Womenstake

Policy Update: President Obama Releases Detailed Budget

President Obama’s detailed budget for Fiscal Year 2010 makes investments critical to the well-being of women and their families, especially in the areas of health care and education. Yet the fine print also retains restrictions on reproductive health.

Overall, the budget represents an important change in direction from the past eight years. However, given the enormous challenges that families and communities are facing, this budget could and should do even more to address rising needs. For more information, visit NWLC's website.

Some highlights of how the budget affects women and families include:

• Health Care: The President’s budget brings the nation one step closer to making health care reform that meets the needs of women and their families a reality this year. It creates a reserve fund of more than $600 billion, which will serve as a “down payment” on health reform.
• Reproductive Health: The budget eliminates wasteful abstinence-only programs and allows states to provide more support for contraception through the Medicaid program. Unfortunately, the budget retains harmful and unjust restrictions on the use of public funds for abortion care and provides only level or insufficient funding increases for several programs that provide essential services for women, including Title X family planning.
• Child Care and Early Education: The President’s budget funds several new early childhood initiatives. However, the budget provides only a modest increase for Head Start, and no increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant to supplement temporary funding for 2009 and 2010 in the Economic Recovery Act. Full details are available on NWLC's website.

Take Action: Hungry Children Can't Wait

by Helen Blank, Director of Leadership and Public Policy, 
National Women’s Law Center 

Congress has an opportunity to give nutritious meals to millions of children — and we need you to make sure Congress does the right thing. 

Later this year, we expect the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) to be reauthorized — providing an important opportunity to reach even more children and win additional benefits.

Please urge your Members of Congress to help more children and families by improving the Child and Adult Care Food Program. 

CACFP provides over 3 million children enrolled in child care centers, family child care homes, Head Start, prekindergarten and after-school programs up to two meals and a snack. In addition, it provides ongoing training in the nutritional needs of children, and onsite assistance in meeting the program's strong nutritional requirements. Unfortunately, there are still millions of children in child care who could benefit from CACFP who are currently unserved.

With your help, we have an opportunity to improve the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

There are several key changes that the early childhood and after-school community is seeking in the reauthorization to expand the program's reach and increase benefits to children, including:

• Increasing CACFP reimbursements to stem participation declines and improve nutrition.
• Allowing child care centers and homes the option of serving a third meal as was previously allowed.
• Reducing the current “area eligibility” threshold from 50 to 40 percent to allow all providers living in neighborhoods where at least 40 percent of the children are in low-income families to automatically qualify for the highest reimbursement rate.
• Reducing burdensome paperwork to ensure that more children and providers have access to the benefits offered by CACFP.

These changes will help to reduce hunger, reduce childhood obesity, improve child nutrition and health overall, and enhance child development and school readiness. For more information on ways CACFP could be improved, check out NWLC's fact sheet.

Child Care and Early Education Policy Update

Register Today: Conference Call on Supporting Family, Friend and Neighbor Care

Given the essential role family child care and FFN care plays for so many families, it is important to understand the role that unions are playing to support these providers and the lessons they have learned. The National Women's Law Center is beginning a new series of calls that will examine child care unionization as a strategy for improving compensation, benefits, and working conditions for family child care and FFN providers and enhancing the quality of care they offer. Register today for our first call, Lessons Learned: Supporting Family, Friend and Neighbor Care & Family Child Care in Oregon Through Unionization. The conference call will take place on Tuesday, April 7, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern.

Hearing: Secretary of Health and Human Services

Governor Kathleen Sebelius has been nominated as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the National Women’s Law Center is urging her confirmation based on her strong record on early education, health care, and other critical issues that affect women. Last week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Senate Finance Committee held hearings to consider her nomination. As head of HHS, she will oversee the Child Care and Development Block and Head Start programs. During the hearings, Governor Sebelius discussed the importance of access to high-quality child care and early education and her efforts to address the issue from the time when she was a state legislator. The Senate is expected to vote on her nomination after the April recess.

