The War on Our Children

[Guest guest]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/113005Z.shtml

 

 

The War on Our Children

By Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA)

In These Times

 

Friday 25 November 2005

 

We must stop accepting that low-wage, low-benefit, part-time jobs

are the best our children can do. We need to ensure a livable wage for

all.

 

Funding a war in Iraq and providing tax breaks for the wealthiest

Americans does more damage than Republicans in Congress care to admit.

As they clamor on about patriotism, their funding priorities are

costing America its future.

 

The Republican Congress is placing hurdles in front of our

children that are nearly impossible to clear. At every turn, from age

zero to 18, roadblocks have been erected that block them from reaching

their potential.

 

Since 2002, Republican budgets have cut nearly 7,000 slots for

children in low-income families to receive Head Start services. These

cuts were made despite studies demonstrating that Head Start children

are more likely to graduate from high school and are less likely to

repeat a grade. Head Start students are also less likely to commit a

crime than low-income children who do not attend Head Start. But such

empirical findings mean little to a party that prefers its policies

based on faith.

 

After slashing Head Start budgets, it seems only logical for

Republicans to next target poor mothers with children under 6 years

old. A recent Republican budget proposal would require these mothers

to double their weekly work hours from 20 to 40 in order to remain

eligible for job training and vocational education. Yet that plan

fails to provide $10.5 billion for childcare funding that the

non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated would be needed for

mothers to afford to work the longer hours and maintain their

benefits. The blatant hypocrisy would be comical if it weren't true.

 

As our children - unprepared for the challenges they'll face -

reach public schools, they will get less help than ever before. After

taking credit for " No Child Left Behind " (NCLB), President Bush and

his Republican allies wasted no time in underfunding the Act, thereby

ensuring schools could not meet new, stricter achievement standards.

As of June 2005, the House Republicans have shortchanged public

schools by $40 billion since the passage of the much-lauded NCLB law.

At the same time, yearly progress tests created by NCLB to determine

if individual students are improving in math and reading show almost a

quarter of schools failing to show improvement on state student tests.

 

If those weren't enough obstacles to place in front of our

children, the Republicans want to force the average student borrower

to pay an additional $5,800 for college. The single most effective

springboard to a well-paying job is a college degree. So, this year

the Republicans are proposing $14.3 billion in cuts to federal student

aid programs.

 

At every turn, our future is threatened - not by mythical weapons

of mass destruction or by the lack of prayer in the classroom - but by

policies that continually rob our children of the skills they need to

compete. The results of such policies speak for themselves. Since

President Bush took office, 1.7 million more Americans live in poverty

and the average median income has declined $2,710. Meanwhile, the

federal minimum wage, $5.15 an hour, has not been increased since

1997, and has its lowest purchasing power since 1990.

 

Recently, the impact of cutting our children out of America's

future became abundantly clear when a new Wal-Mart opened in my home

community of Oakland, California. Some 11,000 people applied for 400

jobs that pay less than $20,000 a year and offer few benefits. It was

a microcosm of the fate of working families everywhere, forced to get

by with far too little.

 

Working together, America can do better. We can improve the

economic outlook for our children by investing in their education. We

can add funding for student loans and grants. We can provide

vocational education and job training.

 

We must stop accepting that low-wage, low-benefit part-time jobs

are the best our children can do. And for all workers, we need to

ensure a livable wage and provide for paid family and medical leave.

 

Not surprisingly, two bills to do just that have been introduced

by Democrats and were quickly buried by Republicans. In May, Rep.

George Miller (D-CA) introduced The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005,

which would have raised the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour over two

years. In June, I introduced the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act,

which would build on the highly successful Family and Medical Leave

Act by providing up to 12 weeks of paid benefits to workers who take

time off for reasons allowed under the new Act. Both bills would

easily improve the lives of working families, but the priorities of

this Republican-controlled Congress are focused in other areas.

 

If the United States can find $250 billion for a failed war in

Iraq and give American millionaires an average tax break of $41,574

apiece in 2006, then the most affluent country in the world can find

the funds to improve its schools and workplaces. Our future depends on it.

 

Rep. Pete Stark has served California's 13th District since 1973.

He is currently the ranking minority member on the Health Subcommittee.

 

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