According to this report from the Urban Institute, the U.S. could reduce child poverty by 60 percent and lift 6.6 million children out of poverty by investing an additional 2 percent of the federal budget into existing programs and policies that increase employment, make work pay, and ensure children’s basic needs are met.
Using the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which accounts for the impact of government benefits and tax policy, and 2010 data, the Urban Institute found that these changes would also:
- Improve the economic circumstances of another 4 million poor children, although not enough to lift them above the poverty line
- Reduce child poverty among children under 3 by 64 percent.
- Reduce poverty among Black children, who suffer the highest child poverty rates, by 72 percent.
- Reduce poverty among single-parent households by 64 percent.
- Reduce poverty among children in non-metropolitan areas by 68 percent.
According to the report, the suggested changes would enable 97 percent of poor children to experience improvements in their family’s economic circumstances. Read the full report here.