From: Nigel Allen <nigel.allen@canrem.com>
Subject: Families Devastated by Shrinking Incomes, Soaring Poverty (3/3)
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 16:15:27 GMT

   A Fair Start

   Enactment of a refundable children's tax credit.  As proposed in
recent months in various forms and amounts by the National
Commission on Children and key members of Congress from both
parties, the federal government should bolster the incomes of
families with children through the establishment of a refundable
tax credit for children.  Such a credit would reduce federal income
taxes for middle- and low-income families and help the lowest
income families that have no tax liability through a tax refund.
   While creating no new bureaucracies, a refundable children's
credit would target tax relief and economic support precisely to
the group -- families with children -- that has been hardest hit by
declining incomes and rising poverty rates since 1973.  The
administration's alternative proposal is extremely regressive.  It
gives $310 to a family with two children if their income exceeds
about $100,000; $280 if it is more than $50,000; $150 if income is
between $15,000 and $50,000; and zero if it is under $15,000.  And
for the poorest of all young families -- AFDC recipients -- the
administration has signaled the states that it will welcome their
cutting benefits for children.
   -- Creation of a child support insurance system.  To combat
extremely high poverty rates among young female-headed families and
to give all single parents the chance to lift their families out of
poverty through work, federal and state governments should join in
ensuring that all children who are not living with both parents
receive a minimally adequate child support payment from the absent
parent.  If adequate payments cannot be collected on the child's
behalf, despite the best feasible federal and state child support
enforcement efforts, the federal government should make up the
difference and guarantee that children do not suffer as a result of
the shortcomings of the child support system.

   A Healthy Start

   -- Health insurance coverage and access.  In the decade of the
1980s, the proportion of employed heads of young families with
children whose employers paid for part or all of their health
insurance dropped by one-fifth, and employers cut back on coverage
for dependents even more than for workers.  The nation must enact
a national health plan to assure insurance coverage for all
Americans.
   Children and pregnant women need basic health care now --
including prenatal and maternity care, check-ups, immunizations,
and care for children who are sick or disabled.  As an immediate
step, the president and Congress must extend Medicaid coverage to
every low-income child and pregnant woman.  Steps also must be
taken to ensure that this insurance provides real access to
essential health services, not merely theoretical coverage.
Necessary steps include universal access to childhood vaccines and
increased funding for community and migrant health centers, the
National Health Service Corps, and other public health activities.

   A Head Start

   -- Full funding of Head Start.  A first step in bolstering the
productivity of our next generation of workers lies in early
investments in quality child care and early childhood development
for America's children.  Every dollar invested in early childhood
development programs saves $5.97 in later special education,
welfare, crime, and other costs.  Head Start and other quality
preschool and child care programs help keep children at grade
level, help children get ready for school, and help prevent the
need for costly special education programs in later years.  Yet
Head Start still reaches only one in three eligible preschool
children.
   As recommended by prominent business groups, educators, and a
broad range of study commissions that have examined the educational
problems of disadvantaged children and youth.  The president and
Congress should act to ensure every child a Head Start by 1995 by
enacting immediately S. 911, the School Readiness Act, and
accelerating the funding increases it provides to boost the
program's appropriation by $2.1 billion this year.
   Numerous other steps, detailed further in the recommendations
section of Vanishing Dreams, are necessary to help today's young
families with children and provide a strong foundation for future
generations.  Increases in the federal minimum wage and other
initiatives to supplement low earnings all would help young parents
support their children through work.  Greater investments in the
skills and productivity of America's future work force through
education and job training programs also are essential, as are
family preservation services to help stressed young families stay
together and better nurture and support their children.  Finally,
the nation must maintain an adequate safety net to protect children
when their young parents are unable to support them by aggressively
pursuing full employment conditions, broadening eligibility for
unemployment compensation, and ensuring that public assistance
benefits are minimally adequate.
   Vanishing Dreams, by CDF analysts Clifford M. Johnson and James
D. Wein and Northeastern University Center for Labor Market
Studies Director Andrew M. Sum, is available for $6.50 postpaid
from the Children's Defense Fund, 122 C St. NW, Washington, DC
20001.
    ------
   Editors Note: Press copies available on request.
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