t enrolled in the program. And because of out-dated asset rules, many low-income families have to spend down all but $2000 of their assets before they can qualify for food stamps. Hillary will reform the food stamp program. She will raise benefit levels, reform the asset test rules, and ensure that the program allows families to access a healthy and complete diet.
* Making the School Breakfast Program Universal for All Children in Lower-Income Communities. Ensuring that children have breakfast in the morning is vital to reducing child hunger and improving student learning. Research confirms that students who eat school breakfast increase their math and reading scores and have improved memory in cognitive tests. The current School Breakfast Program provides much-needed support to some children, but many who are eligible for the program do not participate because they don’t want to identify themselves as poor. Hillary will make the School Breakfast Program available on a universal basis for all children in low-income communities, serving an additional four million children. Hillary’s plan would make expand access to school breakfasts to 350,000 children in Ohio.
* Doubling the Summer Feeding Program. Hunger doesn’t take a summer vacation. When school lets out for the year, millions of children lose one or two of their major sources of food. The Summer Food Service Program helps meet that need but today it serves only 1.9 million children, compared with 9.6 million in the School Breakfast program and 17 million in the school lunch program. There is a tremendous amount of unmet need. Hillary will double funding for the program over time, and invest a portion of the expansion in outreach campaigns to make sure families in eligible communities know that meals are available for their children.
* Getting the Junk Food Out of Schools. For low-income students, junk food in schools often displaces healthier food because they have more limited food budgets and are less likely to obtain healthier food elsewhere. Unfortunately, junk food contains virtually no nutritional value, contributes to higher rates of obesity, and reduces students’ ability to concentrate, learn and be successful in school. Hillary will require schools that participate in the school lunch or breakfast programs to make available only foods that meet or surpass USDA nutrition standards. In doing so, she will ensure that children living in poverty receive at least one nutritional meal per day. Hillary will also provide financial assistance to help schools make the transition to healthier food.
Make a Comprehensive Commitment to Zero-to-Five Education and Family Support: Hillary knows that the only way we are going to give every child a chance in life is to start them out right. As president, she’ll launch a major Zero-to-Five initiative that includes:
* Nurse-Home Visitation for Every New At-Risk Mother. Building on her long history of working to expand home visiting programs in Arkansas and First Lady, Hillary will expand The Nurse Family Partnership program, one of the most proven interventions for improving child outcomes for at-risk children. This program sends qualified nurses to meet with first time, at risk, pregnant women to help them maintain their prenatal health and develop their parenting skills. Over fifteen years this program has achieved stunning results: 48 percent less incidence of child abuse and neglect; an 83 percent increase in workforce participation by low-income unmarried mothers; 69 percent fewer convictions at age 15; 56 percent fewer doctor and hospital visits due to childhood injuries through child age; and a 25 percent reduction in cigarette smoking by mothers during pregnancy. As president, Hillary will ensure that every new at-risk mother is offered access to this valuable intervention.
* Tripling Early Head Start and Growing Head Start Enrollment by 160,000 Children. Early Head Start and Head Start provides comprehensive services for young children (ages 0-3) and their families living in poverty. These programs provide home visits, health, nutrition, pre-literacy and a strong focus on children’s social and emotional development. As President, Hillary will triple enrollment in Early Head Start, which she helped create when she was First Lady, and grow Head Start’s enrollment by 160,000 children.
* Providing Universal Pre-K. Hillary will provide $10 billion to create a federal-state partnership aimed at making high-quality pre-kindergarten available to every four year old, starting with those living in poverty. Hillary’s plan will enable states that have achieved that benchmark to spend the money on other early childhood development initiatives.
* Expanding Access to Affordable, Quality Child Care. The Bush Administration has essentially frozen the level of child care funding for the last eight years. As a result, the real purchasing power of child care subsidies has fallen significantly. According to the Bush Administration’s own estimates, 300,000 children will lose child care assistance by 2010, and 150,000 have already lost child care assistance since 2000. Hillary will increase child care funding through the Child Care and Development Block Grant and return the program to it’s original intent: to serve working families. She will also work with Congress to reform the Dependent Care Tax Credit to address its shortcomings. And she will improve the quality of child care by investing in:
- Helping states improve and enforce licensing and safety standards;
- Supporting innovative public-private partnerships that increase the supply of affordable, high quality child care for working families;
- Promoting and supporting quality rating systems that help families evaluate programs; and
- Supporting workforce initiatives that help child care providers get the right training.
