Federal Expenditures on Infants and Toddlers in 2007

Federal Expenditures onInfants and Toddlersin 2007Jennifer Macomber, The Urban InstituteJulia Isaacs, The Brookings InstitutionTracy Vericker, The Urban InstituteAdam Kent, The Urban InstitutePaul Johnson, The Urban Institute Federal Expenditures onInfants and Toddlers in 2007Jennifer Macomber, The Urban InstituteJulia Isaacs, The Brookings InstitutionTracy Vericker, The Urban InstituteAdam Kent, The Urban InstitutePaul Johnson, The Urban InstituteApril 2009The Urban Institute and The Brookings Institution Copyright © 2009. The Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. All rights reserved. Except forshort quotes, no part of this report may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic ormechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by information storage or retrieval system, withoutwritten permission from 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 Brookings Institution is a pri-vate nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and innovative policy solutions. The viewsexpressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, the BrookingsInstitution, their trustees, or their funders. The authors are grateful to The Irving Harris Foundation and The Buffett Early Childhood Fund forsponsoring this research. 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). The authors also thank those who reviewed the report and offeredmany helpful insights including Phyllis Glink, Lisa Klein, Joan Lombardi, Adam Carasso, Janine Kossen,Danielle Ewen, Olivia Golden, Shelley Waters Boots, Jenny Kenney, Elaine Maag, Teresa Coughlin,Gina Adams, and Ajay Chaudry. Finally, the authors appreciate the assistance with particular programestimates provided by Laura Wheaton, Alshadye Yemane, Allison Cook, Jeff Rohaly, and Katherine Lim. iiiCONTENTSExecutive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4How Much Is Spent on Infants and Toddlers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9Where Are Funds Spent? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12How Are Funds Spent? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 vEXECUTIVE SUMMARYResearch suggests that investing in young children can help build a strong future workforce,improve children’s educational success and health, and potentially reduce some of the social illsthat drain the nation’s resources and will. To have an informed conversation about future invest-ments, it is important to start from an understanding of the baseline: What investments does this nationcurrently make in young children? Which programs and purposes are currently supported by federalinvestments, and which are not? This report provides such a baseline under-standing and informs a national conversationabout how best to invest the country’s resourcesby examining federal expenditures on infants andtoddlers, defined as children under age 3. Thereport looks at more than 100 programs throughwhich the federal government spends money onchildren and calculates the amount spent on thispopulation. These baseline estimates provide aplace to start in gauging the priority the nationplaces on investing in very young children and incomparing the expenditure patterns to researchers’findings about investments that work.Experts make six compelling points aboutthe value of investing in young children:A child’s earliest years are pivotal to development.Poverty and to