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California Becomes First US State To Provide Free Diapers For Newborns 

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Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a first-in-the-nation program in which families welcoming newborn babies will be able to receive hundreds of free diapers before they even leave the hospital. 

Once enacted, during the program’s first year the free diaper packages will be offered at between 65 to 75 hospitals that handle around 25% of births in the state and are aimed to largely help low-income patients, according to Newsom’s office. 

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The initiative will eventually expand to more hospitals throughout California, but it’s unclear how many at this time. The state has partnered with nonprofit Baby2Baby to manufacture the diapers under the label “Golden State Start,” according to AP. 

Newsom explained that this initiative is a part of the much larger goal of making living in California, one of the most expensive states, easier for families. Other initiatives within this goal included providing students with free meals at school and making preschool free for all kids.

“Every baby born in California deserves a healthy start in life — and that means making sure parents have the basics they need from day one,” Newsom said in a statement. 

California set aside $7.4 million in last year’s budget to roll out the initiative, and another $12.5 million is included in this year’s budget proposal to implement the program for the upcoming fiscal year ending in June 2027. 

The program will allow each family to receive 400 diapers in sizes for newborns and babies up to 14 pounds when they are discharged from the hospital after birth. Newborns, on average, go through about eight to 10 diapers a day, so the amount should last a little more than a month. 

Baby2Baby is a nonprofit that provides families in need with essential items. The organization built a manufacturing system that allows them to produce diapers for 80% less than the retail price, according to co-CEO Kelly Sawyer Patricof. 

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“California is once again setting the standard of what it means to show up for mothers and babies,” added co-CEO Norah Weinstein.

Tennessee and Delaware are two other states that have similar programs to help low-income families. The two became the first US states to offer free diapers to families enrolled in their Medicaid programs. 

Tennessee families specifically can go to pharmacies to pick up 100 diapers per month for children under two. The Delaware program provides individuals with up to 80 diapers and up to one pack of baby wipes per week in the first 12 weeks of their life. 

California’s Medicaid system doesn’t cover diapers for newborns but it does cover the items for enrollees ages 5 and older if they have a medical need. 

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, families spend around $100 a month on diapers per child. California officials are looking forward to easing a lot of that burden for new families. 

“The first days at home with a newborn should be focused on the love, connection, and joy of an expanded family, not stress about affording diapers,” said Kim Johnson, the state’s health secretary.

“This program helps ensure families can begin that journey with greater stability and peace of mind.”

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani And Barack Obama Lead Children Singalong To Promote Free Child Care

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The two met at a child care center in the Bronx, where after having a private conversation, led a sit down singalong and book reading to a group of young children as a means of promoting Mamdani’s plans to expand free child care programs all throughout NYC. 

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Biden To Call For Universal Preschool As Part Of New Family Plan 

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President Joe Biden is set to deliver his first joint address to Congress this week, where he is planning on calling for universal preschool as a part of his American Families Plan. According to his administration Biden is looking to make a major “investment in our kids,” and will be laying out how his proposal will help families with basic expenses. 

White House officials claim that the administration has held briefings with key senators to discuss the details of the proposal itself. The child care proposal comes after Biden began enforcing the American Relief stimulus packages to help aid Americans struggling to make ends meet with the Covid-19 pandemic. 

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According to the White House Biden will be calling for a national partnership among all the states to provide free, high quality, accessible preschool care to all 3 and 4-year-old children. Once fully implemented, the act will help more than 5 million children and save the average family $13,000. 

The $200 billion investment is set to prioritize more underprivileged areas first, as these have been the hardest within the past year. The main goal is to give every family the freedom to decide where they want their child to go to preschool without worrying about the cost. The plan will also work to ensure all publicly-funded preschools are high quality, meaning they have a low student-to-teacher ratio, offer a developmentally appropriate curriculum, and create an overall supportive environment that is inclusive for all students. 

