We are deeply saddened at the passing of Susan Rees, a great builder of the Coalition on Human Needs who served as Executive Director from 1983 to 1991.
We are so grateful Susan’s family has suggested contributions be made to CHN in Susan’s memory to continue the fight for justice.
If you would like to contribute to honor Susan Rees, please use the form below and email Radha Rath at rrath@chn.org to let us know you are contributing in Susan’s memory.
You may also contribute by mail at the following address: Coalition on Human Needs, 1825 K Street, NW, Suite 411, Washington, DC 20006.
Tell Congress: End the crisis in child care and early education!
Click hereto send a message to your members of Congress and tell them to take action to end the child care and early childhood education crisis in the United States.
The child care crisis in the United States continues to dramatically impact the lives of children and their families, stretching household budgets and causing parents to miss work when quality care cannot be found.
Even when child care slots can be found, working families face an incredible financial strain to afford child care.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the crisis in child care far worse.
Just 29% of parents report the child care arrangement they had at the start of the pandemic was open without any changes
57% of parents reported that the lack of child care options and increased child care responsibilities in the home have directly impacted their ability to work over the last month.
Even before the pandemic, child care was unaffordable for many families. The cost of child care exceeds $10,000 a year in many parts of the country. Nearly half (47%) of parents can only afford less than $200 a week for child care and 22% say they can afford no more than $50 a week.
The pandemic has made it incredibly difficult for families to find and afford quality child care, and even as the pandemic recedes, those issues remain a top concern.
We have a historic opportunity for Congress to fund child care and pre-school, and reform the system in a meaningful way.
The Biden administration’s American Families Plan aims to invest in child care, sending $225 billion over 10 years into federally supported child care programs. Under the President’s plan, the cost of child care would be capped at 7 percent of a family’s earnings for millions of working families. In addition, Biden’s proposal would provide $200 billion for voluntary pre-school programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, and continue expanded tax credits to make child care more affordable for families.
In order for Congress to act, they must hear from us.
Click here to send a message to your members of Congress and tell them to take action to end the child care and early childhood education crisis in the United States.
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CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship January 29, 2021
The K-shaped recovery edition. COVID-19 daily infections are down over the past two weeks. Hospitalizations are down. Deaths are down, slightly. Vaccinations are on the rise – more than 22 million Americans have received their first shot, and the rolling average of shots per day has climbed to over one million. All of which is encouraging news.
But the economic news is not so encouraging. New information out this week confirms what many have feared: we are experiencing a K-shaped recovery. The top end of the economy continues to improve while lower earners fall farther and farther behind. The businesses hit hardest in 2020 – and those that continue to struggle today, if they even still exist – disproportionately employ women, people of color, and workers without college educations.
Vaccines alone won’t pull us out of this economic morass. Only swift, bold, and long-lasting action by Congress will do that, and that means passage of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. But vaccines are key, as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell noted this week, when he saidthere is “nothing more important to the economy right now than getting people vaccinated.”
That said, vaccines by themselves won’t put food on the table, open child care centers, or bring back the ten million jobs that have evaporated since the pandemic began. Along with the vaccines, we need to pass the plan now. You can tell your members of Congress to pass the plan here.
-34%/-2%
As of Thursday, January 28, new COVID-19 infections in the U.S. numbered165,073, a 34 percent decrease from two weeks earlier. 3,862 deaths were reported, down 2 percent. Tweet this.
3.5%
The U.S. economy shrunkby 3.5 percent in 2020, its worst performance since 1946. Tweet this.
45 weeks
Last week marked the 45th consecutive week that new unemployment insurance claims were higher than the worst week of the Great Recession. 1.27 million new claims were reported– that includes regular UI claims plus Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims (gig/self-employed workers). Tweet this.
10%
The nation’s real unemployment rate, if we adjust the official rate with the decline in workforce participation along with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ estimate of misclassification. Tweet this.
More than 20%
The Federal Reserve estimatesthat the unemployment rate for workers in the bottom wage quartile is more than 20 percent. Tweet this.
More than 1 million
In three of the biggest employment sectors for low-education (high school diploma or less) workers – construction, bars and restaurants, and hotels and motels – more than a million jobs were lost between December 2019 and December 2020.
3.9%/8.5%
The unemployment rate is 3.9 percent for those Americans able to work from home; among those who have to report to a job site, it is 8.5 percent.
Nearly 24 million
The numberof adults who reported their households did not have enough to eat during the previous seven days, according to Census data gathered January 6-18. That’s 11 percent of all adults in the U.S.
15.1 million
The numberof adult renters who weren’t caught up in rent. That’s one in five adult renters.
More than 80 million
The numberof adults who reported that it was somewhat or very difficult to cover usual expenses during the past seven days. That’s 35 percent of all adults.
January 29, 2021 