Remember it: this is the month and year New York State legislators declared their intent to cut child poverty in half in ten years.
Before the pandemic, poverty affected the lives of one in five New York children and, in some communities—including Rochester, Buffalo, and the Bronx—one in every two children. Before the pandemic, a Black child was two times more likely to live in poverty than a white child. Before the pandemic, New York’s child poverty rate was higher than 31 other states. 2020 was already well-past time to address child poverty.
Since the pandemic, hundreds of thousands more children and families have plunged into poverty. Racial inequities have widened and been laid bare. By March 2021, 31% of New York adults reported it had been somewhat or very difficult to pay for usual household expenses and 24% reported not being current on rent or mortgage, with eviction or foreclosure in the next two months likely.
The Child Poverty Reduction Act S.2755-C (Ramos)/A.1160-C (Bronson) carves the beginning of a path to cut child poverty in New York State. This legislation declares policymakers’ intent to cut child poverty in half in ten years and establishes the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council tasked with developing a plan to do it. The Council will evaluate specific policies and their impacts on child poverty, including racial disparities, make concrete budget and policy recommendations with benchmarks and timelines, and publicly share data to make sure that New York meets its goal.
S.2755-C (Ramos)/A.1160-C (Bronson) went before the legislature with 41 co-sponsors in the Assembly and 24 co-sponsors in the Senate. Legislators’ votes in support were overwhelming and included Democrats and Republicans from rural, urban, and suburban communities that span the entirety of New York State.
Outside of the legislature, nearly 60 partners, coming from all corners of the state and all walks of life, have joined Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy in pushing for passage of the Child Poverty Reduction Act. Enthusiasm for this bold and urgently-needed initiative comes from nurses, pediatricians, parents, educators, child care providers, colleges and universities, community health centers, hospital leaders, child welfare agencies, libraries, youth bureaus, and community-based organizations. These are the people who, every day, see and try to cure child poverty’s ills. These are the people who know it would better for our children, our families, our communities, and our state, if we prevented poverty before it seeded poor health, problems in school, and reduced opportunity.
This law, if signed by the Governor, will be a bridge from today, when we make policy and budget decisions and hope they don’t plunge more children into poverty, to a day when New York is intentional about reducing child poverty and improving equity, by creating an expectation of analysis, measurement over time, and public accountability about whether and how a wide variety of policy and budget decisions affect opportunity and economic security for our most vulnerable children.
Following the Great Recession in 2008, when poverty rates rose, they continued to climb for six years, until 2015, when they finally dipped slightly. This time needs to be—and will be—different, for the sake of every single child and family whether they live in Buffalo, Batavia, or Brooklyn.
There is no time to waste. Right now, there are federal funds available to jump start this effort.
New York certainly has the means to tackle child poverty—it needs the will and the public accountability included in this legislation. When the Governor signs the Child Poverty Reduction Act, New York will signal our shared intention to make budget and policy choices that leave no child behind. Let’s go!
Sincerely,
Kate Breslin President and CEO[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced every one of us—individuals and organizations—to re-evaluate all aspects of our lives, but one thing remains certain: Schuyler Center’s work is as important as ever.
The racial, social, and economic disparities evidenced by this deadly virus cannot be overlooked. It is abundantly clear that the novel Coronavirus does discriminate. A family’s neighborhood, income level, and race and ethnicity are all significant contributing factors to whether someone gets and dies from this deadly disease, and the extent to which their community is affected.
Over the last several months, we have introduced Policy Priorities for Building Back Better: Putting Children in the Center of Recovery. We have effectively shared data which highlights the historical and ongoing racial discrimination in employment, housing, and education, among other realms, causing New York children of color to experience poverty, near poverty, and insecure parental employment, at approximately twice the rate of white children. We have also promoted that New York’s refundable tax credits exclude some of the very New Yorkers most likely to live in poverty, yet this tax policy is among the most effective strategies for reducing poverty. We are excited to showcase our work and thank our incredibly generous supporters with this reportdemonstrating our focus on preventing families from hardship.
For almost 150 years, the Schuyler Center has advanced effective and inclusive public policies that put children and families first. Today we continue to focus on income inequality and its ill effects on the health and well-being of New York families. We hope you will join our fight to shape policy so racial inequalities highlighted by COVID19 don’t continue to exist—with this virus, or the next one.
Wow. What a difficult and uncertain time it has been and continues to be. We hope you and your loved ones are well.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced every one of us—individuals and organizations—to re-evaluate everything: how we rely on each other, where and how we work, and how our goals align with what is happening around and to us.
The health and safety of Schuyler Center’s staff and their families has been a priority. We moved to remote work in mid-March and are constantly improving our systems to work efficiently as a team.
We are extremely grateful to those who support us financially, many of whom have reached out to remind us Schuyler’s work is as important as ever. They have been flexible on grant reporting and timing, and continue to rely on us for insights and practical ways to reduce poverty and inequity in New York State.
