Renewing Our Vision for America's Children
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President, First FocusBruceL[at]firstfocus.net Mr. Lesley has more than 20 years of public policy experience at all levels of government and a demonstrated commitment to making children’s lives better. Lesley directs all aspects of policy development and internal operations at First Focus. |
The promise of this nation is that our young people will be provided an equal opportunity to fulfill their full potential. Unfortunately, over 16 million or more than 1 in 5 of our nation's children live in poverty, nearly 8 million children lack health insurance coverage, the U.S. has the 2nd worst infant mortality rate among industrialized nations, over 1 million students are homeless, over 750,000 children are abused and neglected annually, and over 1 in 5 students drop out before graduating from high school.
We can and must do better.
What is needed is a new and fresh vision for change from our nation's leaders -- at all levels. And child advocates across this country must redouble their efforts to demand change and progress at the local, state, and national levels.
The last major accomplishment for children in this country was passage of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, which successfully cut the uninsured rate for children to less than 10 percent. But, that was 16 years ago and nearly a generation of children have grown up since then without significant progress. In fact, during the last decade, a number of indicators for children, including KIDS COUNT and the Child Well-Being Index, have taken a downward trajectory that must be reversed. After careful analysis and review of such data, Save the Children and First Focus gave the United States a woeful grade of C- when it comes to children.
What is clear is that responses in policy silos no longer work. As John Gomperts at America's