In his economics column, the New York Times’ Eduardo Porter highlights a proposal developed by nine poverty scholars for a universal child allowance. Porter explains the motivation behind the idea:
How can it be that the United States spends so much money fighting poverty and still suffers one of the highest child poverty rates among advanced nations? … We may spend a lot of money, but we don’t spend it well.
The scholars estimate that their plan, which would reconfigure the Child Tax Credit and child tax exemption, could cut the child poverty rate by 40 percent.
Mobility Partnership members Hirokazu Yoshikawa and Kathryn Edin are two of the plan's co-authors. A paper detailing their proposal will be published in an upcoming issue of The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. Yoshikawa will lead a webinar on the topic on November 22. Click here to register for the webinar.