Unfortunately, without money or votes, children and their needs are often overlooked as campaign priorities, and then later on as legislative priorities.
Candidates care about our kids — of course they do. But candidates usually respond to the concerns of the voting public, and many voters are concerned about jobs, health care, the rising price of gas and college.
What would happen if just one adult in the lives of each of these 1.4 million Missouri children spoke up this year and asked the candidates: “What will you do to invest in our children so that Missouri’s future is stronger than today?”
The election of a new governor on Nov. 4 offers an opportunity for four years of new investments in our youngest Missourians who will grow up to be our future doctors, entrepreneurs, engineers, teachers and workforce.
With 150,000 children without health coverage, 46,000 reported abused and neglected each year, 338,000 left alone after school, 94,000 without access to pre-K, and 260,000 living in poverty — Missouri cannot afford to wait.
We can invest in our children’s future now or we can pay the price later. We can help kids get on track to high school graduation, college and gainful employment, or we can watch them repeat grades in school, engage in criminal acts or rely on social-welfare programs as adults.
We hear the candidates for governor talking about the cost of college tuition and investments in higher education. But we know that investments in early childhood education are just as important.
Access to college starts with a solid foundation of early learning. With term limits in Missouri, it’s hard for elected officials to see the benefits of investments beyond their eight years in office. However, we must continue to remind them of this very simple truth: Our future depends on the investments we make in our children today.
We need to ask candidates and elected officials where they stand on children’s issues.
We need to ask them — especially candidates for governor Kenny Hulshof and Jay Nixon — how they will invest in Missouri’s future.
Our 1.4 million children won’t be able to vote on Nov. 4 — it’s time we speak up and be their voice.
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