Over the past few years, EPI research has highlighted the broad economic and social benefits of investing more in public education. New York City legislators are currently considering one such investment: boosting pay for paraprofessionals in public education by $10,000 annually.

Paraprofessionals—who work under the supervision of licensed teachers to provide focused instructional and behavioral support to students—provide crucial services and play a critical role in educating students with disabilities. Research has demonstrated that paraprofessional educators are key contributors to effective schools.

Despite this, the current pay of paraprofessionals is too low, and clear labor shortages of paraprofessionals have developed in public schools around the country—including in New York City. Paraprofessionals working for the New York City Department of Education have annual earnings ranging from $33,000 to $54,000. EPI’s Family Budget Calculator shows that a single adult with no children in New York City needs to earn $83,262 to afford a modest but adequate standard of living. An additional $10,000 would move those salaries closer to—but still well short of—a living wage. 

One clear sign that the city could benefit from greater public investment in paraprofessionals is the fact that New York City now spends more than $1.5 billion each year on special education due process cases. These costs arise when families successfully demonstrate that the public school system has failed to provide the services required under federal law, requiring the city to cover the cost of remedies such as private school enrollment (the most well-known subset of these are often referred to as “Carter cases”).

Boosting pay by $10,000 for the roughly 25,000 full-time paraprofessionals is estimated to cost the city about $244 million in 2027, roughly 15% of what the city spends on special education due process cases. While no single policy will eliminate these due process case costs, investing in the workforce that delivers crucial special education services can certainly strengthen recruitment and retention and increase the share of families of children with disabilities who are satisfied with the quality of education and support that is being provided in public schools. In turn, more families of special education students choosing to remain in public schools will reduce expenditures on due process cases, helping defray the cost of paying paraprofessionals closer to a living wage.

Finally, we should note that while the state and city of New York would benefit greatly from increased investment in the public sector, this investment obviously requires revenue. This revenue should come from those most able to provide it: high-income households and rich corporations. The quality of services provided to the city and state will depend crucially on whether or not policymakers are willing to raise the revenue needed to make these investments.

Child labor protections have existed for nearly a century but have come under attack in recent years. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) set guidelines for the hours and nonhazardous jobs for which employers could hire children under 16, guidelines that have for decades helped ensure that young teens could enter the workforce without jeopardizing their health or education. Where state standards are weaker than those provided in FLSA, federal law preempts the state standard, preventing states from undercutting protections for the youngest workers. But for the past several years, a constellation of business interests and right-wing groups have been proposing or enacting state child labor legislation—in Ohio, among other states—that conflicts with the FLSA with the eventual goal of eroding federal standards.

After years of pushing unsuccessfully to weaken work hours protections for 14–15-year-olds in Ohio, industry groups have partially succeeded with the help of State Senator Tim Schaffer. Just months after a public outcry led Governor Mike DeWine to veto similar child labor rollbacks in 2025, Schaffer revived the attack on child labor laws by sneaking an amendment into a broader bipartisan education bill. An unrelated amendment tacked onto the new law will allow employers to schedule 14–15-year-olds until 9 p.m. during the school year, though (unlike prior versions of the legislation) only on nights not preceding a school day. The change puts Ohio state law in conflict with long-standing federal child labor standards and allows employers to treat young teens more like adults for scheduling purposes, while saving on labor costs. In Ohio, employers can pay youth under 16 the federal minimum wage of $7.25, nearly $4 less than the regular state minimum wage of $11 an hour.

Industry-supported Ohio Senator snuck failed child labor rollback into bipartisan bill to force lawmakers’ support

In late 2025, Governor DeWine vetoed a standalone bill that would have extended the number of hours that employers can schedule 14–15-year-olds to work on any night during the school year—in violation of federal law—after advocates from a long list of child health and welfare, education, organized labor, and economic justice organizations publicly urged him to oppose it. In his veto message, DeWine acknowledged that existing work hour guidelines—providing young teens (under 16) opportunities to gain work experience “after school up to 7 p.m.”—have been “in place, across this country, for many years” and have “served us well” and “effectively balanced the importance of 14- and 15-year-old children learning to work, with the importance of them having time to study.”

But DeWine has now approved similar changes as part of a comprehensive, bipartisan education bill that received broad support, including from education and child advocates. State Senator Schaffer’s 11th-hour backdoor move to add previously vetoed child labor legislation to this year’s education bill was a desperate effort to force changes that have otherwise failed to pass muster, even in a Republican-controlled state legislature.

