Printed in the Morton Grove Champion, June 11 2009
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Education is Basic Right for All Children
School’s out for summer vacation and some of us parents are wondering what to do with kids at home all day. For many families, lack of school means squabbling siblings and child-care hassles until camp starts. But what would it mean if there were no school – ever? That’s the reality for the families of over 75 million children around the world without access to basic primary education.
As the economic crisis continues, children in extreme poverty continue to be its biggest victims as they are forced to leave school to work, care for siblings, join armies, or even be sold into slavery. Yet education is the single, most effective intervention to help them lead productive, healthy, and safe lives. Without decisive leadership to achieve Education for All, these kids will remain trapped in poverty without education. Progress made since 2000 to increase school enrollment could be reversed.
While campaigning, President Obama pledged $2 billion toward a Global Fund for Education. By eliminating school fees, improving teacher quality, and providing textbooks and other incentives to keep kids in school, the U.S. can literally change the future of an entire generation at risk. For that, $2 billion is a bargain. Plus, we would get the added value of international goodwill and make children less easy prey for extremist regimes.
Increasing the U.S. global education contribution to our fair share can greatly accelerate progress toward universal primary education for all children by 2015. Despite the dismal economy, there are countries ready and waiting for American leadership in creating a multilateral Global Fund for Education. A Global Fund would harmonize donor contributions to ensure quick and effective disbursement of educational aid. Work is being done to reform and expand existing mechanisms, but for efforts to be ambitious, the U.S. must boost the capacity of the international community. The world is waiting for us.
Our country isn’t so self-absorbed that we disregard the need for education in the world’s poorest communities. Americans care. President Obama cares. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, long-time champion of basic education rights, cares. A minivan mom like me cares. We need congressional appropriators like Representative Mark Kirk (R-10th) and Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) to care enough to appropriate the $2 billion and support a new Global Fund. Because no child should be on a permanent vacation from school.
-ccyl
Showing posts with label My printed articles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My printed articles. Show all posts
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Friday, July 4, 2008
Printed letter: Act now on global health
My printed letter to the editor in the Chicago Sun-Times regarding the reauthorization of the PEPFAR global health bill...
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Act now on global health
The Lantos-Hyde Act discussed in "Time running out on AIDS, TB and malaria bill" could be a tremendous story of bipartisan success if the Senate can get it moving again. While it's true that a handful of Republicans are maintaining the stalling arguments, success also depends upon Democratic Senate leadership to schedule a vote quickly.
If this bill does not pass before the August recess, it is likely not to be enacted this year. Such a case would be detrimental to successful programs protecting and saving the lives of millions.
Passage before the Group of Eight Summit on Monday would help President Bush make the case for other world leaders to increase commitments for treating and preventing disease. It is in the hands of Republicans and Democrats alike to demonstrate to the world that the U.S. can be a leader in global health.
-------------------------
Act now on global health
The Lantos-Hyde Act discussed in "Time running out on AIDS, TB and malaria bill" could be a tremendous story of bipartisan success if the Senate can get it moving again. While it's true that a handful of Republicans are maintaining the stalling arguments, success also depends upon Democratic Senate leadership to schedule a vote quickly.
If this bill does not pass before the August recess, it is likely not to be enacted this year. Such a case would be detrimental to successful programs protecting and saving the lives of millions.
Passage before the Group of Eight Summit on Monday would help President Bush make the case for other world leaders to increase commitments for treating and preventing disease. It is in the hands of Republicans and Democrats alike to demonstrate to the world that the U.S. can be a leader in global health.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Farm Bill a Mixed Blessing
My response to the Beckmann op-ed from yesterday's post. Printed in the Washington Times.
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The 2008 farm bill is indeed a mixed blessing ("The minority farm-bill vote," Editorial, yesterday). For hungry Americans, it's a relief that this bill, so late in coming, finally passed. At long last and much needed, the Emergency Food Assistance Program increases will start flowing in a time of rising prices and rising need. Yet it's shameful that the legislation doesn't address some root causes of hunger and poor health.
