Never forget the very real world behind raw budget numbers — always sound advice, especially in this day and age. House Democrats are keeping that reality in mind as we work with the Senate on a compromise budget.
And even as these dollars-and-cents endgames play out in Olympia, hot off the press is an annual report on the national and statewide “state of the kids.”
The 2013 KIDS COUNT Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation lists Washington No. 19 — and Nevada, Mississippi, and New Mexico Nos. 48, 49 and 50, respectively — “for overall child well-being.”
South Carolina – No. 45.
The report includes an excellent “Q&A” with Laura Speer, Casey’s associate director for policy reform and advocacy.
Why is it important to rank states?
State rankings give people a number that can be easily understood and an idea of how their state fares relative to others, so they can see what is possible and where there is room for improvement. People have a lot of pride in their states, so the rankings can spur them to work for change and light a fire under policymakers.
Makes good sense.
The Casey report evaluates 16 specific indicators of the quality of children’s lives in four general categories: economic well-being, education, health, and family/community life.
Throughout the session, and we expect for years to come, we hear calls to “fund education first.”
You can pour every dollar of the general fund into schools, but if kids aren’t ready to learn, funding levels won’t make a difference.
Sick, hungry, and homeless kids can’t learn.
House Democrats fund education right. Education is our paramount duty and it does come first, but not at the expense of other critical programs.
We will continue to fight in support of programs like Working Connections Child Care – a program that helps single moms with child care subsidies so they can chose work over welfare.
We’ll fight for early learning funding so 3- and 4- year-olds can get a quality start on their education.
We’ll fight for full-funding of Apple Health so kids are healthy and ready to learn when they walk into the classroom.
We need to fund and support the whole child, not just the child in the classroom.