- Enabling Working Parents to Take Leave to Stay Home with Their Children. Hillary has long supported giving every parent a real choice about whether to stay home and care for their children full time or work outside the home. That is why she is proposing to allow qualifying, low-income parents who want to stay at home rather than place their children in child care to receive child care subsidies through the Child Care Development Block Grant. This program would award grants to states to support stay-at-home parents. Currently, only parents who place their children in child care are eligible to receive assistance to the Child Care Development Block Grant.
READ THE REST OF THE PLAN ON HILLARY CLINTON'S PRESS RELEASE PAGE
Hillary Clinton’s Plan to Reduce Child Poverty
Fighting to give every child the chance to live up to his or her god given potential is the cause of Hillary’s life. It is the reason she entered public service as a young staff attorney working for Marian Wright Edelman at the Children Defense Fund. It has been a driving force behind her commitment to serving her country for the past 35 years. But when nearly 13 million children go to sleep every night living in poverty, it offends the core notion of America as a land of opportunity. Despite our country’s wealth, the U.S. has the highest rate of child poverty among all industrialized countries.
Today, Hillary is offering a plan to address this blight on our nation’s conscience and our economic future. She announced two bold new goals an ambitious agenda to deliver real solutions for children in poverty and their families. Hillary’s plan will move America towards:
* Cutting child poverty in half by 2020 - lifting at least 6 million children above the poverty line.
* Ending child hunger by 2012, providing nourishment to the 12.4 million children who currently go hungry.
To achieve these goals, Hillary will:
* Close the early opportunity gap with a comprehensive Zero-to-Five education initiative, including nurse home visits, early Head Start, child care and universal pre-K;
* End child hunger by strengthening the food stamp program, improving our food safety net and providing greater access to healthy, fresh food;
* Provide economic opportunity to low-income families by raising the minimum wage, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and new job training opportunities; and
* Strengthen our families by working to prevent teen pregnancy, support responsible fatherhood, and make sure child support payments go to help lift children out of poverty.
GIVING EVERY CHILD A CHANCE
Hillary Clinton’s Plan to Reduce Child Poverty
The Problem
Today, 12.9 million children live in poverty and roughly five million children live in extreme poverty - that is, in families with incomes of less than half the poverty level. Child poverty has actually increased under the Bush Administration. Poverty is especially prevalent among African-American and Latino children. One third of all African American children and 28% of all Latino children live in poor families, compared with 10% of white children. Nevertheless, 35% of all poor children are white, making them the largest group of children living in poverty. And while we celebrate America as a place where an individual’s circumstances of birth should not determine his or her life chances, the fact is that economic mobility is now in decline in America. Children born in poverty are likely to live in poverty their whole lives. A Pew Charitable Trusts study found that the United States now has less economic mobility than most advanced nations. The policy initiatives outlined below are designed to restore America’s commitment to economic mobility and give every child a chance in life.
Hillary’s Plan
A $1 Billion Child Opportunity Fund to Promote Innovative Solutions to Reducing Child Poverty. Across the country, communities and states are overcoming odds and finding innovative ways to reduce child poverty and strengthen families’ economic circumstances. Yet too often these programs remain isolated in one region or community because there is neither the capital nor the communication necessary to bring them to scale. To address this issue, Hillary will create a $1 billion Child Opportunity Fund, which will identify and invest in the most promising practices and apply rigorous evaluation approaches to ensure tangible results. The fund will be designed as a public-private partnership. The government will leverage federal dollars by soliciting contributions from private sources and requiring that states provide a match for projects supported through the Child Opportunity Fund. And the fund will be run based on social venture capital principles, challenging promising programs to go to scale and produce real results.
Setting a Bold Goal of Ending Child Hunger by 2012: 12.4 million children in America - 17% of all children - live in households considered to be food insecure. Research shows that preschool and school-aged children who experience severe hunger have higher levels of chronic illness, anxiety, depression, and behavior problems than children with no hunger. As President, Hillary will formally charge the Secretary of Agriculture with developing and implementing a plan to end child hunger by 2012. She will recommend several steps to achieve toward that goal, including:
* Fixing the Food Stamp Program. The average benefit in the food stamp program is only $21 a week per person and many people end up receiving only $10 a month. The take-up rate is far too low - about one-third of eligible families aren’t enrolled in the program. And because of out-dated asset rules, many low-income families have to spend down all but $2000 of their assets before they can qualify for food stamps. Hillary will reform the food stamp program. She will raise benefit levels, reform the asset test rules, and ensure that the program allows families to access a healthy and complete diet.
