Washington D.C. – In the wake of President Obama’s fiscal year 2012 budget, First Focus, a bipartisan child advocacy organization, praised his proposal for making children a priority through a variety smart investments in specific areas, including early childhood education and child nutrition. However, First Focus’s extensive analysis of the President’s budget raises serious concern over a number of cuts, such as reductions to juvenile justice programs and a lack of investment to combat growing national issues related to child poverty and homelessness.
In total, the President’s spending proposal would result in children receiving a $16.8 billion boost over fiscal year 2010 budget levels, an increase of 6%. Despite the President’s proposed a cap of $445 billion for non-security discretionary spending, the percentage of federal discretionary money spent on children’s programs would increase slightly under the President’s request, rising from 19.1% in 2010 to 19.6% in 2012.
Additionally, total mandatory spending on children would increase by $13.7 billion, resulting in a 7.5% boost over 2010 levels. This increase is driven largely by previous initiatives of the President for children, including passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act in February 2009, the Affordable Care Act in March 2010, and the Child Nutrition Act in December 2010.
First Focus president Bruce Lesley released the following statement:
“In a year when debates on Capitol Hill are focused on whether to spend or slash, we are heartened to see the President’s budget include support for programs of importance to children. A President’s budget is reflective of his priorities, and while we acknowledge improvements must be made to protect critical services for children and low-income families, we commend the President for his commitment to prepare America’s children for success in a global economy.
“Under the President’s budget proposal, key education programs experience significant increases. In fact, education and early childhood programs would see an increase of more than $4.03 billion dollars over fiscal year 2010 levels. Paramount among these recommended investments are resources dedicated to the Early Learning Challenge fund, an innovative new program that will assist states in unifying and streamlining their early learning and development programs so that no child falls through the cracks. In addition, the proposal increases funding for both Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant, further increasing the number of children and families served by high quality early childhood programs. The President’s proposal also includes critical resources for programs such as Promise Neighborhoods and home visitation. We applaud the President’s recognition that investing in our children’s early learning and development isn’t just the right thing to do, but is one of the soundest investments we can make as a nation.
“Furthermore, the Administration proposes $2.5 billion in mandatory funds over ten years to support a new child welfare incentive fund aimed at making improvements in the foster care system to prevent child abuse and neglect and to keep more children safely in their homes and out of long-term foster care.
“While the President deserves credit for making the health and education of children a clear priority in his budget, he failed to address the national tragedy of 13 million kids living in poverty and the growing number of homeless children in America. It is disappointing that critical issues of children’s housing and poverty are not addressed in the President’s budget.
“Finally, a number of important children’s programs also were cut. For example, the President’s budget once again slashed funding for several key juvenile justice programs. Funding also was eliminated for Graduate Medical Education (GME) payments to children’s hospitals, a critical resource that supports children’s hospitals in training 40 percent of our nation’s pediatricians and 43 percent of pediatric specialists.
“Overall, the President’s budget outline is a stark contrast to the spending proposals recently put forth in the House of Representatives, which, if enacted, would severely compromise programs and services that benefit children and their families. While we all agree that difficult decisions must be made to address the deficit, many of these cuts are short-sighted and would have life-long effects on kids. If we are serious about reducing our long-term debt and increasing America’s productivity, we must ensure that we don’t balance the budget by cutting essential investments in our nation’s future – our children.”