Our funders are right—this work—shaping public policy to make it fairer and more focused on those in-need—is as important as ever! We are hopeful that much of the country is coming to acknowledge the same thing. As attention to systemic racism and police violence continues to grow, we are all called to re-examine our implicit biases. The coronavirus has made that abundantly clear over the last several months. The racial, social, and economic disparities evidenced by this deadly virus cannot be overlooked. Coronavirus does discriminate. A family’s neighborhood, income level, and race and ethnicity are all significant contributing factors to whether someone gets and dies from this deadly disease, and the extent to which their community is affected.
Schuyler Center continues to focus on income inequality and its ill effects on the health and well-being of New York families. We continue to examine and make concrete recommendations about strengthening New York’s public health infrastructure. New York has the resources to address these challenges, it needs the political leaders and will to do so. Governor Cuomo, in one of his daily news conferences recently said, “It always seems that the poorest people pay the highest price. Why is that?” Why indeed?
For almost 150 years, the Schuyler Center has advanced effective and inclusive public policies that put children and families first. We hope you will help us with this fight to shape policy so when COVID-19 returns or the next epidemic hits, we’re not again asking what we could have done differently.
In this time of uncertainty, I wanted to personally connect with you over concerns associated with COVID-19 (coronavirus), worldwide, and here in New York State.
Our hearts and thoughts are with everyone affected during this time and we appreciate the health and human services workers; local, state, and national leaders; and individuals around the world who are on the front lines working to contain the pandemic and reduce suffering. Here at Schuyler Center, we are still working daily to ensure that disenfranchised New Yorkers are not forgotten.
In the spirit of our mission, we are continuing to advocate, remotely and relentlessly, with policymakers and implementers — the Office of the Governor, State Legislators, State agencies, and Members of Congress — on issues that affect New York’s children and families. For those already living with low-incomes and at risk of food insecurity or with unstable housing, this time is especially precarious.
Click here to view the letter we sent on March 15, with colleagues, asking New York’s policy leaders to consider the urgent needs of child care programs across New York State, and the families they serve, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Per directives from the Governor that private businesses consider voluntary closings and allow employees to work from home, and that we all practice social distancing, Schuyler Center has closed our physical office and all staff are working remotely. As a team, we check-in with each other daily and we’re working to take all necessary precautions to help slow the spread of the virus by following the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), local health departments, and the New York State Department of Health.
Our decision to move to remote work is a proactive measure and we will still be hard at work in partnership with you.
We encourage everyone to:
Remain communicative with your neighbors, family members, and communities.
Check in on the emotional and mental well-being of your staff and peers.
Wash your hands frequently, using soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
Stay home if you’re sick.
Call your healthcare provider and/or use telemedicine services as a first line of defense.
Help stop or slow down the spread of the virus by practicing social distancing. For a quick smile,see what Mel Brooks and his son had to say about it.
Below is a list of useful resources information that you can call on should you need it. In the meantime, be well.
If you need assistance finding food, paying house bills, accessing free childcare, or other essential services, look here to find your local 211: COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Pandemic
Nearly three million New Yorkers live in poverty and 895,303 of them are children. An additional 643,000 children are in low-income households above the poverty level. That’s over a million New York children living in households struggling to pay rent, heat their homes, get transportation, and feed their children. The US Census Bureau’s most recent data show 11.9 million children living in poverty and that children are 54.4 percent more likely to live in poverty than adults.
Allowing children to grow up in poverty is bad for all of us. A strong body of evidence shows that a lack of family economic security compromises children’s ability to grow and achieve success in adulthood, hurting those children and families and society overall. The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)’s 2019 report concludes that poverty causes negative outcomes, especially if it occurs in early childhood or persists through a large part of childhood.
For more than a decade, the percentage of New York children living in poverty has barely budged, remaining stuck at 20 percent, give or take a point. In some New York communities, child poverty exceeds 50 percent. New York’s economy hums along, with median household income growing each year, and one in five children unable to meet basic needs.
At the same time, the federal government has proposed numerous changes to federal law and regulations, including changes to the public charge rule, and alterations to the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the manner in which the official poverty measure is calculated, that, if enacted, could dramatically roll back anti-poverty supports for children and families in New York and across the nation.
It is time for New York to set poverty reduction targets and meet them. There have been initiatives and pilot programs, but for the last ten years, little measurable progress. The NASEM report concludes that it is feasible to cut child poverty with evidence-based programs and policies. No one single policy is a magic bullet. Policy packages that show particular promise would increase refundable working family tax credits for low- and middle-income people; increase housing vouchers; expand child care subsidies; expand food assistance; replace the child tax credit with a universal child allowance; increase immigrants’ access to safety net programs. Dede Hill, Policy Director at The Schuyler Center, recently presented testimony urging New York to adopt bold strategies to reduce child poverty at an October 21, 2019 Hearing before the Senate Social Services and Aging Communities.
Reducing poverty will require political will. And it will cost money. The data suggests that it will be money well spent.[/vc_column_text]
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