What’s Your Children’s Platform?

2020 is an election year for the United States. Election years give us the opportunity as a country to think about the issues that are important to all of us.

Regardless of where you sit politically, let’s all agree: we want our kids to grow up healthy and thrive.

As I’ve written about previously, kids in the U.S. continue to face challenges—including poverty, hunger, and inequities in education and healthcare—that prevent them from reaching their full potential. There are programmatic, policy, and community changes we can all support, but the first step is having conversations that put kids front and center—and these conversations must start at the top. We all need to say, loud and clear, to candidates on both sides of the aisle: we need you to talk about kids. We need you to prioritize kids, just as you do veterans, and foreign policy, and healthcare, and the environment. We need you to put kids at the center of your decisions, not just in your talking points, and weave them throughout your daily discussions. And we all need to ask questions of our candidates and our leaders in order to hold them accountable.

While it is true that kids don’t vote, don’t lobby, and don’t contribute financially, their parents, grandparents, and others who love them do. It is time to re-evaluate the way we think, talk, and protect their needs and rights. The United States is one of the strongest and wealthiest countries in the world, and we say that our children are our future and our highest priority. But as data continues to show, the overall health and well-being of our kids does not reflect these values, as children and young people are not a key part of our policy directions and fiscal priorities. It is unclear as to why this is, and who is responsible for perpetuating this—whether it be the media, individual beliefs, or societal norms—but it is time for this to change.

Traditionally, if candidates talk about children’s issues, it is done in a fragmented way. Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have outlined plans for investing in early childhood education through universal pre-K, with Bernie touting universal school meals, free childcare, and college for all. Former candidate and Senator Elizabeth Warren laid out a detailed plan for universal childcare. But why aren’t any of the candidates or political parties laying out a comprehensive plan for children, in the same way that they do for the military or the environment?

Senator Kamala Harris set the bar when she announced her comprehensive children’s agenda as a central component of her presidential platform. This was the first time policies ranging from family leave to fair housing to climate change were framed with children front and center. Understanding the impact of a policy or program from the point of the view of a child, versus that of an adult or the economy is powerful and important. Despite Senator Harris’ exit from the presidential race, it raised a crucial awareness to the factors that contribute to a child’s overall health and well-being and the importance of prioritizing kids when allocating budgets, implementing policies, and developing programs.

Senator Harris’ children’s agenda included a Bureau of Children and Family Justice, headed by a Chief Child Advocate—established as an advisory position in the White House to ensure that children were fairly represented in all executive decision making. This is similar to the concept of a federal children’s ombudsman position held in many European countries as well as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and an idea that taken in concert with dedicated children’s commissioners at the local and state levels, could serve to promote and protect the well-being of our country’s kids.

Also included within the proposed Bureau was the creation of an Executive Branch-wide youth engagement initiative to empower young leaders to speak out on the issues that affect and are important to them, and to provide a platform for youth to be a part of the decision-making process. Senator Harris also pledged to support the senatorial ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in her children’s agenda; a big step, as the United States is the lone member of the United Nations who has not yet ratified the Convention.

In mid-February, during the third hour of the New Hampshire Democratic presidential debate, George Stephanopoulos prefaced his final question to the candidates by acknowledging, according to the Children’s Defense Fund, it has been more than 20 years since child poverty was directly addressed in a presidential debate. I have heard from a number of people that it took a call from Marian Wright Edelman, the Children’s Defense Fund founder and president emerita, leaning on her 30-plus personal relationship with George, for this question to be included in the debate. George continued:

The year was 1999 and the question was ‘how will we overcome the scandal of one quarter of American preschoolers living in poverty in the richest nation on earth?’ Today, nearly one in five American preschoolers are still living below the poverty line even though we have had nearly ten straight years of economic growth. What does that say to you about where America is today and what we need to do about it?

It was a big question. The candidate responses focused on poverty, education, economics, healthcare, empathy, and the realization that these kids are “all our children” were all valid ones. But the bigger question should be: why has it been more than 20 years since this question has been asked—and responded to—on a national stage? Why isn’t this—and others like it—a standard question for a candidate that we might elect as the leader of our country?

And why don’t all candidates, from all political parties, have comprehensive children’s platforms that clearly articulate their intentions for their investments, goals, plans, and metrics? We need to encourage—no, insist—upon this. We have eight months before the general election, and during this time, our expectation must be that our candidates put forth comprehensive plans for healthcare, for foreign policy, for the environment—and for children. Then, when November rolls around, we all need to vote, and most importantly, we need to elect leaders who are making decisions with the best interests of kids in mind.