Published in The Day
Feb 15, 2025 5:00 PM
Success for the revolutionary campaign to End Child Poverty in Connecticut Now will admittedly take a while. The Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut and its more than 100 partners behind this goal estimate that “now” means the next 8-10 years.
But the work is already underway, with life-changing possibilities for an estimated 80,000 children “now” and long-lasting rewards for everyone in the state.
A decade is not forever. In Connecticut it often takes that long or far longer to build a bridge or pay off a state bonding debt or get to the end of a lawsuit. Because such weighty projects are worth the effort and the wait, people are willing to see them through.
It is also true that child poverty seems to be a constant in human history. Skeptics may say that it will always be with us because it always has been.
What is different now is that — despite the effect of federal funding cuts on direct aid and state grants — Connecticut has the tools to make child poverty a thing of the past.
Given the wherewithal, there is no acceptable excuse for not trying. The statewide partnership of foundations, child advocacy groups, colleges and universities, health care systems and other institutions, has a plan. The partners are asking lawmakers and the governor to see the big picture, not only for children and families but for schools, towns, high school graduation rates, the job market, higher education and the state’s future wellbeing.
Four strategies are on the table. Here’s where they stand as the legislature gets down to budgetary nuts and bolts:
· Child Tax Credit. This strategy had a two-year run at the federal level as part of the pandemic relief legislation. Proposed is a refundable state tax credit of a specified amount per child for families with limited assets. There are three bills currently before the legislature, with proposed credits to parents for up to three children. The version that would do the most good the soonest is House Bill 5986, proposing $600 per child.
· Universal free school meals program. Also not a new idea, this has been tried by cities such as New London where the percentage of children who qualified under the existing guidelines was sufficiently high to make it simpler to offer meals free to all students. A program open to all also eliminates identifying a family’s ability to pay.
· Expansion of “just cause” exceptions to eviction, to protect families with young children from suddenly losing the stability of their homes. Hand in hand with an increase in affordable housing throughout the state, this would lessen the number of children forced to change schools mid-year and prevent cases of homeless young families. It would be a boon to learning, one of this year’s hot issues locally and nationally in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic.
· And — checked off as already adopted in the last session of the legislature — an expansion of the entitlement for paid sick days that working parents can use to care for sick children.
For those who worry that ensuring nutrition, stable housing and the ability to care for sick children is something too close to socialism, these goals will probably raise red flags. The Day urges people who are dubious to take a longer view, in which children no longer fail because of food or shelter insecurity, and parents can make a living and raise healthy, well-educated adults who, in turn, will be able to earn a good living and support their own families.
The partnership, and The Day, see the End Child Poverty Now initiative as an investment that will show results in terms of more high school graduates ready for job training or higher education; fewer unproductive youths and adults; and a more skilled labor market. The returns will more than compensate for the investment, and Connecticut will be doing the right thing because it can.
