Over the long term, investments in children produce healthier, more educated, and more productive adults. They also lead to savings in spending on criminal justice, healthcare, and social services for adults. Researchers Michael McLaughlin and Mark R. Rank quantified the economic costs of child poverty and found that, in 2015, child poverty cost a total of $1.3 trillion. One-third of that cost was attributable to increased crime and incarceration, followed by reduced earnings and increased healthcare costs. The Urban Institute notes that programs for health, child care and preschool, and K-12 education have the greatest economic payoff — with the associated increases in real future tax revenues from increased earnings offsetting the cost of the programs. In fact, a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that for every dollar the federal government invests in programs that benefit children, societal returns can amount to $10 or more for some programs — a 10-fold return on investment.

Research shows that investing in children can produce positive returns in the short- and long-term, contributing to a healthy childhood and productive adulthood in addition to producing positive fiscal outcomes for the government. The government’s growing debt threatens to crowd out critical investments — like those in children — as the structural gap between spending and revenues widens and interest costs grow. Spending on children as a share of gross domestic product is projected to decrease by one-third a decade from now, while interest on the national debt will almost double. Adopting policies that restore the balance between spending and revenues can help ensure that the United States can invest in its priorities for the future, including in America’s children.

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