March 8, 2019. The human costs of child poverty are staggering. Experiencing poverty as a child – even for short stints – can impair brain development, physical and mental health, and academic achievement, and increase the possibility of child welfare involvement. And the impacts can last a lifetime. Childhood poverty is the single best predictor of adult poverty.
Child poverty also imposes extraordinary economic costs to the state. A report just issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine estimates that child poverty costs the nation $800 billion to $1.1 trillion annually in reduced adult productivity, increased costs of crime, and health expenditures associated with children growing up in poor families.
And yet this Executive Budget – like nearly every Executive and Enacted budget in the last decade – contains no bold investments in policies proven to reduce child, family and young adult poverty.
There is still time for New York to take real steps this year toward reducing child and young adult poverty.
Click here to read the report by the Fiscal Policy Institute, the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, and the Children’s Agenda and to learn about the policy recommendations from these organizations.