Economic stability is one of the more important determinants of a child’s well-being. We believe making sure families have the supports they need to work for livable wages and climb out of poverty is one of the biggest keys to improving the lives of children.
The U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation Friday that would extend the basic federal welfare program, known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), through Sept. 30, 2011. The one-year extension is a stop-gap measure, in lieu of a 5-year reauthorization. The House is expected to concur in the bill during the lame duck...
An interesting development in politics and journalism has been the rapid increase in reporting on the accuracy of politicians’ statements during campaign season. Generally speaking, that’s a very welcome development, since it provides a means of keeping candidates a bit more honest and improving the level of political discourse....
Despite the efforts of Democrats to extend it, federal funding runs out today for the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund (ECF), which was a $5 billion appropriation in the Recovery Act that has been used in a variety of ways to help low-income families. One very important use of the ECF dollars has been to finance transitional jobs and...
As you have probably heard, the Census Bureau released 2009 data yesterday on a wide range of issues, including income, poverty and health insurance. Wisconsin’s child poverty rate jumped from 13.4% in 2008 to 16.7% in 2009 – catching up a bit to the national rate, which increased to 20.0% last year. About 214,000 Wisconsin children...
Today the U.S. Census Bureau updated its Current Population Survey (CPS) dataset with new information on poverty, income, and health insurance. As was widely expected, there’s been a large jump in the number of Americans living in poverty. The Wisconsin Council on Children and Families has done some rapid-response number crunching since...
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