Ford School professor and director of Poverty Solutions, Luke Shaefer said that “Investments in children pay dividends over the long term." He explained that during the pandemic, with the expanded child tax credit, “For that brief, shining moment, we lifted millions of children out of poverty. We saw food hardship among families with children fall to the lowest level that we’ve ever recorded. We saw the credit scores of families hit their all time high." But then he said, “we reversed course and weren’t able to extend that past the one year and we saw child poverty spike — the highest one year increase in history."
