The Children's Budget Report: A Detailed Analysis of Spending on Low-Income Children's Programs in 13 States. Occasional Paper Number 14

State, federal, and local spending on low-income children are examined for 13 states to help policymakers see the priorities that are actually reflected in their spending. The 13 states were chosen to ensure geographic, political, and economic diversity as part of the "Assessing the New Federalism" project, and together they include about half of the U.S. population. The first section discusses the nature of state fiscal data and the methodology for the study of spending. The second section documents the amount the federal, state, and local governments spend on children's programs and described the variation in spending across the states. The third section analyzes the spending from state and local governments, and the fourth section determines whether the variation in spending is related to a state's ability to raise revenue. The fifth section reviews the broad distribution of state expenditures among six categories of children's programs, and the sixth section examines spending in these categories in more depth. The final section summarizes the study's findings. Because of the study's focus on low-income children, most of the discussion is devoted to programs other than education, since education programs benefit all children. The sixth section does, however, contain an analysis of amounts spent on child care and early childhood development. An appendix contains supplemental information, including a discussion of data sources. (Contains 14 figures and 21 tables.) (SLD)