In a Shift, More Republicans Want Government Investment in Children

New York Times

24-03-2025

Democrats have long looked to the government to support their families through public programs and spending. Increasingly, Republicans want the same.
The details of how they want the government to help vary. But the growing bipartisan agreement reflects a belief among parents that American families are in crisis and something has to change.
In a variety of surveys in recent years, majorities of both Democrats and Republicans show support for family policies like paid leave, affordable child care and tax credits for parents. Large majorities are in agreement that the government should do more to regulate social media use for young people. And Americans think that K-12 education needs to be fixed.
The latest evidence is a poll of 1,300 parents released Monday by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit. In it, 73 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of independents and 55 percent of Republicans said the federal government spends too little on programs that benefit children.
Even having a small majority of Republicans embrace government spending on children is a notable shift, analysts say. It's a recognition that American families are struggling, especially those who are working class, a growing share of Republican voters. Most parents in the new survey said things were fair or poor for families like theirs. In a second survey released Monday by Common Sense, of 1,100 children ages 12 to 17, just 4 percent said things were excellent for families like theirs.
'I'm not surprised at all to see Republicans looking more like Democrats,' said Kristen Soltis Anderson, founding partner of Echelon Insights, a Republican polling firm that did the survey with Lake Research Partners, a Democratic pollster. 'There's a pretty strong consensus, especially among Republican women, that the status quo is not good.'
Ms. Anderson, a contributor to The New York Times's opinion section, and other pollsters cautioned that even if voters say family policies are important to them, they are rarely their top priority. When it comes to details, like how they would be structured or paid for and who should benefit, bipartisan agreement often falls apart. And even if a majority of Republican voters say in surveys that they support such policies, significant shares do not.
'I don't believe it's up to the government to help parents financially,' said Michelle Russell, a mother of five and owner of Honey & Rue's, a food truck in the Wichita, Kan., area. 'I personally don't believe that just because we have children, we need a handout such as assistance or a larger tax credit.'
Ms. Russell, who voted for President Trump, also disagrees that the government should regulate social media. 'The government is not raising my children,' she said. 'This is exactly why my children are home-schooled.'
But other Trump voters said they wanted him to pursue family policies. Jessyca Umana, a social worker and the mother of a teenager, said she supported paid leave, subsidized child care, the child tax credit and social media regulations — all '100 percent.'
She said she expected Mr. Trump to support these kinds of policies, too, and she thought that he had already shown he would help families and children by trying to block schools from acknowledging transgender students, and enabling schools to more openly talk about religion.
As some policymakers have grown concerned about declining fertility rates, and as many Republican-led states have banned abortion, some Republican officials have said the party needs to do more to support raising children. In the presidential campaign, a Trump spokeswoman said he supported the major family policy goals.
But the Trump administration has so far focused on cutting federal programs, not starting new ones.
An increase in the child tax credit enacted in the first Trump administration is set to expire later this year, and Republicans have proposed plans to renew it. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, did not say whether Mr. Trump planned to pursue child care or paid leave policies, but pointed to other things the administration has done for families, like calling for policy recommendations to expand access to in vitro fertilization.
She said in a statement that Mr. Trump is helping working families by 'returning education to the states, lowering costs and removing dangerous criminals from our communities.'
Democrats in Congress — with some support across the aisle — have introduced bills to provide paid family leave and child care assistance, and to expand the child tax credit to reach 16 million poor children who don't currently get the full credit. But Republicans have blocked recent efforts to increase support for families.
In the new survey of parents, roughly 85 percent of Democrats said children would be better off if there were paid family leave, more government funding for child care and after-school care, and more tax credits for families. Between two-thirds and three-fourths of Republicans agreed. Child care was least popular among Republicans, reflecting conflicting opinions about whether children are best off with a parent at home.
Eighty-six percent of parents overall said better K-12 public schools would improve the lives of American children, and 82 percent said free preschool would.
Both parents and teenagers expressed concerns about the effects of technology on young people and voiced a desire for government regulation. Nearly two-thirds of parents said social media was a mostly negative influence on children. Teenagers were more likely to say it was positive than negative, but they also said it was the primary cause of the youth mental health crisis.
Most respondents said they wanted the government to impose guardrails on social media for young people. There was widespread support for warning labels about the effect of social media on mental health and well-being. Most parents supported preventing children under 16 from having accounts, and about half of teenagers agreed.
'I definitely think for social media, there needs to be more regulation there, because kids are getting into trouble and they don't understand the ramifications,' said Lisa Julson, a physical therapist and mother of two in Kennewick, Wash.
An independent who voted for Mr. Trump, she's wary of government doing too much and making people dependent on it. She doesn't agree with all the Democrats' proposals for family policies. But she thinks the government should do more to address families' needs.
She'd like to see limited paid family leave, for a few weeks and not for new fathers. She wants the child tax credit expanded, including while children are in college. She doesn't think that the Department of Education should be shuttered — but that it should be revamped to focuson improving the teaching of core academic subjects. She supports public pre-K.
Will Mr. Trump do these things? 'He's got a lot of things that are more pressing,' she said. 'If he gets to it by the end of the year, I'll be happy.'