Education spending for elementary, secondary and higher education is projected to
account for 6 percent of total federal discretionary spending in fiscal year 2015, a figure that has
held roughly constant for decades.
Many school districts are deciding that police in classrooms cause more problems than they solve.
For the 140 million people who are poor, or one emergency away from being poor, we know it's necessary to present a comprehensive response to the systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism, and war economy plaguing our country today. This Poor People’s Moral Budget asks, given the resources of our society, whether these demands are also possible. Our answer is a resounding yes.
In 2017, 140 million people in the United States were living in poverty or on the verge of poverty using this measure.
With everything changed since 2019, and official poverty measures for 2020 still far in the future, we asked: what has become of the 140 million during the pandemic?
In the seven sections of the Moral Budget, we look at policies and investments for seven critical areas of the Poor People’s Moral Agenda.