According to a new study commissioned by the Youth Development Institute of Puerto Rico and presented in Congress last week, 30 percent of Puerto Rican families with children lost their jobs or had their work hours reduced after the hurricane, according to an opinion piece published by The Hill. The poorest families took the hardest hit, and they are still having trouble meeting their most basic needs. Economic precarity will also hinder the Island’s ability to recover and impede long-term economic development. Prior to Maria, economic insecurity among families with children and youth had fueled the migration of hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans to the continental U.S. Puerto Rico’s Department of Education estimated a 30,000-person drop in school enrollment in 2018-19, on top of the 20 percent annual decrease it has been experiencing in recent years. After Maria, it is more urgent than ever that the children left on the Island be given the opportunity to develop to their full potential. Congress can take a step in the right direction by extending the Child Tax Credit to families of one and two children in Puerto Rico, according to the op-ed. Although most Puerto Rican families do not pay federal income taxes, they pay federal payroll taxes, which is why families of three or more children can claim the credit on the island. However, most Puerto Rican families do not qualify for the tax credit because they have less than two children. This extension would mitigate the economic losses after Hurricane Maria, reward hard work, reduce child poverty and incentivize families with children to stay on the island.
