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Opinion

Baby Bonds Are Great, But We Shouldn’t Make Kids Wait


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Kids back at school (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


Coinciding with the start of the school year, New York City parents got some good news last week when Mayor de Blasio launched the city’s first universal baby bonds program. Starting this year, every public-school kindergartener will receive access to a college savings account seeded with $100 from the city.

This is great. Making college more accessible and affordable, especially to low-income students, must be a major policy goal and will certainly help overcome the widening wealth gap. 

But money now is better than money later and more can be done to help kids throughout their childhood, years before they enter college campuses. 

No doubt, the benefits of baby bonds are clear. Children with even a small savings account are three times more likely to enroll in college and more than four times more likely to graduate. And with average student loan debt soaring to $30,000 per graduate, leveling the playing field by helping kids pay for college will give students opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have had. More than this, expanding college access will reap plenty of residual effects on health, safety, and economic stability for communities in the long run. 

All these benefits are great, but why make kids wait until they turn 18 to reap them? Instead of delaying gratification, we should be giving families direct cash assistance now so that they avoid a life of poverty and are even more prepared to enter college when the time comes to take the money out of their college accounts. After all, students from low-income families are 10 times more likely to drop out of college than students from high-income families. Helping families out of poverty now will pay dividends in ensuring kids are able to enter and stay in higher education. 

No matter your thoughts on our campaign, as an advisor on Andrew Yang’s run for mayor, there was one policy we undoubtedly got right: cash relief for poor families. Under our plan of providing up to $2,000 annually to the city’s 500,000 poorest residents regardless of immigration status, the city would have reduced deep poverty by 60% according to an independent study.

Time and again direct cash assistance programs have proven to be a game changer in uplifting people out of poverty. And cash stimulus checks from the federal government during the pandemic were shown to have significantly improved Americans’ ability to buy food and pay household bills and to have reduced anxiety and depression. Research has shown that cash transfers also have stimulative effects with recipients spending 44.5% of the federal check amount back into the local economy within just 10 days.

Direct cash assistance isn’t new. Social Security checks lift 15 million elderly Americans out of poverty every year and form one of the most effective anti-poverty programs the United States has ever devised. Due in part to the pandemic and the popularization of the concept of a Universal Basic Income (UBI), policymakers are coming to understand that simply giving poor families the cash they need to provide for themselves and make sound financial decisions is more productive than the old ways of complex -- and costly -- food stamps and housing voucher programs, which often kept people poor and perpetuated problematic ideals of who is “deserving.”  

The truth is New Yorkers should be entitled to a suite of modern policies targeted at uplifting them. That is why it is encouraging to see Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams’ plan to expand the city’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program, which would cover nearly 900,000 New Yorkers with household incomes up to $50,000 a year. EITC on the federal level has been shown to improve children’s educational and financial outcomes as adults. Under an Adams mayoralty, these direct cash credits to families will go a long way in helping families and children over the course of their lifetimes. 

Whether it’s UBI, EITC, or some other acronym, the goal should be the same: getting cash into families' pockets today so that they can equip themselves with the tools to succeed. And while college savings accounts are fantastic, our policymakers should make sure kids are getting everything they need to help them now, not just when it comes time to go for college. 

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Erika Tannor is a political consultant at Tusk Strategies. On Twitter @erikatannor.

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As the Future of Roe Hangs in the Balance, New York City and Albany Must Act to Protect Abortion Access for All


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Gov. Hochul leads a press conference on abortion rights (photo: Don Pollard/Governor’s Office)


In response to the recent ban in Texas and upcoming Supreme Court case, Governor Kathy Hochul declared New York a safe harbor for abortion care at a rally on September 13. Hochul noted, rightly, that the state has an obligation to fully implement the 2019 Reproductive Health Act (RHA). To that end, she directed state agencies to launch public information campaigns directed at patients and providers about their rights and responsibilities under the RHA.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand followed by voicing her support for the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify a right to abortion care into federal law, just as the RHA does in New York State.

These pronouncements of solidarity with people in Texas and other legally restrictive states are welcome first steps. As the right to safe, legal abortion nationwide hangs in the balance, however, reactive measures are no longer enough—if New York is to become a safe harbor for abortion, officials at every level of government must champion bold, proactive policies that pre-empt attacks from the powerful anti-abortion movement.

First, they must make abortion, and all forms of sexual and reproductive health care, accessible to all New Yorkers. 

In 1994, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective defined reproductive justice as “the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.”

For decades, the fight for reproductive justice in City Hall and Albany has been relegated to a small handful of electeds and constituent activists. Access to abortion care isn’t simply a “women’s issue,” but City Hall and Albany continue to treat it as one. Marginalized New Yorkers, particularly the Black birthing people at the forefront of the reproductive justice movement whose communities are disproportionately affected by our collective inaction, know that abortion access is a social, economic, gender, and racial issue.

In New York City alone, there are at least 11 “crisis pregnancy centers,” which are fake health clinics that use lies and unauthorized medical practices to dissuade vulnerable birthing people from getting abortions. Anti-abortion extremists in Queens are now allowed, thanks to the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals, to terrorize New Yorkers who try to access or provide reproductive health care in clinics.

