Public Expenditures on Children through 2008: Key Facts

This report provides the key findings on the public spending on children through 2008. They are: (1) Spending on children increased under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and other stimulus spending, but not proportionately to other federal spending. As ARRA expires, we project that spending on children will decline, assuming no change in current policies; (2) Total public investment (federal, state, and local) grows substantially as children get older; (3) States and localities spent more money than the federal government did on children in 2004, except when it came to the youngest children; and (4) Key developmental needs, such as education and health care, are addressed to some extent by the federal government for each age group. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.) [Additional funding for this research was provided by the Strategic Knowledge Fund, co-funded by the Foundation for Child Development and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.)