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Does the U.S. value children at all? Senate Republicans recently voted to block a child tax credit expansion supported by the House of Representatives. This bipartisan compromise would cut taxes for working families, including low-income families with multiple children, and according to nonpartisan estimates, would lift 400,000 children out of poverty. The earlier expanded tax credit under the Biden administration kept over 3 million children out of poverty, bringing child poverty to a record low before it expired. Despite its abundant resources, the United States cannot take this step to combat child poverty. This represents not just a failed child tax credit expansion or congressional dysfunction, but also a moral failure by the United States to value its children.
In the U.S., 16 percent of children or 11 million kids live in poverty, while one in six children under 5 (3 million preschoolers) are poor, the highest in any age group. This is an abysmal record for the richest country in the world. Child tax credits effectively combat child poverty and support those most in need, while also boosting the economy. Yet the Biden administration's child tax credit was not renewed, while expiring Trump era tax cuts will leave children with poverty at their doorstep.
Simultaneously, the U.S. birth rate is in a historic decline. Economic stability depends on rising generations, as does care for the current population in old age. Many Republicans embrace pronatalist policies and support a certain vision of the family, while Democrats advocate for social policies in support of children and families, including the child tax credit in Minnesota Governor Tim Walz touts as a signature accomplishment. An expanded child tax credit thus has bipartisan as well as broad public support, but still cannot get passed in Congress.
Despite their importance for the future of society, families and children receive little state support in the United States. Once born, children receive no public attention or support except in the direst cases. The labor of parents, caregivers, and disproportionately female workers providing child care or early education is either completely uncompensated or barely compensated with low wages, demonstrating how little their important work is valued. Not until children reach school age do any basic government services apply to all children, for just part of the day, leaving working parents to scramble for additional care. Support for all children, through an expanded child tax credit or child allowance, optimally supports children and helps ensure support reaches all children and is not stigmatized or complex to secure. It also demonstrates that society values each child, while supporting hardworking parents and caregivers doing the work of raising future generations.
It doesn't have to be the way it is. In fact, the U.S. is an outlier in its lack of support for children. Other developed countries, including in Europe and across the world, demonstrate that they value children through their social policies. Many support families and children from before birth by providing universal health care, including prenatal, childbirth, and postpartum care.
In Sweden, families receive generous paid parental leave of 1.5 years, as well as paid leave to care for a sick child. As I experienced myself moving to Sweden with young children, every child is guaranteed a place in a high-quality government-run day care within three months of applying and at a minimal cost, due to state subsidies. Schools in Sweden provide afterschool and summer care for children at low cost to parents. Moreover, all parents receive a monthly child allowance for each child until they become eligible for state stipends and low interest loans to support them while pursuing higher education, which is free. Such policies not only support families and invest in children and their future, but also communicate that society values children. By comparison, passing an expanded child tax credit seems a very small thing.
Expanding child tax credits admittedly adds expense to strained government budgets. However, a child tax credit or allowance is the single most effective solution to lift children out of poverty—investing in children's formative years reaps lifelong dividends, including for society. It therefore more than pays for itself and is unrivalled in cost effectiveness.
It is time for lawmakers of all stripes to work together to demonstrate that the U.S. values its children by permanently expanding the child tax credit and adopting other social policies to support children and families. Vice President Kamala Harris has highlighted the need for a care economy, saying that she believes in "a future where no child has to grow up in poverty" as well as "paid family leave and affordable child care." Keeping children out of poverty and valuing all children, who represent the future of the country, ought to be a universal priority and something on which all can agree.
Sara Pankenier Weld is a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, president of the International Research Society for Children's Literature, and a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
