Mammoth AwardsYou may have had it tough lately during the coronavirus pandemic. But no matter how hard these times have been on you, there’s probably someone else you worry about even more: Your child.
You want to make sure they get fed every day, so their nutrition doesn’t falter to avoid health issues. And you want them to have the chance to get an education to have a prosperous future.
As fundamental as those desires may be, they can be tough to fulfill if your income is limited and you haven’t had the opportunities to advance. With the American Families Plan, though, your income may not matter, especially when it comes to providing top-notch nutrition and education for your child.
While it hasn’t been officially approved as of yet, there’s hope that the American Families Plan will go live. And if it does, here’s how it could positively impact your child’s nutrition and education.
Nutrition Benefits
Are you familiar with the Summer Pandemic-EBT program? It was created in response to the coronavirus. Since schools had to close for safety reasons, many parents wondered how they would replace free or reduced-price meals that their kids enjoyed when classes were in session. With Summer Pandemic-EBT, they received funds to buy food to replace those meals.
The American Families Plan aims to make Summer Pandemic-EBT permanent, so you’ll never have to worry about your child’s nutrition during the summer.
Not all schools have access to free meals for their students. To increase accessibility, President Biden wants to ease eligibility requirements for free meals at high-poverty schools. If successful, this would put food in the mouths of 9.3 million more children.
While having free school meals is excellent, you want them to be nutritious. The chances of that happening will improve since the American Families Plan will incentivize schools to exceed nutritional standards with their meals.
Education Benefits
You don’t want your child to get a late start on their education. With the American Families Plan, children as young as three and four would be able to enjoy free preschool. It’s estimated that five million children would benefit from free pre-school, and their parents would save an average of $13,000 in child care costs.
Child care doesn’t end when a child passes four years of age, though. That’s why the American Families Plan wants to make child care more affordable. The most vulnerable families would enjoy free child care, while others would only have to pay a certain percentage of income for those services.
What about college? Biden’s plan would make community college free. This is excellent news for anyone looking to earn a degree or certification to solidify their financial future. But since four-year colleges can be costly, the American Families Plan also wants to increase the maximum Pell Grant award by $1,400.
