Plain Dealer op-ed: Strong policies help children flourish
Posted November 02, 2015 in Op-Eds
New online tools provide look into how policies affect Ohio family budgets.Policy Matters Ohio and Columbia University National Center for Children in Poverty co-authored an op-ed in the Sunday Plain Dealer highlighting new online tools that show costs of basic family needs in Ohio, and how key policies affect household budgets.
Amy Hanauer, executive director of Policy Matters, and Curtis Skinner of the Columbia center wrote that the online tools help policymakers and advocates see the challenges Ohio parents face — and why policy matters to them.
The opinion piece ties into a Plain Dealer/Ideastream project focusing on the first 2,000 days of children's lives (The PD created the terrific illustration above to accompany the op-ed).
"The policies we’ve modeled show areas where Ohio has shown leadership and others where we badly lag," Hanauer and Skinner wrote.
Policy Matters and the Columbia center will demonstrate the newly updated tools and discuss policy implications at a presentation Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Trinity Cathedral, Conference Room A/B, 2230 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44115.
The tools are free here.