In addition to providing low-income children with quality preschool, Head Start/Early Head Start means jobs in Iowa. Congress is considering major budget cuts.
See the IPP backgrounder or download 2-page PDF. 3/31/11

It's a mistake to believe all middle-income families can afford preschool on their own, as proposals in the Iowa Statehouse assume.
IPP policy brief or 4-page PDF. Also news release. 3/3/11

The program affects the ability of millions of Americans and thousands of Iowans to work and keep their children in a high-quality program.
See the IPP backgrounder or download 2-page PDF. 2/15/11

More than 48,500 of Iowa’s low- to middle-income families would lose some or all of their Child Tax Credit if Congress does not extend improvements made in the 2009 Recovery Act.
Iowa Fiscal Partnership backgrounder or PDF (2 pages) 6/14/10
IFP reports on Iowa impacts of ARRA

Iowa can take steps to expand child care assistance to more working families and assure both quality care and long-lasting returns to the state. Full Report (35 pg), executive summary (5 pg), news release. (PDFs) 3/25/09
Backgrounder on quality, regulation issues. (PDF, 2pg) 4/14/09

Working families could benefit if policy makers and advocates use a new tool to analyze policy impacts on family budgets. The nonpartisan Iowa Fiscal Partnership announced the new Iowa Family Resource Simulator in partnership with the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University. Read the news release. 4/2/08

Tens of thousands of Iowa children have a stake in the wrangling in Washington over bipartisan efforts to the 10-year-old State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The compromise package vetoed by President Bush would reach more kids in low- to moderate-income working families who otherwise would not have insurance. SCHIP now reaches 37,000 Iowa children, a figure that would grow significantly under the legislation. Read the backgrounder on SCHIP facts and our guest opinion in the Iowa City Press-Citizen.

. More SCHIP resources from the Iowa Fiscal Partnership: a news release that addresses inaccurate claims about access for undocumented immigrants, and a one-page backgrounder and news release about what's at stake for Iowa. A two-page backgrounder shows how SCHIP successfully reaches uninsured children in working families. Also see KGAN-TV's interview with IPP's Mike Owen.

. More about the health-insurance shortage: Iowans at middle and lower incomes showed slippage in 2006 with a drop in income, a rise in poverty and a lingering rate of uninsurance. Read the news release.