Description:

The child tax credit (CTC) in the United States has always required its recipients to work. Yet the recent proposal from the Biden administration eliminates the work requirement in the CTC. Ensuring that parents earn a small amount of money benefits kids and helps lift families out of poverty. How can we ensure our policies align with what’s best for kids?

In this special episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Robert Doar, President and Morgridge scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Robert explains that from 1995 until 2020, our country made strides to bring more people into the labor force, increase positive educational outcomes, and improve children’s relationship with the criminal justice system. But our child welfare and public school systems need to be reformed to ensure that they are focused on helping children.

Resources:

The bad science behind the child tax credit expansion | Robert Doar | The Wall Street Journal

The antipoverty, targeting, and labor supply effects of the proposed child tax credit expansion | Bruce D. Meyer and Kevin Corinth | Becker Friedman Institute

Census Bureau’s household pulse survey shows significant increase in homeschooling rates in fall 2020 | Casey Eggleston and Jason Fields | United States Census Bureau

Enrollment in N.Y.C. public schools declined by 50,000 since the start of the pandemic | Eliza Shapiro | The New York Times

Show Notes

• 01:45 | The history of child tax credits (CTC) and the new CTC proposal

• 03:35 | The National Academy of Sciences made an important error

• 07:30 | Why are we forcing single parents to work at all?

• 10:45 | Are we getting better at caring for low-income children?

• 16:35 | People don’t want to hear viewpoints they disagree with

• 18:00 | Is it possible to create a system for children where everyone is satisfied?