blog

With the passage of the American Rescue Plan and the proposed American Families Plan, I am encouraged by the increasing inclusion of children’s issues in national-level policy discussions. As we begin shifting from crisis toward recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, we have an opportunity to do better by our kids—to center their needs in our policy decisions and to create meaningful opportunities for young people to have a voice in the programs that affect them.

The American Rescue Plan is the single largest investment made to improve the lives of kids, and its recognition of government having a supportive role in this is unprecedented. Let’s celebrate this historic win for kids, and capitalize on this momentum to build an overall, comprehensive plan to raise the priority of children and young people in our country.

I‘ve said this before, but it bears repeating: children in the United States are not doing well. Our knowledge of how to eradicate childhood poverty is not new; we now have an opportunity, through President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, to address childhood poverty head-on.