If ever there was a tool to fight poverty on both domestic and international fronts, this was it. We missed an opportunity to limit commodity subsidies that are damaging to our own farmers of modest means and poor farmers overseas who cannot compete with our artificially cheap crops. We kept in place the subsidies that make unhealthy processed foods much cheaper than fresh vegetables.
I sincerely hope that in five years we can have this debate again and pass a bill that will limit our destructive behavior instead of just giving ourselves another Band-Aid.
ccyl
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The 2008 farm bill is indeed a mixed blessing ("The minority farm-bill vote," Editorial, yesterday). For hungry Americans, it's a relief that this bill, so late in coming, finally passed. At long last and much needed, the Emergency Food Assistance Program increases will start flowing in a time of rising prices and rising need. Yet it's shameful that the legislation doesn't address some root causes of hunger and poor health.
If ever there was a tool to fight poverty on both domestic and international fronts, this was it. We missed an opportunity to limit commodity subsidies that are damaging to our own farmers of modest means and poor farmers overseas who cannot compete with our artificially cheap crops. We kept in place the subsidies that make unhealthy processed foods much cheaper than fresh vegetables.
I sincerely hope that in five years we can have this debate again and pass a bill that will limit our destructive behavior instead of just giving ourselves another Band-Aid.
ccyl
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Presidential campaign=gamble for Social Justice
My letter to the editor of the Morton Grove Champion ran today in response to a columnist that proposed that Obama, Clinton and McCain should stop campaigning now and give all their campaign money to the homeless. He gave a lot of good facts about domestic poverty and I felt I should give a response to let the Champion know that people care about poverty issues, no matter how outrageous the premise of the column was originally :)
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Morton Grove Champion
Feb 28, 2008
"Thanks for attention to poverty issues"
Thanks to Paul Sassone for giving space to poverty issues on February 14th. I am all for increased donations to help the homeless. The numbers he mentioned from campaign spending would do much for people at risk for basic needs. Yet this is a gamble for stakes far larger than that. A half-billion is relatively small compared to the good that could come of policy changes that fight global and domestic poverty. For starters, under consideration this year will be a $5 billion dollar increase for more and better poverty-focused development aid to help people living on less than $1 a day. Healthcare reform, better education for urban poor, funding for food stamps
these are all domestic changes which can save wasteful spending and use tax money for the most good. When candidates and their supporters put their money on the line for a social justice gamble of this scale, it puts spending in perspective. If someone doesn’t feel his or her candidate is involved in this, it’s probably time to look for another candidate.
-ccyl
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Morton Grove Champion
Feb 28, 2008
"Thanks for attention to poverty issues"
Thanks to Paul Sassone for giving space to poverty issues on February 14th. I am all for increased donations to help the homeless. The numbers he mentioned from campaign spending would do much for people at risk for basic needs. Yet this is a gamble for stakes far larger than that. A half-billion is relatively small compared to the good that could come of policy changes that fight global and domestic poverty. For starters, under consideration this year will be a $5 billion dollar increase for more and better poverty-focused development aid to help people living on less than $1 a day. Healthcare reform, better education for urban poor, funding for food stamps
these are all domestic changes which can save wasteful spending and use tax money for the most good. When candidates and their supporters put their money on the line for a social justice gamble of this scale, it puts spending in perspective. If someone doesn’t feel his or her candidate is involved in this, it’s probably time to look for another candidate.
-ccyl
Friday, February 22, 2008
I am in the New York Times! (online)
Yahoo! It ran on the website! Now, the printed version did not run it, but the 2 well-written letters in the paper are right beside mine on the web. I feel there is no shame in having to cede print space to Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi! In fact, it may well be _because_ she wrote that the NY Times chose to run responses to this particular op-ed. Despite how she behaved on the Farm Bill, I am still honored to share space with her on this issue. Here are the 5 letters that ran on the web, including mine...
To the Editor:
“Poverty Is Poison,” by Paul Krugman (column, Feb. 18), echoes what members of Congress heard at a national summit meeting about child development that Democrats convened last year. Children who grow up in poverty have a much lower chance of success in school and in life, but investments in early childhood development help to even the odds, offering hope and opportunity where little existed before.
