A state advocacy group says their survey indicates state lawmakers can improve the state’s economy by helping families. Michael Crawford of the Child and Family Policy Center says lawmakers have made some progress in recent years in pre-kindergarten child care and K-12 education.
Crawford says there’s more they can do, including more help with child care. He says they can improve the cutoff for childcare subsidies. Crawford says right now it’s at 43-percent of the median family income, which he says ranks Iowa 45th among the 50 states. Crawford says there’s some improvement needed in health insurance too. He says Iowa allows children and families up to 200-percent of poverty to be eligible covered with health insurance. But he says he only allows parents up to 79-percent of poverty to be covered. Crawford says there’s a gap and if the parents are insured, the kids are more likely to be insured as well.
Crawford says they’d also like to see an increase in the cigarette tax to reduce smoking and raise more revenue for the state. Crawford says these are things that can help the economy of Iowa’s cities and towns. Crawford says by increasing the economic prosperity of a community, you increase the economic prosperity of a family, as he says they very much tied together.
While they’d like to see some improvement — Crawford says Iowa is doing a good job. He says it varies from item to item, but he thinks Iowa does a good job. Crawford says Iowa likes to be a leader and while he says Iowa is above adequate — there needs to be some improvement. For a complete look at the report, surf to www.policymatters.us.