Federal child labor laws reflect decades of research about the harms of overwork

Allowing young teens to work more hours at night opens the door to problems ranging from poor academic outcomes to a greater chance of injury. Studies have consistently shown that intensive work at a young age is associated with poor academic outcomes; longer hours raise the risk of work-related illness and injury; and working later into the night exacerbates sleep deprivation that in turn can interfere with teens’ education and well-being. Allowing employers to schedule young teens to work until 9 p.m. also increases the likelihood of nighttime driving for new drivers (minors can be permitted to drive at age 15.5 in Ohio), an additional risk factor for accidents. Motor vehicle crashes are already the leading cause of death for teens and young adults, who are three times more likely than adults to die in a car accident.

For all these reasons, federal law limits the maximum number of working hours for young teens to three hours per night or 18 hours a week and prohibits work past 7 p.m. during the school year. Because states can legislate above FLSA standards but not below, the new state standards conflict directly with federal law.

The enacted rollback is less harmful than last year’s failed bill but still hurts children and violates federal law

While the bill DeWine vetoed in 2025 would have allowed employers to schedule 14-year-olds to work until 9 p.m. on any night during the school year, the bill he signed on Friday allows employers to schedule 14-year-olds to work until 9 p.m., only on nights not preceding a school day. However, this limitation on working hours during school nights does nothing to change overall concerns: that later and longer working hours during the school year threaten children’s well-being and education. The new state law also conflicts with federal law and will sow confusion. Employers who follow new state guidelines will be at high risk of violating the FLSA (which will continue to apply to most Ohio employers) and incurring fines and other enforcement actions from the U.S. Department of Labor. This is a lesson that employers have already learned the hard way in states like Iowa where the National Restaurant Association, NFIB, and others have pushed for similar child labor law changes that put state standards into conflict with federal law.

The outcome this year in Ohio provides a useful illustration of how corporate interests and dark money groups are conspiring to weaken labor standards in state legislatures across the country. Schaffer has championed multiple legislative efforts to roll back child labor protections in Ohio in coordination with industry groups that benefit from weaker standards and has even sought to erode federal child labor standards through a concurrent resolution calling on Congress to weaken the FLSA to match.

Schaffer has been clear about his intention to benefit employers, working closely with lobby groups like the billionaire-founded right-wing dark-money group Americans for Prosperity and state affiliates of industry lobby groups like the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and National Restaurant Association. These organizations have fought at the state and federal level for unpopular child labor rollbacks, as well as blocking minimum wage increases, paid sick leave, and other policies that improve conditions for workers. Schaffer has received legislative awards or campaign endorsements from all three groups.

By repeatedly proposing—and in this case implementing—rollbacks that conflict with federal law, Ohio lawmakers are chipping away at the already fragile federal floor for workplace protections. Industry campaigns to weaken child labor laws are continuing, and there is a very real risk that federal child labor protections could face similar threats. In light of these threats, states should instead pursue policy options to strengthen standards and ensure that young teens who work can do so without harming themselves in the process.

It has been a year since President Trump signed the 2025 Republican tax and spending megabill (the OBBBA) into law. The bill is guaranteed to lead to some of the largest short-run increases in inequality in American history. It included large tax cuts tilted toward higher-income households and spending cuts tilted against low-income households. The main targets for spending cuts were Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, often referred to as foods stamps). The Congressional Budget Office projects the OBBBA will reduce Medicaid enrollment by 7.5 million people, cut Medicaid spending by more than $900 billion, cut SNAP by $186 billion, and will require states to pay for a portion of the SNAP program.  These large cuts will have far-reaching implications for low-income families.

Defenders of the OBBBA cuts claim that, because a large share of these cuts result from introducing new bureaucracy around work-reporting requirements for “able-bodied adults without dependents” (ABAWDs), they will not fall on more vulnerable populations like children or retirees. This is not true. The OBBBA has many near-direct cuts to vulnerable populations’ participation in these programs. More importantly, these cuts will have large spillover effects through families and communities that will harm vulnerable populations—including children.

This post highlights how important Medicaid and SNAP spending is to children, with a particular focus on how these programs support public education. It then outlines some ways that the legislated cuts in the OBBBA will damage this support, either directly or through clear spillover effects through damage to local economies.

