Promoting the Role of Government in Child Well-Being

Promoting the Role of Government
in Child Well-Being
April 2015

Public Works is dedicated to building public will for the
common good. We equip community leaders, advocates
and public servants with the skills and knowledge they
need to be articulate and vigorous supporters of the role
of government in a functioning society.
In this presentation, we will share with you the lessons
we have learned about how to communicate about child
well-being after a decade of research and fieldwork.

As Americans, we eagerly support and cherish
our own children. However, progress on
improving conditions for our nation’s children
has stalled in many arenas.
Child policy advocates know what needs to be
done. The science and the policy knowledge
have advanced.
But, public will and action lag behind.

A quick review of the ways we have
historically viewed childhood offers clues
about the cultural reasons why our progress
has been limited.
In the Middle Ages, the concept of childhood
as a separate stage of life did not exist. In the
16th century’s Age of Innocence, children
were valued as a source of amusement for
adults, and in the Moralistic Period from the
16th – 18th centuries, it was believed that
children should be trained and disciplined.
During the Industrial Age we time we began
to see a concern about the exploitation of
children and “the imperiled child” -- a frame
still dominant in our culture today.

In the early 1900s, leaders like Jane Addams and Mary Harris “Mother” Jones began
advocating against child labor and exploitation. The National Child Labor
Committee was created. It worked to end child labor and provide free, compulsory
education for all children, culminating in the passage of the Fair Labor Standards
Act in 1938 – which was among the first federal standards for child labor.
Image available in public domain: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Midnight_at_the_glassworks2b.jpg

While these child labor protections were put in place, a whole new concept of
what children were being prepared for was solidifying. We were raising future
workers for the Industrial Age. Gone was Rouseau’s idea of the natural
development of the child, free from the strictures of society’s institutions. We
needed to “manufacture” the human cogs of the economic machine.

20th Century:
The Century of the Child
In the 20th century, enormous advances were made in our understanding of child
development, new concerns emerged about the living and learning conditions for
children and there was a steady stream of new child-centered policies and
institutions.

Child Advocacy
18,00,000 Google Hits
Today, child advocacy is a vibrant, diverse
field. People advocate for child welfare;
equitable education; nutritious and safe food
for children; affordable health care for
children and families; an appropriately-
focused juvenile justice system; and more.

Along with Somalia, the
United States is one of
only two countries in the
world which have not
ratified the Convention on
the Rights of the Child.
Yet, by most international standards of child well-being, the
United States’ comparative rankings are low.
UNICEF ranks the U.S.
26th out of 29
developed nations based
on the overall well-being
of our children.
The U.S.’s child poverty
rates ranks 34th of 35
countries surveyed,
above only Romania and
below virtually all of
Europe.

Perhaps, this is because we get what we (don’t) pay for. As this graph shows, the United
States places relatively low priority on ensuring a basic level of fiscal stability for families
with children.
Source: http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/PF1_1_Public_spending_on_family_benefits_Oct2013.pdf

“Kids are a priority in almost every
family's budget. From the
moment we hold our newborns in
our arms, feeding, clothing,
housing and educating them
trumps everything else. But in the
federal budget, the reverse is true:
only a modest fraction of federal
spending is aimed at kids. And
that fraction is scheduled to
decline because neither political
party is willing to fix what it knows
is plaguing our spending and tax
systems . . .”
C. Eugene Steuerle
Crumbs for Children?
The Government We Deserve, No. 1
April 4, 2007
http://www.urban.org/research/publication/crumbs-children

Source:
The U.S.’s low rankings when
compared to other nations are not
because “we can’t afford it.” We
are the richest country in the
world.

Why does this disconnect
between our concern for children and
the low priority we place upon them in our governmental policies
persist?

At Public Works, we believe a
core element of the challenge
we face in advocating for
children is the tension
between the “private child”
and the “public child .”
Progress on children’s policy
will continue to be difficult
unless we deal with this false
choice and help Americans
truly see all children as “our”
children.
“The laissez-faire, private property model
survives in national family policy . . . in the
chasm that divides "our children" from "other
people's children”. While lavishing material
goods on the private child, we neglect the
public child. “
Source::
http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1902&context=wmlr

This concept of the difference between the “public child” and the “private child” plays out
in debates about policy. It fuels a deep American suspicion of an overbearing and
intrusive “nanny state” and the parallel notion of children being the sole purview of
parents in “the Family Bubble.”
The Family Bubble

Instead of a truly inclusive concern about all children, the current political and fiscal
debate seems overemphasize debt as the legacy we might leave our children and
grandchildren.

“We cannot saddle our children and grandchildren
with an unsustainable debt. And we will keep working
to restore discipline and balance to our country’s
budget.”
(former) Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Nancy Pelosi
July 2010
“We must lead together as a nation to prevent
saddling our children and grandchildren with a future
dimmed by debt, doubt, and despair. Government
should operate just like your family: If we don’t have it,
we can’t spend it. Our fiscal security is our national
security.”
Congressman Tom Reed
January 2012
Both political parties have adopted the “saddling our children with debt” storyline.

Culture Change
Backwards
More of the Same
We need to recognize that these are deep-seated cultural hurdles. More and better
data and policy are not going to be enough to push past them. We have to help
people move beyond these cultural hurdles for what they are to foster enduring
cultural change.

