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Hannah Matthews is director of Child Care and Early Education at CLASP. Follow her on Twitter @HNMatthews.
Hannah Matthews
Hannah Matthews is director of Child Care and Early Education at CLASP. Follow her on Twitter @HNMatthews.
Blog Post List
Childcare & Early Education Families & The Federal Budget Family Economic Security Politics & Policy
August 31, 2016
August marks the 20th anniversary of welfare reform , which created the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. As part of welfare reform, Congress also made new investments in the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) recognizing that low-income mothers need help paying for child care so they can go to work. Since TANF’s creation, states have been permitted to spend TANF directly on child care assistance or transfer up to 30 percent of state funds to CCDBG. After cash assistance, child care is the second largest use of TANF funds. This month, the...
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September 18, 2013
Since the early part of the decade, the number of young children – those from birth to 5 years of age – living in poverty in the United States has been climbing. While that number held steady in 2012, according to data released today from the U.S. Census, the poverty report is far from good news. Our babies are still poor. Nearly 6 million young children—one in four children under the age of 6—live in poor households. The rate is higher yet for young Black children and young Hispanic children. What’s more, nearly half of young children live in low-income households that have to manage with...
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October 2, 2012
By the time President Obama and Governor Romney throw out the first punches in the October 3 debate, many of the nation’s 16 million poor children will be fast asleep. Some of them will have gone to bed hungry. Some of them will be sleeping in homeless shelters or substandard housing. Many of them live in distressed communities with few quality jobs available for their parents and struggling public schools. All of them face certain hurdles in academic achievement, employment prospects, and economic success that threaten the long-term economic competitiveness of our country. Children living in...
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May 12, 2012
Mother's Day unifies the nation as we all scurry to find the right Hallmark card, fancy flowers or some proverbial chocolates to honor she who labored us into this world. The treats, however, can't sweeten a bitter fact: our country, while touting that it values families, gives scant evidence of doing so, particularly when it comes to infants and their care. Our public policies in these arenas could, but don't, give mothers (and fathers) who work outside the home what they need to nurture our next generation. To create healthy, thriving families and communities, we should start when children...
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March 1, 2012
Recent headlines related to child care policy have been discouraging to say the least. In California, proposed budget cuts threaten to cut off child care assistance for 62,000 children. Florida proposes to save money by providing child care subsidies only for children under age 5, leaving young school-age children to fend for themselves after school while their parents are still at work. Fewer children and families that need child care assistance get it today than at the beginning of the decade due to reduced income eligibility and growing child care waiting lists, according to a report on...
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January 20, 2012
As this election year continues to unfold, we’ll hear more and more about jobs, creating opportunity and the future of the nation. Children, too, must be part of that dialogue. Thursday afternoon, I participated in the MomsRising live Tweet Chat with the White House on Unemployment Insurance and the Administration’s priorities for families for 2012. Unemployment was front and center because on Feb. 28, federally-funded unemployment benefits will expire for millions of long-term unemployed workers still trying to find jobs in this difficult economy. Struggling families need the benefit of...
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October 11, 2011
Reduced income eligibility, growing child care waiting lists, and low provider payment rates. This characterizes the latest trends in state child care programs according to the National Women's Law Center’s annual report tracking these and other vital child care assistance policies. In most states, children and families that need child care assistance fare worse today than they did a year ago or at the beginning of the decade, according to the report. Perhaps the starkest example of the downward trend in child care policies is the decline in the amount paid to providers to care for children...
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October 5, 2011
Protestors rallying on Wall Street are making news as much for the 700 arrests that happened last weekend as they are for being a nascent movement without a clearly defined vision. Participants say they are protesting a host of things, from lack of opportunity and jobs, to Wall Street excess and economic inequality. Who knows whether the movement will flame or sizzle, but as of now it’s picking up steam and additional rallies have occurred or are planned in Boston, Washington D.C. and Chicago , Seattle, and other cities. These rallies and underlying reasons for them have made us think more...
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August 18, 2011
Stark increases in child poverty and other important indicators serve as colossal warning signs that this country needs to think about how a generation of children will be prepared to succeed in life. On Wednesday, The Annie E. Casey Foundation released its annual KIDS COUNT study, a compilation of child well-being data. And the news isn't good. Despite some positive trends since 2000–including decreasing infant mortality and child and teen death rates, decreasing teen birth rates, fewer high-school drop-outs–other indicators of child well being raise concerns about how the nation's young...
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August 15, 2011
“Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?” About one in four households with children answered “yes” to that question last year, according to a recent report from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). In 21 states and the District of Columbia, more than 25 percent answered yes. These statistics alone are a telling statement of the condition of our country and help reveal just how many families are scraping by and can’t meet their basic needs. Food hardship has been a persistent problem for too many. It...
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August 10, 2011
The rich are doing just fine. An article in last Thursday's New York Times noted that sales of luxury goods are recovering strongly. The age of conspicuous consumption is returning so powerfully that high-end retailers are actually marking up prices on luxury goods. The article quoted one shopkeeper who said that it's no big deal for his customers if an $800 pair of shoes is marked up to $860. And while that additional $60 may not mean much for some consumers, many others struggle to buy the basic necessities. The same article noted that discount retailer Wal-Mart has begun selling smaller...
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June 17, 2011
This morning, like millions of other parents across the country, I dropped my daughter off at child care on my way to work. In choosing a licensed child care provider to care for her, I made certain assumptions about the standards that provider would be required to meet. And, probably like many other parents, I take for granted that the government plays a role in helping to ensure my daughter’s health and safety. In the policy arena, we often refer to the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) as the program that funds state child care assistance programs that help low-income families...
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February 2, 2011
The recent House proposal to slash domestic spending to 2008 levels would mean millions lost in funding for early childhood programs. It’s easy to give short shrift to this number when discussing it broadly and in the abstract. After all, there is wide agreement that balance needs to be restored to the federal budget. President Obama has called for a five-year freeze in domestic, non-defense discretionary spending and states are grappling with budget shortfalls and considering across the board cuts, including human services. But when discussing balancing the budget and cutting programs, we...
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