Head Start Bureau Releases Details on Economic Recovery Funding

Also last week, the Head Start Bureau released details on the allocation of the $1 billion in Head Start funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the $235 million funding increase provided by the FY 2009 appropriations legislation. The funds will be used to serve additional children in Head Start and Early Head Start, provide programs with a 4.9% cost of living increase, and support State Advisory Councils. The Head Start Bureau will be releasing details about the $1.1 billion in Early Head Start funding provided through the ARRA in the coming weeks. For information about Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) options for states through AARA funding, please check out our recent memo. 

Weekly Round-Up

by Natalie Monkou, Communications Intern

National Women's Law Center

Diana Kasdan of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project posted at Feministing about the reproductive health care needs of incarcerated women. 

A New York Times story discussed the rise of same-sex classrooms in public schools. 

Lynn Harris at Salon’s Broadsheet posted about the recently passed Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which includes a provision that restores affordable contraception to the millions of women who depend on college and university health centers and certain safety net providers for their birth control. 

Jay Newton-Small, of Time, reported on a group of Senate leaders who are working together on health reform efforts. 

Liz Willen posted at EarlyStories about the importance of keeping early childhood education in the news. 

Public comments are still being accepted about the Bush Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services "midnight regulation," which undermines women's access to vital health care services and information. The deadline is April 9.

Early Education and Economic Recovery: What's the Latest and What's Next

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst
National Women’s Law Center

Today, the Senate passed its version of an economic recovery package  by a vote of 61-37. Like the House version, it includes substantial investments in early care and education — investments that are necessary for children trying to get a strong start, for parents trying to work and support their families, for child care providers trying to keep their jobs, for child care programs trying to keep their doors open, and for economic recovery and future growth. The House and Senate now head to conference to negotiate on a compromise bill that both can approve.

It is important that the Senate retain the full $2 billion increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant in the House bill and in the original Senate bill. This decision indicates that members of Congress recognize what is happening in their states and communities — parents straining to afford child care and unable to get help with these costs, child care providers scaling back their hours or losing their jobs, and child care programs struggling to stay in business. A broad coalition is urging Senators and Representatives to maintain this funding level in the final bill in order to provide child care assistance for parents under tremendous financial strains, jobs for teachers and others working or seeking to work in child care programs, and safe, stable, nurturing care for children.

The news for Head Start is less encouraging. The bill passed by the Senate provides $1.05 billion, which is half the amount provided by the House bill.  We would like the final bill to include the full amount included in the House bill ($2.1 billion), because Head Start and Early Head Start are investments that will help our economy in the short and long term. These programs employ teachers, directors, and support staff—many of whom are lower-income women.  They assist parents in finding and keeping a job or getting job training. They help children get a strong start on a path to a productive future. Head Start and Early Head Start, with their focus on low-income children and families, are particularly important as the economic downturn causes more families to slip into poverty. Why would we help only half as many of these teachers, children, and families as we could?

Double Standards in the Economic Recovery Debate

by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security
National Women’s Law Center

The Senate has started debating the economic recovery plan, and it could do a lot to create and preserve jobs for women and men, help families through tough times, and invest in our nation’s human capital and physical infrastructure.  But despite the dire need, the outcome in the Senate is uncertain.  Not a single House Republican voted for the package – and there’s a risk that measures important to women and families could get dropped or scaled back to make room for corporate tax breaks that will do little to create jobs.

While modest investments in Head Start are questioned, multinational corporations are mounting a “lobbying blitz” to get billions of dollars in additional tax breaks into the package.  Their goal is to get Congress to declare another “dividend repatriation” tax holiday.  This would allow corporations that shifted their profits overseas to bring them back at a super-low tax rate:  5.25% instead of the usual 35% rate on corporate profits. 

As Citizens for Tax Justice observes, this would reward corporations that moved their profits to offshore tax havens and create an incentive for them to do it again.  But – even so – would it create jobs?  If corporations knew that they had a one-time-only opportunity to bring funds back to the United States at a low tax rate, would they bring back the money and invest it in creating jobs at home?

That’s what Congress hoped when it declared the first tax holiday for multinationals in 2004 as part of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004.  But, even though Congress put restrictions on the use of the repatriated funds, several analyses of the impact of that tax break, summarized in a recent paper by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, found that it “did little more than give windfall profits to a small number of large multinational corporations and did not lead to increased investment and jobs in the United States.”  Indeed, several corporations that received billions of dollars cut thousands of jobs the following year. 

