As a working mother in Austin, I navigated child care waitlists (sometimes years long), paid 20% of my net salary towards daycare tuition (for 7 years), and frequently felt dissatisfied with the facility’s treatment of their workers. I observed a revolving door of predominantly women of color child care providers with few protections struggling to sustain themselves and their families in a demanding and unjust work environment. COVID-19 will exacerbate our child care system failures. COVID-19 continues to underscore the failure of our public policy nationally, including in Texas, which puts pr ..read more

Texas immigrants are an integral part of our community and our economy.  During the COVID-19 crisis, however, Texas immigrants and undocumented workers have been systematically excluded from federal and state relief. As Texas, and the rest of the nation, reports unprecedented levels of unemployment, our leaders are still excluding immigrants from life-saving support. Unemployment Insurance (UI), in particular, has been critical for supporting Texas families during the pandemic. However, UI does not support the undocumented immigrants who directly contribute to this program. Nati ..read more

State leaders have made progress over the past several weeks to address the public health and economic crisis caused by COVID-19. CPPP and our partners have advocated for urgent action and we’ve seen positive movement, including the following wins for Texas families: Texas has accepted federal funding for COVID-19 testing for the uninsured and taken other positive steps to ensure better access to testing and treatment; Texas received federal approval to enact the Pandemic electronic benefit transfer (EBT) program to replace the value of free and reduced-price meals childre ..read more

The COVID-19-induced crisis is reducing state revenue, while at the same time increasing the demand for public services. The final impact on Texans and the state economy is far from clear at this point. Despite Congressional action to increase federal assistance, the Texas Legislature will undoubtedly have to consider changes to the state/local tax system to support needed services. The Texas tax code contains many outdated or wasteful exemptions that the Legislature has added over the years. Eliminating certain tax exemptions and updating some tax rates would go far to create new revenue for ..read more

We are deep into the COVID-19 crisis in Texas, and more cases appear every day. Many Texas communities have wisely issued shelter in place orders, and the Governor has required all Texans to stay home unless they are “participating in an essential service or activity.” We appreciate the extremely difficult choices federal, state, and local officials are making to slow down this deadly virus and to “flatten the curve” on new cases. As we mentioned at the onset of this crisis, CPPP is first and foremost focused on the health and safety of our fellow Texans. Since that time, CPPP has also ca ..read more

Versión en español: Acabo de perder mi trabajo. ¿Cómo consigo un seguro médico? In the last four weeks, more than 1 million Texans filed for unemployment, and job losses are expected to keep growing. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that, nationally, 46% of people who lost their job in the last month also lost their job-based health insurance at the same time. CPPP put together a new resource to help Texans understand their health insurance coverage options, whether or not you just lost a job. Here’s a quick summary: Families with low incomes can enroll their children under age 19 in M ..read more

The COVID-19 outbreak has directed a spotlight on the often-overlooked, essential work of grocery and convenience store employees, postal service and delivery workers, warehouse staff, and hospital workers from janitorial staff to ICU doctors. Who are the essential workers in Texas out there keeping us healthy and making sure we can get the food and necessities we all need? State-level data from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shows that: ●Texas essential workers are disproportionately women (62.8%).●People of color are overrepresented (61.2% of essential workers are Black ..read more

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and businesses, federal nutrition programs were key to putting healthy food on the table for millions of Texas households. Before this crisis even started: Texas students ate nearly 2 million breakfasts and 3.4 million lunches at school each day; The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) made sure that almost 700,000 moms, infants and toddlers in Texas had access to nutrition foods; Texas daycare homes and centers fed 770,000 toddlers nutritious meals each day through the  ..read more

Texans are losing jobs at an historic pace in these early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the vital role of unemployment insurance (UI). UI is a critical backstop, enabling Texans to meet basic needs. Unemployment benefits have been proven to reduce hunger, maintain housing, and preserve savings.[1] Each dollar of unemployment benefits increases economic activity nationally by two dollars as it multiplies through the economy, with people spending the benefits on food and other needs. Last week’s passage of the federal CARES Act, plus other changes that the Texas Workforce Commissi ..read more

As Texas faces the rapidly developing news around COVID-19, we at the Center for Public Policy Priorities are first and foremost focused on the health and safety of our fellow Texans. The Governor has declared a statewide disaster, and we are monitoring developments. Our hearts are with the leaders, front-line medical personnel, first responders, and other community members working to keep us all safe and contain this pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us how each of our communities are globally-connected, and likewise, the policy decisions of Texas leaders are not isolated to this cur ..read more