Download the Action Tank paper (PDF)

Our nation has made significant strides in creating a social safety net for struggling Americans over the last 50 years. America’s safety net now consists of an elaborate assortment of programs and policies which have significantly reduced poverty for seniors and low-income working parents. Our nation provides cash assistance through refundable tax credits, health insurance coverage through Medicaid and food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other food programs. Too many of our children still live in poverty, but we have made progress in reducing poverty and hunger and improving health.

In response to this challenge, children’s advocacy groups, businesses and financial institutions have joined forces to form the Early Childhood Education Action Tank. This group of unlikely allies has forged agreement on a series of recommendations to increase children’s access to high-quality early childhood education as part of comprehensive tax reform. It is our view that, in the context of always scarce federal funds, reforms to the tax code offer the best opportunity to allocate the resources needed to meet this challenge. Tax reform is a unique opportunity to make significant, forward-looking changes to fiscal policy, and to make designations through tax expenditures to help fund ECE as a commitment to future generations of Americans.