MAKE CHILDREN THE PRIORITY FLORIDA MUST SUPPORT PARENTING
Miami Herald, The (FL) - Friday, January 7, 2000
Author: Herald Staff
Face it, South Florida: For too many of our kids, this is a difficult place to grow up. It lags the nation in many measures of children's well-being, from family wealth and health to surviving infancy and succeeding in school .
Fortunately, Florida has spent the last decade improving many government and nonprofit programs for children. Both Miami-Dade and Broward counties have brought together cross-sections of their communities in summits on children. The task this year is to bring fruition to such concepts as early-childhood development and meaning to the phrase, Leave no child behind.
Attention to children starts before birth. Prenatal care is widely available in South Florida - but it isn't always accessible. Women need to know that the care is important and how to get it, and then get there.
The same goes for well-baby care and preventive care, infancy through the oft-neglected teen years. The state's pioneering subsidized insurance for working poor families should be expanded; families leaving welfare for work need to retain Medicaid until they can afford coverage.
Then comes child care for these mothers. Florida has focused on the quantity of subsidized child care ``slots'' for poor children. Now legislators should focus on quality. Programs that help parents and other caregivers learn how to stimulate learning skills must be expanded; child care, like teaching, should be seen as a profession worthy of good pay.
Care of a different sort - foster care for abused and neglected children - must improve. The state is determined to ``privatize'' foster care. In doing so, the state needs tough, high standards and thorough monitoring of its contracts.
In general, children need attention to their particular styles of learning and relief from crowded classrooms, low expectations and lax standards. Relief may come from applying the same principle in America's generally excellent system of higher education: choice.
Ultimately, The Herald believes that the best single thing that policy makers can do for children is to focus on making it easier for parents to handle the difficult job of parenting. That cuts across all of the other issues facing South Florida because children truly are our future.
Fortunately, Florida has spent the last decade improving many government and nonprofit programs for children. Both Miami-Dade and Broward counties have brought together cross-sections of their communities in summits on children. The task this year is to bring fruition to such concepts as early-childhood development and meaning to the phrase, Leave no child behind.
Attention to children starts before birth. Prenatal care is widely available in South Florida - but it isn't always accessible. Women need to know that the care is important and how to get it, and then get there.
The same goes for well-baby care and preventive care, infancy through the oft-neglected teen years. The state's pioneering subsidized insurance for working poor families should be expanded; families leaving welfare for work need to retain Medicaid until they can afford coverage.
Then comes child care for these mothers. Florida has focused on the quantity of subsidized child care ``slots'' for poor children. Now legislators should focus on quality. Programs that help parents and other caregivers learn how to stimulate learning skills must be expanded; child care, like teaching, should be seen as a profession worthy of good pay.
Care of a different sort - foster care for abused and neglected children - must improve. The state is determined to ``privatize'' foster care. In doing so, the state needs tough, high standards and thorough monitoring of its contracts.
In general, children need attention to their particular styles of learning and relief from crowded classrooms, low expectations and lax standards. Relief may come from applying the same principle in America's generally excellent system of higher education: choice.
Ultimately, The Herald believes that the best single thing that policy makers can do for children is to focus on making it easier for parents to handle the difficult job of parenting. That cuts across all of the other issues facing South Florida because children truly are our future.
Memo: OPINION - AGENDA FOR 2000
Edition: Final
Section: Editorial
Page: 8B
Record Number: 0001080253
Copyright (c) 2000 The Miami Herald
Section: Editorial
Page: 8B
Record Number: 0001080253
Copyright (c) 2000 The Miami Herald
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