2008 Presidential Election Outlook For America’s Children
2007 Presidential Primary Polls
National Survey Findings For Children’s Agenda
- Voters across the country believe that political leaders are not doing enough to ensure the health, education and well-being of children and that the next President and Congress need to give a higher priority to the country’s children and spend less time on other issues. This concern permeates voters regardless of partisanship or region of the country.
- Nearly half of voters nationally say that the health, education and well-being of children in America in the last 10 years have gotten worse (45%). Only 44% believe things for children have improved. Looking towards the future, just 44% think the conditions for children will get better while 41% say they will get worse.
- A significant share (38%) of voters say children’s issues will be more important to them personally in the presidential election than in past elections. Children’s issues will play a greater role with Independents (46%) than either Democrats (35%) or Republicans (33%). Independents also are most pessimistic that when today’s children in the United States grow up, they will not have the same opportunities that the current generations had (59% pessimistic compared to 40% of Democrats and 40% of Republicans).
Four Key Early Primary/Caucus States Survey Findings
- Voters in the early primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada want candidates for President to provide a comprehensive agenda of how they would address the needs of children.
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- Voters in the early primary and caucus states believe the country is heading in the wrong direction and are pessimistic about the future of the nation’s children. 67% of voters say the country is heading in the wrong direction compared to just 19% who believe it is on the right track.
- Voters believe that Washington DC is failing America’s children and working families. Three-fifths (62%) agree with that statement that “the needs of children are regularly elbowed off the table by stronger special interests. The Congress, the administration, and the federal government need to be doing a lot more on behalf of the nation’s children and working families.” Only 20% think the federal government does a lot to help working families.
- After the war in Iraq, Democratic primary and caucus voters rank the improvement of the health, education, and safety of children more important an issue for the next president to address than homeland security, immigration, global warming, and the economy.
- Half of primary and caucus voters don’t know where their preferred candidate for President stands on children’s issues.
- Children’s issues could play a key role in this election since many voters say they could change their minds and vote for a different candidate if that person presented a specific platform on children’s issues that agrees more with the respondent’s vision.
- Addressing the issue of child abuse and neglect will pay significant dividends to the candidates who choose to talk about it.
About the Every Child Matters Education Fund
The Every Child Matters Education Fund is a non-partisan Washington, D.C. based 501(c)(3) organization created to raise the visibility of children and family issues in elections.
Children and Environment – we are squandering our future
- American policies give great lip service to the health, welfare and education for the children in this country – whether they were born here or brought here, children in America are subject to scrutiny for entitlement.
- American policies hint at responsibility and give token lip service to the environment we hand to the generations that follow ours.
At Risk: 1,000,000,000 of the World’s Children
One Billion Children are at Risk Today from War, Poverty and Hunger, Failed by the World’s Governments
They are a billion strong. Diseased, malnourished, uneducated, they are a people on the run from wars that take the lives of their brothers and sisters. And they are all children – half the children on earth today.
… the grim reality of daily life for the world’s innocent generation was laid bare. More than one billion children are now being denied the healthy and protected upbringing promised by the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. For them – the forgotten masses – violence, poverty and Aids are all that the year’s end will bring. In Darfur in Sudan, wretched shivering souls wait for their parents in refugee camps. In Haiti, they huddle in shelters, having lost homes and parents to floods. In Iraq, they trample through the rubble of bombed-out homes.
More than one in six children is severely hungry. One in seven has no access to health care.
Despite debt reduction schemes and the vast sums of cash donated by individuals around the world, one factor keeps more than a billion children in a state of poverty. And that factor is war – usually over natural resources such as diamonds, oil and coltan, a mineral used in mobile phones, which are exported to the West.
As two reports showed yesterday, perhaps the most chilling statistic of all is the number of young lives snatched by conflict. Since 1990, 3.6 million people have been killed on the front line in wars around the word – almost half of them were children.
