Family & Children

During one of our recent events, Sheldon Garon of Princeton University and Ray Boshara of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis referred to the weak household balance sheet as one of the core economic challenges of our time, suggesting that households must focus on asset-building rather than rely on credit and debt.

As a child, I knew Santa was keeping an eye on me. Not because of that vague "naughty or nice" nonsense, but because my parents had a direct line to the jolly man from the north. A hotline, in fact. When my siblings and I misbehaved, my mother would pick up the phone and start to dial 1-800-YO-SANTA as she warned us that Santa was about to get an earful. She'd inform him that I was picking on my younger brother, or that he had been caught removing the screen in his bedroom window and attempting to climb onto the roof (again). She was such a tattle-tale.

Tomorrow, October 20th, Justin King from the Asset Building Program is speaking at a briefing organized by the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus. See the details below from the briefing invitation.

The early childhood community has long bemoaned that preparation programs for early childhood teachers do not include enough emphasis on infants and toddlers. A national survey in 2006 found that nearly half of early childhood education bachelor’s degree programs and a third of associate’s degree programs did not require any courses with a focus on infants and toddlers.

A recent policy brief provides recommendations for states and the federal government on how to fill these preparation gaps.

This afternoon I attended "The State of Health Care Conference: Strategies for Success in 2011," in Sacramento, and the event provided an impressive overview of what California faces in implementing health care reform. Nearly as impressive were the local "smarty-pants" who will attempt this Herculean feat.

Today the Asset Building Program in California attended the Bay Area Asset Funders Network's first regional conference, entitled "Addressing the Disparate Impact of Foreclosure on Households and Communities of Color." We (and by we, I mean me) entered the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco this morning with a sense of what would follow: damning data showing how and why people of color lost more in the crisis, along with an overwhelming picture of what it might take to fix the problem. But I got more than I bargained for.

In the 2011 California legislative session, the California Asset Building Program is advancing the following state policy initiatives (See printer-friendly downloadable agenda at right under Related Files):

This measure removes the vehicle asset test, which prohibits recipients and applicants from owning a car worth more than $4,650, from CalWORKS eligibility rules. Less than a tenth of a percent of cases ever are found to exceed the vehicle limit, and removing the requirement saves the state millions in administrative time. California, however, continues to employ an overly restrictive vehicle asset test – one that undermines a workers ability to gain and maintain employment, thereby encouraging continued reliance on public assistance. 

Yesterday's policy event, The Power of the Earned Income Tax Credit: Reducing Poverty, Creating Jobs, and Increasing Small Business Revenue, brought Capitol staff, advocates, and policymakers together to discuss what's changing with the EITC, and what that means for asset building.

On January 12, 2011, policymakers, community leaders, and advocates came together for the the 2011 California Working Families Policy Summit.