Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst

Karen Schulman is a Senior Policy Analyst in NWLC's Family Economic Security division. She researches and writes about child care and early education policies. She received her bachelor's degree from Williams College and her master's degree in Public Policy from Duke University. Prior to joining NWLC, she worked at the Children's Defense Fund. She enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephews and is glad they will grow up thinking there is nothing unusual about a woman being Speaker of the House or running for President.

Expert in: Child Care & Early Learning, Child Care, Child Care Assistance, Child Care Tax Strategies, Head Start, Family, Friend & Neighbor Care, Prekindergarten, Military Child Care, Unionization
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My Take

Child Care Cuts Continue in 2012

Posted by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: January 17, 2012 at 06:16 pm

As 2012 begins, states are continuing to make, or propose, cuts to child care. Maryland’s waiting list for child care assistance, started last year, has grown to over 14,000 children. California’s governor has proposed to reduce spending for child care and early education by $517 million, which would deprive 62,000 children of the opportunity to participate in these programs. Washington’s governor has proposed to cut funding for child care assistance by $50 million, which would result in 4,000 fewer children receiving help.

A CNN story aired this weekend demonstrates what these cuts mean for parents who need help affording child care so they can hold onto their jobs and make sure their children are in care that nurtures their growth and learning.

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Tags: Child Care, Child Care, Early Learning, TANF, Child Care Assistance | 4 comments

NY Times: Child Care Assistance Declining as Need Rises

Posted by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: December 14, 2011 at 01:35 pm

 “There’s a long history of recognition that child care is essential to helping low-income women work. That commitment is being eroded.” - Helen Blank, Director of Leadership and Public Policy at the National Women’s Law Center, quoted in the NY Times 

A front-page story in today’s New York Times, citing NWLC’s recent report and its finding that child care assistance has eroded in 37 states, shows the impact of this for families across the country. A mother on the waiting list for assistance in Virginia has her daughter spend her after-school hours with her grandmother while the grandmother does her job driving a bus across the city. A mother on the waiting list in Maryland uses a patchwork of arrangements—including a grandmother in ill health—that often fall through, forcing her to miss work and lose pay. A mother in Pennsylvania receives child care assistance, but constantly worries about losing her job, losing her assistance, and being placed at the end of a long waiting list before she could receive it again.

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Tags: Child Care, Child Care, The New York Times, Child Care Assistance | Add new comment

New Census Data: Child Care Consumes Large Portion of Poor Families’ Budgets

Posted by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: December 08, 2011 at 05:17 pm

Poor families who paid for child care spent two-fifths (40.0 percent) of their income on care in 2010, according to a new Census report.  This is a sharp increase from 2005, when poor families who paid for child care spent 29.2 percent of their income on care.  Families just above poverty (those with incomes from

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Tags: Census Bureau and Census Data, Child Care, Child Care Assistance | Add new comment

Reducing Poverty Requires Increased Child Care Assistance: NWLC Child Care Data sets a Benchmark

Posted by
Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst
Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Senior Policy Analyst
| Posted on: October 27, 2011 at 01:47 pm

Yesterday the Half in Ten campaign released its report Restoring Shared Prosperity. The report, using data from 2010, sets policy benchmarks by which the campaign will track the progress, in every state, of reaching Half in Ten’s goal of cutting poverty in half over the next ten years.

Cutting poverty in half is an important goal for women and their families. If the level of poverty in 2010 were cut in half today:

  • More than 23 million fewer people would be in poverty – 8.6 million of whom would be women.
  • One in nine, rather than more than one in five children, would be poor.
  • Poverty rates for black and Hispanic single mother families would drop to one in four from one in two.
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Tags: Child Care, Child Care & Early Learning, Poverty, Child Care Assistance, Poverty & Income Support | Add new comment

New Report Shows Families Losing Ground Under Child Care Assistance Policies

Posted by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: October 11, 2011 at 04:21 pm

Child care assistance helps low-income families afford the reliable, good-quality child care that enables parents to work, gives children the good start they need to succeed, and, as a result, supports a strong workforce necessary for the nation’s current and future prosperity. Yet, families in many states are growing less likely to receive the child care assistance they need, according to a report released today by the National Women’s Law Center.

Families in thirty-seven states are worse off under one or more key child care assistance policies in February 2011 than they were in February 2010, and better off in only eleven states, according to the report, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2011: Reduced Support for Families in Challenging Times. The policies covered are critical ones in determining whether families receive assistance and the extent of help they receive — income eligibility limits to qualify for child care assistance, waiting lists for child care assistance, copayments required of parents receiving child care assistance, reimbursement rates for child care providers serving families receiving child care assistance, and eligibility for child care assistance for parents searching for a job. 

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Tags: Child Care, Child Care & Early Learning, Child Care Assistance | Add new comment