We must move past these cultural hurdles.
These hurdles – both visible and invisible – are part of virtually every policy
and fiscal debate about child well-being.
 The “Other Child” – exacerbated by a legacy of race and class exclusion
 Personal Responsibility, the Family Bubble and the Nanny State
 We’re Broke, We Can’t Saddle our Children and Grandchildren with Debt

Recommendations
for
Moving Past
Cultural Hurdles

Focus on Interdependence
• Self-determination/Self-discipline
• Rugged individualism
• Benefits based solely on effort
• Limited obligation to collective
good
• Neutrality of major social
institutions
• Moral nature of behavior
• Limited government intervention
• Shared responsibility
• Obligation to collective good
• Unequal starting requires
remedy
• Focus on social conditions
• Basic benefits should be assured
• Community well-being
• Government involvement a
must
Source: Rockridge Institute http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/
We need to assess whether we are
activating frames that cue up
Independence ....
….and shift to frames the cue up
Interdependence.

Focus on Interdependence
One way to shift to interdependence is to talk about the simple truth that the
foundation of our shared prosperity rests on how we treat and support every child .
“If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow grain.
If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees.
If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people.”
- Chinese Proverb

“The central challenge for modern,
diversifying societies is to create a
new broader sense of “we.”
Robert Putnam
E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in
the 21st Century
2007
Create a Sense of “We”

Avoid “Otherizing”
24
There are simple things we can be careful of in
our work to make sure we are always reinforcing
“we.” One of these is to avoid “otherizing”
language. Avoid terms that reinforce a sense
that “those children” are not like mine, they are
not “our children.” For example:
• The vulnerable
• At-risk youth
• Urban youth
• The “poor”

The Circle
of
Concern
Another way of moving debates from the “private” to “public child” is to emphasize that we
must place all children in our circle of concern. In Poverty and Race through a
Belongingness Lens, john powell talks about the need to create an ever widening circle of
concern, that much of our “stuck-ness” in addressing poverty and other issues of justice
rests with the fact that too many of our fellow humans are outside the circle of concern . . .
Source: http://www.nwaf.org/FileCabinet/DocumentCatalogFiles/Other/PMpowell.pdf

To overcome the limitations of “the Family Bubble,” we need to give examples of
how the lives of children are improved and supported by the broader community
and how public programs and systems actually work with parents and caregivers and
other agencies and institutions to help make healthy families and children possible.
Assert Government’s Role

We also need to help our audiences understand government is our tool for supporting
families and providing opportunities for all of our children. We can do this by telling a
story of government that leads with the mission and purpose of government, describing
it as the systems we have created together to address our nation’s problems, and
elevating civic-thinking. (For a fuller explanation: http://www.publicworks.org/issues/government/).
Assert Government’s Role
Mission & Purpose Systems & Structures Civic-Thinking

Providing funding for children’s programs is an essential part of the discussion about
children’s well-being. We need to be prepared to pivot away from the notion that we
are “saddling our children with debt” and instead focus on how improving the lives
of children is key to our shared future and how public investments and public
structures form an essential foundation underneath family and community stability
and success.
Focus Budget Debates on the Future

An Example
Promoting the Role of Government in Immunizations
The health of the whole community
is protected when we ensure that
our children are immunized. One of
the ways we do this is through our
public health agencies that provide
free and low cost immunizations for
all children. We need extended clinic
hours to keep up with growing
demands.
Asserts the role of
government by leading with
values.
Asserts the role of
government, referring to our
public health system as
“ours.”
Focuses on the future.
Widens the circle of concern
to include all children.

An Example
Promoting the Role of Government in Pre-K
Pre-K is more than child care. It’s prevention. It’s getting ahead of our problems.
Children who attend high quality pre-K enter school ready to learn, are more likely
to read at grade level, to graduate on time, and to have fewer health problems.
With trained teachers, low student-to-teacher ratios, and full day instruction, pre–K
offers high quality early education to our community’s four–year olds.
It’s good for the whole community. Students – beyond those in Pre–K - reap the
benefits of being in classes with children who are all progressing together.
We all benefit when students succeed and are able to contribute to our community.
And, we should all support efforts to expand Pre-K services.

Pre-K is more than child care. It’s prevention. It’s getting ahead of our problems.
Children who attend high quality pre-K enter school ready to learn, are more likely
to read at grade level, to graduate on time, and to have fewer health problems.
With trained teachers, low student-to-teacher ratios, and full day instruction, pre–
K offers high quality early education to our community’s four–year olds.
It’s good for the whole community. Students – beyond those in Pre–K - reap the
benefits of being in classes with children who are all progressing together.
We all benefit when students succeed and are able to contribute to our
community. And, we should all support efforts to expand Pre-K services.
An Example
Promoting the Role of Government in Pre-K
Asserts the role of government by leading with
values – namely, prevention.
Continues with values – healthy kids, ready to learn,
etc.
Helps tell that system story by explaining how Pre-
K works.
Widens the circle of concern – includes students in
Pre-K and all of our students..
Elevates civic-thinking. Gives everyone a role in the
solution.

Recommendations for
Changing the Culture
 Focus on Interdependence
 Create a sense of “We”
• Avoid Otherizing
• Broaden the “Circle of Concern”
 Assert the role of public systems as
the tools of shared responsibility
• Highlight how public programs
work “with” parents
 Make budget debates about the
future
• Pivot away from the notion of
saddling our grandchildren with
debt to the idea of building a
bright future.

Promoting the Role of Government in Child Well-Being

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