Federal Expenditures on Elementary-Age Children in 2008 (Ages 6 through 11)

Federal Expenditureson Elementary-AgeChildren in 2008(Ages 6 through 11)Tracy C. Vericker, Urban InstituteJennifer Macomber, Urban InstituteJulia Isaacs, Brookings InstitutionAdam Kent, Urban InstituteElizabeth H. Bringewatt, University of Michigan Federal Expenditures on Elementary-AgeChildren in 2008(Ages 6 through 11)Tracy C. Vericker, Urban InstituteJennifer Macomber, Urban InstituteJulia Isaacs, Brookings InstitutionAdam Kent, Urban InstituteElizabeth H. Bringewatt, University of MichiganMarch 2010The Urban Institute and The Brookings Institution Copyright © 2010. The Urban Institute. All rights reserved. Except for short quotes, no part of thisreport may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includingphotocopying, recording, or by information storage or retrieval system, without written permissionfrom the Urban Institute.The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization that exam-ines the social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation. The views expressed are those ofthe authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.We are grateful to the Foundation for Child Development for sponsoring this research. This work wasalso supported by the Strategic Knowledge Fund, co-funded by the Foundation for Child Developmentand the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This work expands upon the groundbreaking work of Rebecca L.Clark, Rosalind Berkowitz King, Christopher Spiro, and C. Eugene Steuerle in Federal Expenditures onChildren: 1960–1997(Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 2000, Assessing the New FederalismOccasional Paper 45) and, more recently, the work of Adam Carasso, C. Eugene Steuerle, and GillianReynolds in developing Kids’ Share 2007: How Children Fare in the Federal Budget(Washington, DC:The Urban Institute, 2007), and Kids’ Share 2008: How Children Fare in the Federal Budget(Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 2008) and the work of Julia Isaacs, Tracy Vericker, JenniferMacomber and Adam Kent in developing Kids’ Share: Analysis of Federal Expenditures on ChildrenThrough 2008(Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 2009). Additionally, a recent report FederalExpenditures on Infants and Toddlers in 2007,developed by Jennifer Macomber, Julia Isaacs, TracyVericker, Adam Kent, and Paul Johnson, provided a valuable foundation for this work. We also thankPaul Johnson for his help with the analysis and those who reviewed the report and offered many helpfulinsights including Ajay Chaudry, Olivia Golden, and Jane Hannaway. iiiCONTENTSExecutive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4How Much Is Spent on Elementary Age Children? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7Where Are Funds Spent? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10How Are Funds Spent? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16What Are the Future Trends in Expenditures on Elementary-Age Children Based on Current Policy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 vEXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe federal government spent $113 billion in outlays and on reductions in taxes on elementary-agechildren in 2008. What does this figure mean? Are we spending too much, too little? We providefirst-ever estimates of federal expenditures on elementary-age children, ages 6 through 11, in2008. We also present key policy issues that affect this age group. With these two pieces of information,policymakers, advocates, and the public can begin a dialogue about how to best invest federal resourcesfor this age group.This report, focusing on elementary-age chil-dren, is one of a series of reports issued in the pastfew years on expenditures on children, looking atchildren overall (birth to age 18), infants and tod-dlers (birth to age 2), and pre-kindergartners andkindergartners (ages 3 to 5). The following esti-mates of how much of the federal budget wastargeted toward elementary-age children in 2008is based on budget data released in May 2009and includes the effects of early responses to the2008 recession. The effects of the AmericanRecovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009do not appear in the 2008 expenditures, but arecaptured in the expenditure pr