And that is only the global estimate – here in America, land of the ‘free’ …
- Homeland Insecurity … American Children at Risk
- American Children at Risk of Being Sold into the Commercial Sex Industry
- Immigration Raids Leave American Children Behind
Study says the damage to kids is mental, emotional and economic - Children at Risk of Liver Disease Caused by Processed Food
- Children at Risk – Widespread Chemical Exposure Threatens Our Most Vulnerable Population
- A History of Neglect: Foster Children at Risk, and an Opportunity Lost
- Child Abuse and Neglect
Children are our ONLY hope for a solution to the future catastrophes we are handing down to them. The legacy of this generation is denial. The legacy of our generation is neglect and selfishness. As long as we are reasonably comfortable in our imaginary cocoons, we are insulated from the storm cloud of realities that are just now beginning to sprinkle upon us. The deluge is awaiting our offspring and their offspring. We do not teach our children the importance of responsibility because we have no concept about the consequences of our own actions. Sure, there are some among us who are quite aware and shout about it. These are the “nut cases” that politicians choose to ignore … they have corporate issues to keep balanced in order to get elected. Not only do we hand down health, education and environmental catastrophes to the next generations, but National Debt to other countries will assure a third place slot for America within world structure. The enemies we have nurtured will target the generations that follow us – they will pay for the arrogant sins of their fathers and mothers.
This generation has sacrificed the next generation. Why should they mourn us … ?
Sphere: Related Content
November 11th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
I guess it’s a matter of priorities and for the past 7 years, the health and well-being of Americans — especially, American children, hasn’t registered on the Bush administration’s radar.
The Associated Press reports:
The rate at which infants die in the United States has dropped substantially over the past half-century, but broad disparities remain among racial groups, and the country stacks up poorly next to other industrialized nations.
In 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available, roughly seven babies died for every 1,000 live births before reaching their first birthday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. That was down from about 26 in 1960.
Babies born to black mothers died at two and a half times the rate of those born to white mothers, according to the CDC figures.
The United States ranks near the bottom for infant survival rates among modernized nations. A Save the Children report last year placed the United States ahead of only Latvia, and tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071111/ap_on_he_me/saving_the_smallest_us_picture
November 11th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Hey Christopher, I checked out your post on the sad state of children’s welfare. Very helpful and informative. There is so much being missed by the voting public, that I feel wrapped in disillusion … what does it take to wake up the drugged (media) induced stupor we find ourselves in?
America should be ashamed of itself. Here we go spreading the word about our wonderful democracy and level of living. But, we don’t reveal that the picture we show is obsolete. We make sure that what you see is not always what you get. America is now the premier ‘disinformation’ expert. We all know the countries that used to hold that title … The state of health care in this country is shameful – bullets for brains has made a joke of us all, at our own expense.
Thanks for your input.
Da’ Boss
November 12th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Clearly the BushCo crime family is very content to have a banana republic. How these people sleep at night is beyond me. How people can actually support them scares me.. the sheer selfishness is breathtaking..this is culmanation of the I got mine , you get yours , greed is good, welfare myths and memes from Reagans’time. so many lies …and really right now.. The informed economists say we are heading off a cliff. in other words – ICE BERG DEAD AHEAD. None of the stats they collect give a true picture of life on the ground economically for real people. What once was called the middle class. I mean tellling a middle aged woman working 3 jobs was fantastic..just shows how callous and sick the selfishness is of this country. How long before one soaks in this stew of greed before they too, become corrupted. All the medicaid, medicare and welfare fruad wrapped together does not even come close to CORPORATE WELFARE FRUAD.
War is profitable. Caring for people not so much.
November 18th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
[...] Sure, they’ve included those buzz words “family” and “life,” but the main focus is on the war and the economy. Of course those are incredibly important issues, but since women voters are the acknowledged key to the election this political season, wouldn’t you think that a few of them would devote a little web space to explaining their positions on helping women, and families, solve the practical problems we all face in our lives? And where do they stand on another important agenda item — children?? [...]
December 29th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Racism is one of the key issues that needs to be addressed by the next President. Denial just does not cut it anymore.
Children are not born racist. It is something they learn by observing other children and adults. I have written an article on teaching racial tolerance to children for other children through a series of resources such as books, games, lessons and organizations. http://www.squidoo.com/learnrespectearly
Candidates take notice – we need to fund this type of education in our schools.
December 29th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Linda C, I enjoy your T-Shirt site. Thank you for reminding us that racism is design to exclude fellow humans from common rights enjoyed by current western cultures. America should be at the front of the fairness and equality line … but. alas, America slides far behind. Lip service is a shallow replacement for the concept espoused by our constitution.
December 29th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Tolerance is not the goal! Acceptance is.
October 30th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
this is great, it really helped w/ a report i had to write on the subject.