* Making the School Breakfast Program Universal for All Children in Lower-Income Communities. Ensuring that children have breakfast in the morning is vital to reducing child hunger and improving student learning. Research confirms that students who eat school breakfast increase their math and reading scores and have improved memory in cognitive tests. The current School Breakfast Program provides much-needed support to some children, but many who are eligible for the program do not participate because they don’t want to identify themselves as poor. Hillary will make the School Breakfast Program available on a universal basis for all children in low-income communities, serving an additional four million children. Hillary’s plan would make expand access to school breakfasts to 350,000 children in Ohio.
* Doubling the Summer Feeding Program. Hunger doesn’t take a summer vacation. When school lets out for the year, millions of children lose one or two of their major sources of food. The Summer Food Service Program helps meet that need but today it serves only 1.9 million children, compared with 9.6 million in the School Breakfast program and 17 million in the school lunch program. There is a tremendous amount of unmet need. Hillary will double funding for the program over time, and invest a portion of the expansion in outreach campaigns to make sure families in eligible communities know that meals are available for their children.
* Getting the Junk Food Out of Schools. For low-income students, junk food in schools often displaces healthier food because they have more limited food budgets and are less likely to obtain healthier food elsewhere. Unfortunately, junk food contains virtually no nutritional value, contributes to higher rates of obesity, and reduces students’ ability to concentrate, learn and be successful in school. Hillary will require schools that participate in the school lunch or breakfast programs to make available only foods that meet or surpass USDA nutrition standards. In doing so, she will ensure that children living in poverty receive at least one nutritional meal per day. Hillary will also provide financial assistance to help schools make the transition to healthier food.
Make a Comprehensive Commitment to Zero-to-Five Education and Family Support: Hillary knows that the only way we are going to give every child a chance in life is to start them out right. As president, she’ll launch a major Zero-to-Five initiative that includes:
* Nurse-Home Visitation for Every New At-Risk Mother. Building on her long history of working to expand home visiting programs in Arkansas and First Lady, Hillary will expand The Nurse Family Partnership program, one of the most proven interventions for improving child outcomes for at-risk children. This program sends qualified nurses to meet with first time, at risk, pregnant women to help them maintain their prenatal health and develop their parenting skills. Over fifteen years this program has achieved stunning results: 48 percent less incidence of child abuse and neglect; an 83 percent increase in workforce participation by low-income unmarried mothers; 69 percent fewer convictions at age 15; 56 percent fewer doctor and hospital visits due to childhood injuries through child age; and a 25 percent reduction in cigarette smoking by mothers during pregnancy. As president, Hillary will ensure that every new at-risk mother is offered access to this valuable intervention.
* Tripling Early Head Start and Growing Head Start Enrollment by 160,000 Children. Early Head Start and Head Start provides comprehensive services for young children (ages 0-3) and their families living in poverty. These programs provide home visits, health, nutrition, pre-literacy and a strong focus on children’s social and emotional development. As President, Hillary will triple enrollment in Early Head Start, which she helped create when she was First Lady, and grow Head Start’s enrollment by 160,000 children.
* Providing Universal Pre-K. Hillary will provide $10 billion to create a federal-state partnership aimed at making high-quality pre-kindergarten available to every four year old, starting with those living in poverty. Hillary’s plan will enable states that have achieved that benchmark to spend the money on other early childhood development initiatives.
* Expanding Access to Affordable, Quality Child Care. The Bush Administration has essentially frozen the level of child care funding for the last eight years. As a result, the real purchasing power of child care subsidies has fallen significantly. According to the Bush Administration’s own estimates, 300,000 children will lose child care assistance by 2010, and 150,000 have already lost child care assistance since 2000. Hillary will increase child care funding through the Child Care and Development Block Grant and return the program to it’s original intent: to serve working families. She will also work with Congress to reform the Dependent Care Tax Credit to address its shortcomings. And she will improve the quality of child care by investing in:
- Helping states improve and enforce licensing and safety standards;
- Supporting innovative public-private partnerships that increase the supply of affordable, high quality child care for working families;
- Promoting and supporting quality rating systems that help families evaluate programs; and
- Supporting workforce initiatives that help child care providers get the right training.
- Enabling Working Parents to Take Leave to Stay Home with Their Children. Hillary has long supported giving every parent a real choice about whether to stay home and care for their children full time or work outside the home. That is why she is proposing to allow qualifying, low-income parents who want to stay at home rather than place their children in child care to receive child care subsidies through the Child Care Development Block Grant. This program would award grants to states to support stay-at-home parents. Currently, only parents who place their children in child care are eligible to receive assistance to the Child Care Development Block Grant.
READ THE REST OF THE PLAN ON HILLARY CLINTON'S PRESS RELEASE PAGE
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