According to reports from CBS news, “the president is seeking to leverage tuition-free community college and teacher scholarships to support those who wish to earn a bachelor’s degree or another credential that supports their work as an educator, or to become an early childhood educator. Educators will also receive job-embedded coaching, professional development, and wages that reflect the importance of their work.”

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All employees working in pre-k programs and Head Start will earn a wage of at least $15 an hour as a part of the American Families Plan. Additionally those with the proper qualifications will receive compensation commensurate with kindergarten educators. 

Currently the average child care worker earns $11.65 an hour, so the inclusion of these financial provisions for workers will hopefully work to bring back some of the thousands of child care workers who were forced to leave the labor force due to the pandemic. 

Studies have shown that kids who participate in pre-K are more likely to take honors classes and are less likely to repeat a grade while kids in lower-income areas do better once they reach middle school. This is due to a multitude of educational inequality issues within America, but a lot of it roots back to the access most children have to preschool programs. 

“Together, these plans reinvest in the future of the American economy and American workers, and will help us out-compete China and other countries around the world.”

This proposal, along with the proposals for the American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, will include a tax increase for major corporations and the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

Real Estate Tax

Joe Biden Announces $775 Billion ‘Caring Economy’ Plan Funded By Real Estate Taxes

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Former Vice President and 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden is releasing a plan this week that aims to change the way that American families care for each other from the beginning of one’s life all the way to the end. 

Biden’s calling it the “21st Century Caregiving and Education Workforce” plan, and the proposal calls for a $775 billion investment that will be distributed over the course of 10 years to various establishments, businesses, government agencies, etc. that all work to rebuild and “fortify the nation’s caregiving economy.”

The establishments that the money will go toward specifically include daycare facilities, in-home elder care, and long-term care for disabled individuals. The investment specifically will be coming from real estate taxes as well, according to Biden’s campaign. 

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“Everything will be paid for by rolling back unproductive and unequal tax breaks for real estate investors with incomes over $400,000 and taking steps to increase tax compliance for high-income earners.” 

Biden is expected to announce even more specifics as to what the plan will do with the money/where the money itself will be pulled from this week. However, his campaign did already release a general outline as to what the bills main goals are. The first thing Biden wants to do is provide emergency funding for state, local, and tribal governments to ensure that all child-care centers and elder-care providers throughout the country are financially protected through the rest of the pandemic. 

These businesses specifically are seeing a massive economic decline, as many individuals are not comfortable sending their child or elderly relative to be cared for by an outside party during a global health crisis. 

Biden’s administration laid out three major “planks” that this plan will work to accomplish within the next ten years. The first involves expanding affordable child care services for kids up to five-years-old as well as providing universal preschool education. This same concept goes for elderly and disabled individuals, as Biden will be expanding care options within these facilities, programs, and agencies as well. Particularly Biden wants to focus on community and home-based care. Finally, he wants to increase the pay and benefits for individuals who work within the caregiving industry. 

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Affordability is the number one priority in all aspects of this bill. Universal preschool would alleviate so many costs for low-income working families, but would also allow more businesses to open their own child-care facilities within corporate office buildings. Biden also is pledging to provide up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for new parents/workers in general when they need to be out of office for certain medical issues/procedures. 

The same concept goes for elderly and disabled people, especially those in low-income families, as with daycare, additional facilities and assistance can cost hundreds of thousands as time goes on. Biden specifically wants to distribute $450 billion of the fund to increase Medicaid funding to the states.

The money would also work to fund programs and create up to 150,000 new jobs within the caregiving industry. These new jobs, along with the thousands of current caregiver workers, will also see an increase in pay, and expanded protections for things like starting a labor union. The money will also be invested into new and improved training programs that can help these workers advance their careers more easily.

So far, many American citizens are in support of this plan, especially considering president Trump has yet to discuss any specific plans to improve child care, family leave, elderly care, health care, etc. The coronavirus pandemic has halted the president’s campaigning for the November election, however, this has already hurt him tremendously in the initial polls, so only time will tell if Trump counters Biden’s proposal.