Short Term Gains, but Long Term Challenges for Federally Funded Children’s Programs

Two reports released at the recent Children’s Budget Summit paint a less-than-hopeful picture of the future of federal spending for children’s programs. The reports were produced by First Focus, a bipartisan organization advocating for children and families.

The first report, the Children’s Budget 2010, offers a guide to federal spending on children. The budget notes that spending on kids programs has increased in 2009 and 2010, largely due to dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (a.k.a. the Federal Stimulus) Even with this additional funding, spending on kids programs (ranging from health and education to child welfare and juvenile justice) remains at less than 9% of the federal budget.

A second report, Kids’ Share 2010, noted that overall spending on children’s programs has declined by 25% since 1960, and 10-year projections show a continued decline.

Despite a temporary boost from the Stimulus, children’s programs across the country face an uphill battle. Unless Congress makes children a higher priority and this  increase in funding is maintained, these programs will need to cut back to pre-2009 budget levels, according to First Focus President Bruce Lesley.

How has your organization been affected by the Federal Stimulus?

Tags: Child Health Issues

Posted by Felicity Simmons

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 2:16 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.