Children’s Budget 2011 is the latest edition of the First Focus Children’s Budget series. The book provides an analysis of the over 180 federally funded programs that are aimed at enhancing the well-being of our nation’s children, and how their appropriations levels have changed over the past five years.
This year’s publication reveals that investments in children as a percent of total federal spending peaked at a five year high of 9.2 percent in 2010, but fell to 8.4 percent in 2011. The report further explains that had it not been for the one-time infusion of funding provided by the economic legislation known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), spending on children’s programs in 2010 and 2011 would have been significantly lower. At a time of economic decline, when demand for services like the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid, child care, food stamps, and other programs have increased, the share of spending on children’s programs in 2011 would have declined to levels below 2007 without the ARRA funding. The programs currently benefiting from these additional resources will face a crisis budget situation as ARRA funding ends over the next year and policymakers propose cuts in the debt ceiling debate.
The book was published by First Focus with the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.