COVID-19 watch

Tracking Hardship - June 17, 2022

The children are hurting edition. We’ve known for some time that students’ math and reading skills have suffered during the pandemic. This is mostly due to the shift to virtual learning that begun in March 2020. Students – particularly those from families with low incomes, disproportionately Black, brown and Indigenous students – did not achieve as well when they were out of the classroom. The pandemic has led to declines in school enrollment around the nation, which in turn is forcing budget cuts in many school districts – not a good way to repair the damage inflicted on students. But we now are learning more about other ways children are hurting – with more threats on the horizon.

And it’s worth a mention – businesses are hard at work to get tax breaks in any legislative packages that are moving. It would be an outrage if Congress approves corporate breaks while allowing the harm to children to continue. What we need are corporate tax increases to help pay for investments in our children and families – not the reverse.

Kids are hurting because far too many parents are increasingly unable to afford enough food and to pay for other basic expenses. They’ve been hit twice: the loss of monthly Child Tax Credit payments (for a family with two children, that amounted to $550 - $600 per month) and rising costs of basics, including food, rent, and gas. There is a huge body of research to show that inadequate nutrition and poverty make it harder for children to succeed in school, so all these harms are inter-related.

Congress can do something about this – it can renew the Child Tax Credit, and extend school and summer food waivers which are expiring in 13 days, so children can get the food they need. It can keep health care costs down, invest in child care and housing… Right now, none of that is agreed to, because 51 senators are standing in the way. Children are paying the price.

Tell Congress right now: meeting children’s and families’ needs come first, not business tax breaks.

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-13, -22

Students at low-poverty schools that stayed remote during the 2020-2021 year lost the equivalent of 13 weeks of in-person instruction; in high poverty schools, the loss was 22 weeks, with losses for Black and Hispanic students 4-5 weeks higher. Tweet this.

10.1%

Increase in the cost of food in the 12 months ending in May, hitting families with low incomes hard and making it harder for schools and summer food programs to purchase food. Tweet this.

13 days; 30m

The number of days before waivers expire (on June 30) that have allowed higher federal reimbursements for school and summer meals programs and more free meals. Some 30 million children will be affected if Congress does not act. Tweet this.

-26%; +12%

When families were receiving the monthly Child Tax Credit, reports of not having enough to eat dropped by 26 percent; after Congress let the CTC lapse, reported lack of food rose 12 percent, according to Children’s HealthWatch. Tweet this.

42%

42 percent of people living with children in April/May said it was somewhat/very difficult to pay their regular household bills in the previous week. In 4 states (AK, KY, MS and WV) more than half of people with children reported such hardship. Tweet this.

For the full report, click here.

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