Changes to the Child Tax Credit

May 20, 2025

How will the reconciliation bill’s Child Tax Credit changes impact low-income working families?

As part of the reconciliation bill, Congress is considering increasing the Child Tax Credit (CTC). Robert Greenstein argues that policymakers should instead make the CTC more inclusive by strengthening it for millions of children in lower-income working families and could do so at modest cost.

Research and proposals on U.S. education

Tutoring to counter declining academic performance. Recently released scores from the 2024 administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) highlight the need for interventions that can help struggling students. Isabel Sawhill and Kai Smith propose leveraging public service fellows to support high-dose tutoring programs and offer tips for education leaders on how to implement tutoring effectively.

K-12 teacher absences surged post-pandemic. While much has been reported on student absenteeism in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, elevated teacher absenteeism also poses a serious challenge. Michael Hansen, Purnima Aggarwal, and Rebecca Wagner examine state and local data on teacher absenteeism during and since the pandemic, with a particular focus on how teacher attendance has changed in schools that serve high shares of disadvantaged students.

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