News Release: NWLC Congratulates New Administration, Offers Platform for Future

The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) urged women to vote and make their voices heard, and is extremely gratified by the record turnout reported in this year’s historic election. NWLC congratulates President-elect Barack Obama and the incoming Members of Congress on their recent victories.

“Now is the time to look to the future and work together to tackle the issues that are so critical to women and their families,” said Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President of NWLC. “The nation has no time to spare in providing guaranteed, affordable health care for all, passing essential legislation that provides basic fairness in the workplace, like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and undoing some of the onerous restrictions on women’s access to reproductive health that were imposed by the Bush Administration.”

Nancy Duff Campbell, Co-President of NWLC, added: “A first order of business is to pass and implement an economic recovery plan that addresses the needs of women and their families, including by extending unemployment insurance benefits and by increasing nutrition, energy, housing, child care, and Head Start assistance. In addition, the plan should provide fiscal relief to the states to avert cuts in education, Medicaid, child support enforcement, and other critical services. We are eager to begin working with the Obama Administration and the new Congress to expand opportunities for women and their families.”

The National Women’s Law Center has developed a Platform for Progress with concrete proposals to address the unmet needs of women and their families in the areas of education, employment, basic economic security, health, and legal rights.

To learn more about NWLC’s Platform for Progress, visit www.nwlc.org/platform, or the following links:

• Supporting Women in the Workplace
• Building Economic Security
• Improving Women’s Health
• Improving Women’s Education
• Guaranteeing Equal Rights

A Mother's Day Wish List

by Helen Blank, Director of Leadership and Public Policy
National Women’s Law Center

As we celebrate the mothers in our own lives this Mother's Day, we should also remember that many parents are denied the best gift of all — knowing that their children are in high-quality child care.

This care gives parents the support and peace of mind they need to be productive at work, and helps children learn and develop skills they need to succeed in school and in life. However, if current federal funding trends continue, more and more children will lose child care assistance, and will not be able to participate in Head Start.

In honor of Mother's Day, please write a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper, reminding our nation’s leaders to make child care and Head Start national funding priorities — and please also send an eCard to your family, friends, and co-workers inviting them to do the same.

And check out MomsRising’s Mother’s Day eCard. 

When America supports child care, we encourage children, families, and our nation to reach their full potential.

Thank You for Marching Forth

by Helen Blank, Director of Leadership and Public Policy
National Women's Law Center

On March 4th, advocates across the country asked their members of Congress for increased investments in child care and Head Start. Our collective efforts resulted in more than 25,000 calls and e-mails to Members of Congress.

Congress is showing signs of recognizing the importance of investing in young children. The recently released Senate budget suggests a $440 million increase for child care and $447 million increase for Head Start appropriations. Although the budget is not binding, the mentioning of an increase in these key programs is definitely a step in the right direction.

Thank you to all who participated in the March Forth for Child Care and Head Start! We’ll let you know what happens next.

What’s Right with Kansas

by Helen Blank, Director of Leadership and Public Policy
National Women's Law Center

Kansas has gotten the message on the importance of reaching children early and providing support for infants, toddlers and their families. In her 2008 State of the State Address, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius announced plans for an Early Childhood Block Grant, which would provide $23 million for grants to community-based programs, school district, Head Start sites, and childcare programs - with at least 30 percent of funds reserved to serve infants and toddlers. The governor also proposed additional investments in other child care assistance and prekindergarten. These initiatives are in response to the fact that half the state's five-year-olds aren't ready for kindergarten.

It’s about time our spending reflects the fact that the learning process starts as early as infancy, and that early stimulation is essential to children’s successful development. In her address, the Governor remarked:

“We know that early education is key to preventing school failure. We can’t afford for any of our young Kansans to be so far behind that they never catch up by the time they enter kindergarten.”

By including aid to these programs in her proposal for the Kansas state budget, Sebelius acknowledges that learning begins before prekindergarten.

The Early Childhood Block Grant would provide support ranging from pre-natal care and newborn screening to early childhood education programs such as Early Head Start and Parents as Teachers. 

Kudos to Kansas for these pioneering efforts to provide the state’s children with the benefits of an early education. We hope other states will follow the Sunflower State’s lead by supporting comprehensive early childhood education bills that include infants and toddlers.