While our city became the first in the nation to provide direct funding for abortion, the $250,000 that the City Council has set aside the last two budget cycles for the New York Abortion Access Fund isn’t nearly enough to cover the up-to-$3,000 cost of abortion care for low-income and uninsured New Yorkers, let alone out-of-state birthing people. 

These are some of the many hurdles New Yorkers face in accessing abortion care, and abortion care is only one piece of the larger problem. Systemic racism in health care for pregnant and birthing New Yorkers, inadequate postpartum care and early childcare, stigmatizing, outdated sex-ed, the proliferation of gender-based and sexual violence—we could go on—are just some of the others. In the spirit of reproductive justice, we cannot talk about shoring up abortion access in New York without also talking about the persisting inequities in all facets of sexual and reproductive health care.

Now that we face an impending national crisis, one that many marginalized communities have already been facing for years, New Yorkers are looking for ways to join the fight. Using our collective experience, knowledge, and skill sets, we’ve put together a non-comprehensive action guide that outlines steps New York elected and government officials can take, at every level and in almost all offices, to truly make New York a safe harbor for abortion care.

The guide also includes graphics and call transcripts that everyday New Yorkers can use in their activism.

Finally, it’s past time for New Yorkers to elect more reproductive justice advocates to office.

The anti-abortion movement has spent millions to help elect extremists who champion their cause in state legislatures and city governments across the country. Yes, greater gender representation, as seen in our first woman Governor, and New York City’s first women-majority City Council come January, could result in more substantive gender representation in New York politics as well. But simply electing more women to power doesn’t necessarily ensure those political leaders will focus on reproductive justice. As it stands, champions of reproductive justice are still largely on the outskirts of political power.

The country faces the biggest threat to Roe v. Wade in decades. It’s incumbent on New York to set the example for other progressive cities and states that could face an influx of out-of-state patients seeking abortion care. We must elect candidates to office who are committed to making that possible. If we succeed, we can show purple and red cities and states, particularly those on the verge of securing Democratic wins in their legislative or executive offices, that reproductive justice advocates can run and win. 

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Astrid Aune is a community organizer and 1L at CUNY School of Law. Elizabeth Adams is a Legislative Director at the New York City Council, formerly served as the Director of Government Relations at Planned Parenthood of NYC and was a candidate for City Council in Brooklyn’s 33rd District. Jessica Madris is a freelance reporter and writer covering gender policy, particularly at the local level, with an MPA in Urban Social Policy and Gender and Public Policy and experience in city government and politics, and a postpartum doula in Brooklyn.

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Preventing Student Suicide in New York State


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High school students (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)


This month, as our children return for another pandemic school year, there has never been a more important time to have an honest conversation about mental health. 

As a member of the New York Assembly Committee on Education, I have heard from countless parents and young people about how the pandemic has exacerbated the pre-existing psychological strains of depression and anxiety. These come on top of the pressures youth have faced for years, from navigating identity issues to combating bullying. 

Unfortunately, kids, families, and schools don’t always have the training or resources to cope with these challenges or pinpoint when they become dangerously unmanageable. It is long past time to equip our schools with the tools they need to provide appropriate mental health resources, support at-risk populations and, most critically, prevent suicide.

Students today are significantly more likely to report poor mental health compared to previous generations. Between 2007 and 2016, pediatric emergency room visits for mental health concerns rose 60%. Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24, and LGBTQ youth are especially at-risk. Of the nearly 40% of transgender Americans who report attempting suicide, 92% have done so before the age of 25. 

Preventing youth suicide isn't just an intellectual issue for me. I tried to take my life as a young person. Looking back, I recognize that I was facing profound stress related to identity and isolation. Thankfully, I made it through that dark period and have gone on to lead a meaningful, successful life.

For me, having a support system was key to my mental health recovery. Kids can express vulnerability when surrounded by people they trust. That’s why I have introduced the Student Suicide Prevent Act (A7762), which will give schools the support they need to reach students of all experiences and backgrounds. It provides a framework for teacher training, mental health resources, and policies and procedures for suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention. The legislation draws on national models while creating space for schools to tailor information to align with local needs.

Right now, 19 states require suicide prevention training for school personnel, and 13 states specify that this training take place annually. New York is one of 15 states that encourages, but doesn’t mandate, such programming. Our lack of leadership has important consequences: a third of our schools do not have suicide prevention policies in place, and only 2% of existing policies specifically address LGBTQ youth.

Teachers are often resources for kids who feel isolated. They spend hours every day with their students and develop deep relationships by offering advice and helping them build self-esteem. As a result, they are often the first, and the ones best able, to see when our kids need extra help. 

Their insight is especially important because not everyone who is suffering withdraws or disengages from school activities -- what we commonly associate with signs of struggling. I was the president of my high school class, but I still needed help.

Talking about these issues, from both a policy and personal standpoint, is hard. I’ve never publicly shared my story before. But I know that open and honest communication is a necessary step to break the cycle and better help our youth. With the right policies in place, we can give youth the support they need to navigate challenging times, recognize their own strength, and see a better future ahead.

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Assembly Member Danny O’Donnell represents parts of Manhattan. On Twitter @Danny_ODonnell_.

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