In this episode, our hosts Bruce Lesley and Messellech “Selley” Looby chat with poverty experts Megan Curran and Sophie Collyer about the Child Tax Credit. As top researchers at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Collyer and Curran produce groundbreaking work on poverty and the child tax credit. In this episode, they explain why the U.S. needs the Child Tax Credit and help unpack the economic contradictions that place a burden on families. They also discuss the fact that child poverty is a policy decision and explain why lawmakers continually interpret “child-focused” policies around the perceived deservedness of adults. 

Learn more about child poverty and the child tax credit:

• Report: A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty, By The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 


• Policy Brief: The Promise of Universal Child Benefits: the Foundational Policy for Economic and Social Development, By The International Labour Organization (ILO) with UNICEF and the Learning for Well-Being Institute and featuring two CPSP co-authors, Megan Curran and David Harris 


• Policy Brief: Children Left Behind by the Child Tax Credit in 2022, By Sophie Collyer Megan Curran, David Harris, and Christopher Wimer. 


• Blog, The Child Tax Credit: Boosting the Lives and Well-Being of Our Children, By Bruce Lesley 

Be sure to check out the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University and follow them on twitter. 

To join the conversation, follow First Focus on Children on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Connect with our hosts and tell us what you would like to hear on the podcast at:

Email: SpeakingOfKids@firstfocus.org

Twitter: @SpeakingOfKids, @BruceLesley and @First_Focus

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