Family Opportunity Guarantee

Paid Family and Medical Leave

Provide 12 weeks of paid leave so workers can spend time to recover from illness, bond with their baby, or care for a sick family member without having to forgo all of their wages.

Medicare for Kids

In 2018 alone, 800,000 kids lost health insurance through CHIP and Medicaid. Enrolling every child in Medicare would cover an additional 4 million children with health insurance and put us on a fast track to achieving full universal coverage.

Public Option for Child Care

Child care is a child’s right but it costs more than in-state tuition at public universities, significantly holding back working and middle-class families. Federal grants to establish a public option for child care in each state would expand the supply, quality, and affordability of child care

Nationwide Universal Pre-K

Inequalities in childhood often persist through adulthood. The first five years of a child’s life are most crucial for brain development. Interacting with trained teachers at an early age helps reduce cycles of poverty and increase socioeconomic mobility.

Universal Child Dividend

The cornerstone of this proposal — like a universal basic income (UBI) for kids, a Universal Child Dividend of $500 per kid, per month ages 0–5; $350 per kid, per month ages 6–17 eliminates red tape and provides families with the flexibility needed to meet their unique needs. The Universal Child Dividend would replace programs like the Child Tax Credit.

This proposal also represents a major shift in budget priorities, as currently only 10% of the federal budget is spent on children. If the fundamental promise of America is that a child born into any family can reach their potential, policies that help families with children flourish are the necessary foundation.

For far too long, children have been left out of public policy and families have been sold out to corporate interests. Programs targeted at children generally pay for themselves or even have a positive return on investment. For every dollar spent on addressing programs tailored towards children, $7 is saved down the line.

Our child poverty rate is a moral disgrace and an economic drag. Ending child poverty is not hard — these policy prescriptions will put us on the path to eradicate child poverty, politics allowing.

The Universal Child Dividend alone will slash child poverty in half in just one year, while Medicare for Kids, nationwide pre-k, a public option for child care, and paid family and medical leave provide our economy and society with much needed structural reforms and flexibility to provide our families with economic security and put us on the path to eradicating child poverty.