The importance of Medicaid and SNAP to children and schooling

Around 40% of school-age children are covered by Medicaid for health insurance, and nearly 30% of school-age children live in families that receive SNAP benefits. Medicaid funding is key for public education. It provides an estimated $7.5 billion annually to public schools to fund essential health and learning and development services. As a share of total K–12 student revenue, Medicaid provides up to 2% of school funding to some states and up to $325 per pupil in revenue in some states.

Medicaid is particularly crucial for special education. Public schools are required by law to provide appropriate care and services for individualized education plans, and Medicaid is a big source of funding for these plans. In a recent survey of school districts, 86% reported they use Medicaid funds for school health staff salaries, and 59% use the funds for contracted services for mental and behavioral health. When asked what they would have to cut if they lost Medicaid funding, 8 in 10 school district staff predicted reductions in school health personnel and services.

How Medicaid and SNAP cuts will still harm children through direct fiscal pressures

While the OBBBA cuts to Medicaid and SNAP do not directly harm children through cuts in children’s health insurance or their food stamp eligibility, changes to eligibility criteria and cost pressures on state budgets will make it onerous to maintain current spending levels for one of the main public institutions that support children: public schools. For example, if states want to maintain coverage for any ABAWDs who lose coverage because of the work requirements stipulated in the OBBBA, states will have to come up with funding for it themselves.  Additionally, the SNAP legislation requires that states now pay for 25% of their administrative costs that previously were fully funded from federal sources. With less federal money, states will either have to cut spending elsewhere in their budgets or (preferably, but politically difficult) raise revenue. None of these are easy political choices, and they all have some spillover effects. As one of the largest budget items in states, K–12 education funding will likely be squeezed in any state looking to maintain any of the services cut in the OBBBA without raising revenue.

How Medicaid and SNAP cuts will harm children through damage to local economies

Beyond these direct budgetary impacts, the OBBBA Medicaid and SNAP cuts could also reduce purchasing power in local economies and put upward pressure on unemployment rates, which could reduce economic security and opportunity for children in those areas.  Adults who receive Medicaid and SNAP don’t have to use their household budget to pay for health care or (some) groceries. Medicaid and SNAP allow them to maintain access to these necessities while also purchasing other goods in their local economy, such as electricity, child care, or rent. When these programs are cut, people face higher health and food costs, which can force them to cut back on purchases and reduce demand throughout the local economy.  

Moreover, areas particularly dependent on Medicaid and SNAP funding are least likely to be able to weather a reduction in aggregate demand for goods and services. Figure A shows that there is a clear positive relationship between a county’s unemployment rate and the income from Medicaid and SNAP. In other words, counties with high unemployment levels are also counties where a large share of their total income comes from Medicaid and SNAP funding.  

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To be fair, at the national level, it is possible that the reduction in spending caused by Medicaid and SNAP cuts will be neutralized by policies that raise incomes and demand elsewhere (say, by the tax cut provisions of the OBBBA or a Federal Reserve interest rate cut). But areas that are already facing high unemployment are missing out on positive trends in the U.S. economy. For these counties, the demand shock caused by Medicaid and SNAP cuts could be large, leading to job loss in these counties.

Damage to local economies hurts students and workers

Job loss from the spillover effects of the OBBBA cuts to local economies will create stress and financial insecurity for families, a catastrophe that research has shown can harm student achievement.

Parental job loss plays a key role in reducing parent and child well-being  and has been shown to  reduce a child’s likelihood of grade completion. Moreover, parental job loss is associated with a lower likelihood of obtaining postsecondary education, particularly in Black families. Causal evidence on community level job losses found a reduction in test scores for students, following the closing of a business. The effects were stronger for older children and for children in lower-income households. Even if the Medicaid cuts mostly target adults (ABAWDS), the reduction in local aggregate demand stemming from these funding cuts will hurt all families in a given region, and particularly for children, stand to harm their educational achievement. 

Conclusion

The cuts to Medicaid and SNAP mandated by the OBBBA will harm children. Medicaid and SNAP currently fund key health and food services for public education, and while these functions aren’t directly threatened under the OBBBA, the cost pressures states will face from federal funding cuts will threaten the ability of these programs to serve students. Moreover, there are clear spillover effects through damage to local economies. By reducing the amount of available income in these areas, Medicaid and SNAP cuts run the risk of imposing a sharp anti-stimulus to local economies. This effect could be large in demand-constrained counties (studies on the multiplier effect of Medicaid consistently show it has large effects on spending).   The claim that OBBBA won’t harm children is patently wrong, and the harms from it will plague children for a long time to come.