It’s decisions in your community about health insurance, school funding and classroom curriculum, parks and roads, police reform, and affordable housing. Being informed about these decisions can help ensure your vote is protecting children in your community. These are some of the decisions your vote can impact.
Immigration
This week, in a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Trump administration has the discretion to end TPS protection for 300,000 immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan. This means thousands of immigrants could be forced out of their homes of decades, separated from their families, and deported to countries where they would be unsafe. This family separation - and even the threat of separation - will have devastating effects on the health, well-being, and economic security of TPS holders and their children.
Education
More than 66 years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, our public schools are more segregated today than they were in the 1960s. Yesterday, the House of Representatives took a promising step to address this by passing the Strength in Diversity Act (HR 2639) with bipartisan support.
Child Health
After decades of hard-fought progress bringing the rate of uninsured children to an historic low, today the Census Bureau reported that an estimated 5.7 percent of children under age 19 were uninsured in 2019—an increase of 320,000 more children without health insurance since 2018. This data also confirms what we feared: millions of children and families lacked health insurance even before the COVID-19 crisis hit. And we know loss of health insurance has only worsened in recent months, as high unemployment rates mean many families are losing access to job-based health insurance.
Child Poverty
After nearly 50 years leading CDF, Marian Wright Edelman welcomes nationally recognized children’s rights and racial equity champion Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson to carry forward her legacy and lead CDF into a new Civil Rights Movement.
Child Poverty
On Tuesday, September 22, the Children’s Defense Fund, First Focus on Children, and the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group are hosting a webinar from 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm EST entitled 2019 Census Child Poverty Data and What COVID-19 Means for Kids.
Education
Learning losses prompted by COVID-19 could lead to decreased lifetime earnings for the children impacted and could exacerbate our country’s shamefully stark income inequality, according to a recently published Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) paper.
Education
Last month, the Department of Education under the leadership of Secretary DeVos issued a rule that would redirect pandemic relief funding from public schools to private schools. This week, we get to celebrate a small win: a federal judge has ruled this effort illegal and has struck down the policy.