Opinion | Biden Plots a Revolution for America's Children - The New York Times - 0 views
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Biden Plots a Revolution for America’s Children
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The most revolutionary part of President Biden’s agenda so far is his focus on a constituency that doesn’t write whiny op-ed columns, doesn’t vote, doesn’t hire lobbyists and so has been neglected for half a century: children.
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Biden’s proposal to establish a national pre-K and child care system would be a huge step forward for children and for working parents alike.
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You drop a kid off at a high-quality prekindergarten program in the morning and pick the child up on the way home from work.
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When my wife and I lived in Japan in the late 1990s, we sent our kids to one of these nurseries, and they were a dream.
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But the United States never developed such a system, because for half a century as other countries were investing in children, the United States was stiffing them.
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Today one of our saddest statistics is this: American children ages 1 to 19 are 57 percent more likely to die than children in other rich countries.
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Some of those kids die because the United States doesn’t provide universal health care to children — only to senior citizens, who vote and thus are a priority.
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Just as Franklin Roosevelt revolutionized conditions for the elderly by instituting Social Security, Biden may be able to do the same for children.
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But still more important for America’s future, in my view, will be the elements focused on children.
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Expanding home visitation programs that help at-risk moms and dads from pregnancy through early childhood
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One model the White House is studying is the excellent day care system offered by the U.S. military,
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For some of my middle-aged friends wrestling with homelessness, mental health crises and decades of addiction, with more of a criminal record than an educational record, it may not be possible to turn lives around. For their kids and grandkids, we have to try.
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please, President Biden, push on. This is about America’s future. This is your chance to preside over a Rooseveltian revolution that sprinkles opportunity and averts tragedies for decades to come.
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he question isn’t whether we can afford to invest in children and break cycles of poverty, educational failure and substance abuse. It’s whether we can afford not to.