A little good news from Congress (no, really)

It doesn't happen very often but the US Congress recently acted in a bipartisan way and did something that made sense. The US Senate overwhelming passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which among other things extends funding for the popular Children's Health Insurance Program through 2017. There were concerns that this program would have withered away.

CHIP was first enacted in the wake of welfare reform in the 90s to make sure that kids of working families didn't lose coverage if their parents moved from welfare to work. It has proved to be hugely popular and successful. In fact, West Virginia is one of the major CHIP success stories. The program here covers children in families earning up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

The bill also authorized funding for the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, which is also a big deal and a very good thing. A similar bill passed the House by a huge margin earlier. I'm pleased-and a little surprised-that all of WV's congressional delegation, which ain't what it used to be, voted for the measure.

So, yeah, it's not all bad.

We're on it

Sometimes El Cabrero is a little slow on the uptake. No, really. One example of that is how long it took me to get the importance of early childhood education as a way of promoting economic justice. I've worked with child advocates for years and try to play nicely, but I really didn't feel it until fairly recently, when I stopped and looked at the overwhelming evidence that this is the place to make a real difference.

Fortunately, West Virginia is kind of a leader in early childhood education and the folks I work with are committed to taking it to the next level. I'm especially a fan of voluntary home visiting programs for pregnant women and parents of young children.

In this NY Times op-ed Nicholas Kristof  and Sheryl WuDunn lay out the case for early childhood education. Here's a sample:

One reason the United States has not made more progress against poverty is that our interventions come too late. If there’s one overarching lesson from the past few decades of research about how to break the cycles of poverty in the United States, it’s the power of parenting — and of intervening early, ideally in the first year or two of life or even before a child is born.

I'm hoping we can make real progress on that in the coming year.

The lottery of birth

You can say a lot of things about gambling but the biggest roll of the dice we take is one in which we don't get a conscious vote, i.e. the family into which we are born. Here's an interesting article from The Economist about just that. It features some affluent parents in the DC suburbs and some not so affluent parents in southern West Virginia. It also highlights a home visiting program that is doing great stuff here.

A lot of research shows that the first 33 months of life are crucial and this is a sweet spot for intervention to promote the good and ward off the bad.

Home visiting, aka in home early childhood education, is a major issue in West Virginia. For the last year ago, we've fought and mostly won struggles to preserve funding for these programs. The next big fight will be to push for universal eligibility for voluntary participation in these programs.

(I also learned a new term--for me anyway--from the article: helicopter parents. These are those who hover so much over their kids that the kids hardly have a chance to develop on their own.)

More on the birth lottery here.

Early childhood: missed opportunities

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff mentioned West Virginia last weekend in a column highlighting the importance of early childhood programs as a means of fighting poverty. As it happens, preserving funding for such programs is one of the top priority items for AFSC in WV and for our allies in the Our Children Our Future Campaign to End Child Poverty.

Ironically, last year, Gov. Tomblin appointed a task force to look at early childhood programs. The group recommended a statewide expansion of home visiting programs over several years. Instead, the programs were targeted for a 25 percent budget cut in the governor's budget...mostly to pay for tax cuts for corporations.

However, our friends at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, had this to say about poverty factors that Kristoff minimizes. It's worth a look. One can be for expanded early childhood programs without ignoring the big picture.

Another good step

I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes. Here's just one example. Lots of people I know and respect have been stressing the importance of early childhood education in combating poverty and a host of ills. I was generally for it, but it took me a while to really get it.

This is also an area in which West Virginia is something of a natural leader. It has made significant progress over the last few years and recently passed legislation to take it further. Governor Tomblin has appointed a task force to look for further improvements. For once, state leaders are even saying nice things about federal policies the Obama administration is promoting.

As important as pre-kindergarten education is, there's a lot of research that suggests that the first two years of life are critical for brain development and for all kinds of later outcomes. This New Republic article does a good job of summing it up. I hope WV picks up on some policies that can help parents through this period, such as voluntary home visiting programs by social workers or nurses and other steps to improve the quality of child care.

 Ideally, the visiting program could begin with pregnancy and continue for the first few years, building a relationship with the infant and the parent or parents and offering support, advice and coaching. It could head off a lot of trouble down the road.