In 2010 I was a young worker who had just graduated with a bachelor’s degree. I knew my broadcast journalism degree wasn’t my career path. I worked full time on an hourly wage job as a cashier at Cracker Barrel and applied to graduate school to fulfill my dreams. I didn’t have children, but I worked and lived from paycheck to paycheck.

When it came time to file my taxes, I was hit by a wrecking ball – a tax bill big enough to set up a payment schedule. I thought I did everything right so why did I have to pay? More Money? I didn’t have any money.

More than 5 million low-wage workers who do not raise children at home – including young adults who are excluded from the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) – are taxed into poverty or deeper into poverty each year. The graduate school not only became an opportunity to advance myself further in my career, but also saved me taxes thanks to the education loan. But nobody should have to enroll in school to get a tax break.

More than a decade later, we still have the same problem. Young workers like me work as hard as anyone else. Still, we can’t get any further.

Fortunately, President Biden and Congress have finally paid attention. As part of the The American rescue plan was passed in MarchThey raised the EITC for these workers. As a result, 17 million low-wage workers will benefit, including 176,000 here in Mississippi. Child minders, cashiers, salespeople, delivery people, and many others in our state can now make ends meet better.

The American Families Plan will extend key tax cuts in the American Rescue Plan to help low- and middle-income workers and families such as the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and Child and Dependent Tax Credit. Photo by Ashton Pittman

One way to end child poverty

But that’s not the only thing the bailout plan does. The Center for Poverty and Social Policy reports that approximately 27 million children in low-income families did not receive full child tax credits because their parents’ incomes are too low. These are children who come from households of hardworking parents who may be food insecure. As of March 2021, nearly 18% of all people living in the United States were affected by food insecurity in the past seven days.

In response, Congress also expanded the child tax credit. They eventually opened the full loan for low-income families and increased the loan amount to $ 3,000 per child ($ 3,600 for children under six). Columbia University estimates this new CTC will reduce child poverty by 45% over the next year! In Mississippi, 96% of the children in our state will benefit from it.

Now take the same 27 million children and put them in a classroom and think about the results you will see academically. As an educator, I know what can happen. The end of child poverty will affect every aspect of a child’s life and affect our world. But it cannot last.

“Make these provisions permanent”

We will see that millions of lives will improve over the course of the next year as a result of these changes, which will be deleted when these regulations expire in 2022. We cannot allow this to happen. We need to make these provisions permanent.

The Biden government has proposed making the EITC increase permanent for younger workers and others who are not raising children, and extending the full child tax credit to all low-income families. The CTC increase will only be extended until 2025.

These steps are important, but Congress must make all changes permanent, including the CTC increase. We can pay for it by asking the rich and corporations to finally pay their fair share.

If you could permanently cut child poverty in half, why wouldn’t you? If we can put more money back into the pockets of hard workers, we should do it. We are a country with American companies but refusing to do more for American workers and their children. We can cut child poverty in half over the long term. As an educator over the past decade, I know how precious our children are.

I urge not only my representative Michael Guest and Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker, but all of Congress to make the new CTC and EITC regulations permanent this year at the 2021 level in the redevelopment legislation.

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