Don't Let Austerity Exacerbate the Opportunity Deficit
Posted at 12:45 p.m. on Dec. 13, 2012
Lane Kenworthy warns lawmakers that it will be difficult to both cut deficits and address the “significant opportunity deficit for Americans who grow up in low-income families.”
“The single most valuable step lawmakers could take would be to implement universal childcare and preschool… To close our yawning opportunity gap, all sides will need to bend somewhat.”
“Conservatives and deficit hawks might recall that they have in the past been willing – wisely so – to allocate more money for opportunity-enhancing initiatives such as education funding and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Progressives might consider that getting the rich to carry a larger share of the tax burden will only reduce income inequality a little, and that universal early education and other opportunity-boosting measures would have more reach if funded by all of us.”