The despair that poverty brings to millions of American children compels us to take a serious and sustained national approach. Last year’s bipartisan revamping of the Head Start program to focus on early intervention was huge progress; now we need to do the hard work of making sure this important initiative is financed.
Other solutions can be found in our tax policy — we can reward parents struggling to lift their families out of poverty.
Democrats insisted that the recent economic stimulus package include rebate checks for 35 million families who work but earn too little to pay federal income tax, and we included additional benefits for families with children. The approach of these recovery rebates is similar to that of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is widely recognized as one of America’s most effective anti-poverty policies.
Poverty is indeed poison — to the children who fall prey to it, and to the future strength of our nation. With a singularity of purpose, America can develop an antidote.
Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House
Washington, Feb. 20, 2008
•
To the Editor:
Paul Krugman is right that the “War on Poverty” 44 years ago had a positive effect by reducing poverty, particularly among children. That this effort to improve the lives of millions of Americans was derailed by reactionary politics couldn’t be more true.
In the late 1960s, I was responsible for coordinating federal antipoverty programs for the six states of the Northeast at the United States Office of Economic Opportunity. I saw firsthand the positive effects of programs like Head Start, the Job Corps and the Neighborhood Youth Corps — designed to help children and teenagers.
I also witnessed the cynical, systematic attacks on these programs by Richard M. Nixon and his point man, Spiro T. Agnew. The phony rhetoric they used to stigmatize the programs was passed along by the media. Thus, “economic opportunity” programs became “minority” and then “welfare dependency” ones. The reality was that two-thirds of the poor being served were white.
Nixon severely weakened the national initiatives, and then Ronald Reagan abolished the coordinated federal effort altogether in 1981. (At the time I was chairman of the president’s National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity.) The consequence: four million Americans were driven into poverty, most of whom were women and children.
Poverty is poison, and politics can be toxic.
Arthur I. Blaustein
Berkeley, Calif., Feb. 18, 2008
•
To the Editor:
Paul Krugman helps shatter the myth that there is nothing we can do about poverty. Too many people think that the state of poverty in America is inevitable, never questioning what we can do to change it nor looking at the inspiring progress of other industrialized nations.
I believe that it is possible not only to end poverty in the United States, but also to end extreme poverty around the globe within our lifetime. Our country can help make this happen by passing the Global Poverty Act and holding ourselves accountable for our part in achieving the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.
ccyl
•
To the Editor:
Having worked in Newark for over a decade, I am bewildered that people could believe that poor Americans are not that poor.
Poverty anywhere is not a fixed notion but a relationship between the resources available to the general public and the resources available to the poor. From health care and nutrition to transportation and access to good schools, poor children and their families struggle every minute of every day. Those who do climb out of poverty have done so with immense and uncommon personal effort. Not everyone is so gifted.
John Edwards did indeed set the stage for Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to follow on this matter.
Jo Ann Joseph
Glen Ridge, N.J., Feb. 18, 2008
•
To the Editor:
In a new study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, cognitive neuroscientists found that while stories were being read to children of poverty, they were “less able to screen out noises embedded in the stories” than were children from more affluent families. Such evidence suggests that cognitive skills are strongly influenced by environment.
Since distractions of all kinds, including those that stem from difficult home environments and antisocial street behaviors, are a constant in the lives or many poor children, it is no wonder that their reading test scores suffer. Nor is it then surprising that as a consequence, dropouts and suspensions are disproportionate among minority children, especially black boys.
Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, now all but forgotten, needs to be revived by our next president.
Jerrold Ross
Jamaica, Queens, Feb. 18, 2008
To the Editor:
“Poverty Is Poison,” by Paul Krugman (column, Feb. 18), echoes what members of Congress heard at a national summit meeting about child development that Democrats convened last year. Children who grow up in poverty have a much lower chance of success in school and in life, but investments in early childhood development help to even the odds, offering hope and opportunity where little existed before.
