Teachers in Baltimore, Maryland, are urging city voters in November to approve a measure they’re calling on to provide new parents with $1,000 in an effort to reduce child poverty starting at birth, known as the “baby bonus.”
Supporters of the initiative say they have garnered the 10,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot after a recent massive door-to-door canvassing effort and a campaign featuring a cartoon logo of a flying stork with a bag of money in its beak. The Associated Press.
The measure is modeled after a first-in-the-nation program that launched in Flint, Michigan, earlier this year, in which women receive $1,500 during the second trimester of pregnancy and $500 per month for the year after giving birth.
Organizers of the Baltimore campaign argue that more systemic change at the national level is needed to lift people out of poverty, and suggest offering a “baby bonus” could be an important step in the right direction.
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Nate Golden, a teacher and president of the Maryland Children’s Alliance, believes the “baby bonus” could have “lifelong effects on kids.” (Associated Press)
Nate Golden, a high school math teacher and president of the Maryland Children’s Alliance, which is promoting the ballot initiative, said the bill “could have lifelong effects on kids.”
“If you’re going to spend limited resources, where do you get the most bang for your buck? Research tells us it’s at birth,” Golden told The Associated Press.
Golden said he hopes the program will show lawmakers in Baltimore City and elsewhere that voters want policies that will help kids living in poverty succeed.
An estimated 31% of school-age children in Baltimore live in poverty, according to census data. Nationwide, child poverty rates fell during the COVID-19 pandemic due to federal relief programs, but rose 7 percentage points back to about 12% in 2022.
According to the Associated Press, Golden said studies have shown that the majority of kids in his classes every year who are born into poverty stay in roughly the same socioeconomic status for the rest of their lives.
Research has shown that most children born into poverty in the United States remain in roughly the same socioeconomic status for the rest of their lives, and high school teacher Nate Golden says he sees that in his classroom every year. (iStock)
“When I see what kids are going through outside of school, I still demand the best in the classroom, but that’s not enough,” he said. “We have to address those underlying needs before we can get kids to focus on learning.”
With an estimated 7,000 children born in Baltimore each year, the program would cost about $7 million annually, or about 0.16 percent of the city’s annual operating budget, a supporter of the initiative said, via the Associated Press.
The measure wouldn’t result in a tax increase if approved, but the Baltimore City Council must decide how to allocate the funds.
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(An estimated 7,000 babies are born in Baltimore each year, and the program would cost about $7 million annually, supporters of the bill told The Associated Press.)
The largest federal program to fight child poverty is the Child Tax Credit, which was temporarily expanded during the pandemic, and supporters of the Baltimore measure argue that required paperwork and eligibility requirements leave some families out.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (Democrat) campaigned on a promise to help the state’s youngest and most vulnerable residents, and earlier this year he signed a bill that provides grants to community organizations in areas with high concentrations of child poverty.
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Baltimore City also launched a two-year pilot program in 2022 to guarantee monthly income support payments of $1,000 to a group of young parents who are using federal pandemic relief funds.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
