As states struggle, children’s issues are being politicized & our youngest citizens are being left out of the discussion in growing numbers.
Children have no lobby, no voice, & can’t fight back when a MN Governor* states that “children that are victims of failed personal responsibility are not my problem, nor are they the problem of the State Of Minnesota”.
There’s nothing a five year old can say to the governor of Indiana about the elimination of the state’s newborn screening fund (paid for by birth fees collected from parents), or the retroactive termination of adoption subsidies to the five hundred families that adopted special need children based on the promise that they would have assistance for their special needs children.
I doubt that a nine year old could clearly explain the problem facing California foster children because 1,000 state-licensed facilities match sex offenders’ addresses;
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/27/us/california-sex-offenders/
Will Nebraska’s five or ten year old old foster children be allowed to speak to the governor or at the state house about the total collapse of the states’s Privatized Child & Family Services, or what it is like to be abandoned by your birth family and the county in the same year?
http://www.northplattebulletin.com/index.asp?show=news&action=readStory&storyID=21588&pageID=3
More & more states are finding it useful to abdicate their responsibility to children & blame cost savings, immigrants, alcohol, or any number of flimsy excuses for why the government should not intervene.
The other industrialized nations are far more child friendly and a significant number of American states now compare unfavorably with third world nations.
Please share your ideas with KARA, Kids At Risk Action for making a louder, clearer voice for America’s children. Pass this on to your friends & people you think should be more aware. Submit your comments about what works and doesn’t work in your community.
*Tim Pawlenty
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