By Claire Cain Miller, Photo: Timothy Mulcare/The New York Times, The New York Times, October 1, 2022
The pandemic, at first, left many American parents feeling stranded, cut off from school and other support systems. But then something momentous happened. The government invested billions of dollars in children, including cash payments to families, free school meals and money for child care centers and public schools.
In 2021, the federal government spent $10,710 per child, through a mix of programs and tax changes, up from $6,810 in 2019, according to the latest installment of the Urban Institute’s annual Kids’ Share report, released Thursday. It amounted to $834 billion, invested in 78 million children.
It didn’t last. The investments were meant to respond to an emergency, and as it eases and most of the investments expire, government financial support for families will largely return to prepandemic levels by 2024 — and in some categories, will decline from those levels.
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