The despair that poverty brings to millions of American children compels us to take a serious and sustained national approach. Last year’s bipartisan revamping of the Head Start program to focus on early intervention was huge progress; now we need to do the hard work of making sure this important initiative is financed.
Other solutions can be found in our tax policy — we can reward parents struggling to lift their families out of poverty.
Democrats insisted that the recent economic stimulus package include rebate checks for 35 million families who work but earn too little to pay federal income tax, and we included additional benefits for families with children. The approach of these recovery rebates is similar to that of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is widely recognized as one of America’s most effective anti-poverty policies.
Poverty is indeed poison — to the children who fall prey to it, and to the future strength of our nation. With a singularity of purpose, America can develop an antidote.
Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House
Washington, Feb. 20, 2008
•
To the Editor:
Paul Krugman is right that the “War on Poverty” 44 years ago had a positive effect by reducing poverty, particularly among children. That this effort to improve the lives of millions of Americans was derailed by reactionary politics couldn’t be more true.
In the late 1960s, I was responsible for coordinating federal antipoverty programs for the six states of the Northeast at the United States Office of Economic Opportunity. I saw firsthand the positive effects of programs like Head Start, the Job Corps and the Neighborhood Youth Corps — designed to help children and teenagers.
I also witnessed the cynical, systematic attacks on these programs by Richard M. Nixon and his point man, Spiro T. Agnew. The phony rhetoric they used to stigmatize the programs was passed along by the media. Thus, “economic opportunity” programs became “minority” and then “welfare dependency” ones. The reality was that two-thirds of the poor being served were white.
Nixon severely weakened the national initiatives, and then Ronald Reagan abolished the coordinated federal effort altogether in 1981. (At the time I was chairman of the president’s National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity.) The consequence: four million Americans were driven into poverty, most of whom were women and children.
Poverty is poison, and politics can be toxic.
Arthur I. Blaustein
Berkeley, Calif., Feb. 18, 2008
•
To the Editor:
Paul Krugman helps shatter the myth that there is nothing we can do about poverty. Too many people think that the state of poverty in America is inevitable, never questioning what we can do to change it nor looking at the inspiring progress of other industrialized nations.
I believe that it is possible not only to end poverty in the United States, but also to end extreme poverty around the globe within our lifetime. Our country can help make this happen by passing the Global Poverty Act and holding ourselves accountable for our part in achieving the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.
ccyl
•
To the Editor:
Having worked in Newark for over a decade, I am bewildered that people could believe that poor Americans are not that poor.
Poverty anywhere is not a fixed notion but a relationship between the resources available to the general public and the resources available to the poor. From health care and nutrition to transportation and access to good schools, poor children and their families struggle every minute of every day. Those who do climb out of poverty have done so with immense and uncommon personal effort. Not everyone is so gifted.
John Edwards did indeed set the stage for Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to follow on this matter.
Jo Ann Joseph
Glen Ridge, N.J., Feb. 18, 2008
•
To the Editor:
In a new study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, cognitive neuroscientists found that while stories were being read to children of poverty, they were “less able to screen out noises embedded in the stories” than were children from more affluent families. Such evidence suggests that cognitive skills are strongly influenced by environment.
Since distractions of all kinds, including those that stem from difficult home environments and antisocial street behaviors, are a constant in the lives or many poor children, it is no wonder that their reading test scores suffer. Nor is it then surprising that as a consequence, dropouts and suspensions are disproportionate among minority children, especially black boys.
Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, now all but forgotten, needs to be revived by our next president.
Jerrold Ross
Jamaica, Queens, Feb. 18, 2008
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Mandatory Food Purchasing/Farm Bill Letter
A letter of mine that was published today in the Morton Grove Champion regarding how Farm Bill can better help food pantries. This is not necessarily Bread for the World's goals, but rather something the good people at the Greater Chicago Food Depository are pushing for.
