The New York Times article quotes Scott Winship of the American Enterprise Institute, who participated in an Education Next forum, “Should Congress Make the Expanded Child Tax Credit Permanent?” in the Fall 2021 issue.
The Times article says, “While supporters hoped the credit would boost educational or enrichment spending, a study that posed the question directly found it had not.” It is indeed accurate that there were hopes the credit would boost educational or enrichment spending; Frederick Hess, in “How a Turbocharged Child Tax Credit Could Electrify School Choice,” (Fall 2021) suggested that states could offer to match the money if it were spent on education.
The New York City-based study linked to by the Times article notwithstanding, the newspaper does interview one mother who withdrew her 12-year-old daughter from a cheerleading class “in part because of the cost” when the tax credit expired. And a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of Census Bureau data found 40 percent of low-income families were using the child tax credit money for education costs covering books and supplies, tuition, after-school programs, and transportation for school, as Education Next reported in November 2021.
The online headline the Times put on its article—“The Expanded Child Tax Credit Is Gone. The Battle Over It Remains”—is surely accurate.
—Education Next