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Thanks for spotlight on needs of hungry
Thank you for providing coverage about the needs of hungry people in your May 31 issue. It was fitting to see articles regarding “summer hunger” at the beginning of June, which is Hunger Awareness Month. Individual donations will help fight this phenomenon, but strong assistance can come from a change in the Farm Bill currently under reassessment in the House and Senate Agriculture committees. Food pantries rely heavily on bonus commodities- surplus crops bought by the government to assist farmers when prices are low. However, when prices are stable and farmers don’t need such aid, bonus commodities are not available and more people go hungry. Illinois Sens. Barak Obama and Richard Durbin as well as Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-9th, can help by supporting an increase in mandatory food purchasing for the Emergency Food Assistance Program to create a more robust aid system.
Printed in the Morton Grove Champion 6-21-07
----------------------------------------------
Thanks for spotlight on needs of hungry
Thank you for providing coverage about the needs of hungry people in your May 31 issue. It was fitting to see articles regarding “summer hunger” at the beginning of June, which is Hunger Awareness Month. Individual donations will help fight this phenomenon, but strong assistance can come from a change in the Farm Bill currently under reassessment in the House and Senate Agriculture committees. Food pantries rely heavily on bonus commodities- surplus crops bought by the government to assist farmers when prices are low. However, when prices are stable and farmers don’t need such aid, bonus commodities are not available and more people go hungry. Illinois Sens. Barak Obama and Richard Durbin as well as Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-9th, can help by supporting an increase in mandatory food purchasing for the Emergency Food Assistance Program to create a more robust aid system.
Printed in the Morton Grove Champion 6-21-07
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Got to be starting something...
Well, this is it. After months of ignoring the "blogosphere" just because the word sounded too dumb to contemplate, now I find myself in it. Considering that I keep track of the "Buffyverse," I guess I have no room to be critical...
At the suggestion of some respected friends, I'm creating this space to be another avenue for my hunger/poverty work. After attending the national Bread for the World gathering, it became very apparent that I'm becoming a global citizen and the internet is the most powerful tool I have to keep connected with my colleagues as close as Evanston and as far away as Zambia.
So here we go!
For lack of anything else top of mind to post, I'll put my very first printed Letter to the Editor. Here it is!
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Thanks to Schakowsky for taking 'food stamp challenge'
Kudos to Representative Jan Schakowsky, D-9th, for her participation in the Food Stamp Challenge! For one week, she lived on an average food stamp budget- just $3 a day. This timely gesture comes as the House Agriculture Committee is working on the Farm Bill, the legislation governing our Food Stamp program. Food stamps are our nation's first line of defense against hunger. Unfortunately, many recipients simply cannot make them last to the end of the month – even if they purchase only cheap, processed foods instead of the nutritious, fresh foods all of us need to stay healthy. Our food stamp program should be strengthened and expanded to help provide those in need with a reasonable nutrition level and assist their rise to self-sufficiency. Thanks, Ms. Schakowsky, for showing your leadership on this issue of hunger and social justice!
Printed in the Morton Grove Champion 5-24-07
At the suggestion of some respected friends, I'm creating this space to be another avenue for my hunger/poverty work. After attending the national Bread for the World gathering, it became very apparent that I'm becoming a global citizen and the internet is the most powerful tool I have to keep connected with my colleagues as close as Evanston and as far away as Zambia.
So here we go!
For lack of anything else top of mind to post, I'll put my very first printed Letter to the Editor. Here it is!
-------------------
Thanks to Schakowsky for taking 'food stamp challenge'
Kudos to Representative Jan Schakowsky, D-9th, for her participation in the Food Stamp Challenge! For one week, she lived on an average food stamp budget- just $3 a day. This timely gesture comes as the House Agriculture Committee is working on the Farm Bill, the legislation governing our Food Stamp program. Food stamps are our nation's first line of defense against hunger. Unfortunately, many recipients simply cannot make them last to the end of the month – even if they purchase only cheap, processed foods instead of the nutritious, fresh foods all of us need to stay healthy. Our food stamp program should be strengthened and expanded to help provide those in need with a reasonable nutrition level and assist their rise to self-sufficiency. Thanks, Ms. Schakowsky, for showing your leadership on this issue of hunger and social justice!
Printed in the Morton Grove Champion 5-24-07
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