Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

Connect for Kids Weekly - September 22, 2003

Sep 24, 2003

We encourage distribution of this information! If reprinting in whole or part, please attribute it to Connect for Kids (www.connectforkids.org).

NEW ON CONNECTFORKIDS.ORG
**Cradleboard Curricula
**Pressroom Update
**Talk Back: Readers Respond July-September 2003

KIDS AND POLITICS
**Health Care Emerging as Presidential Campaign Issue Again
**Senate Blocks New Media Ownership Rules
**The Future of AmeriCorps Still Uncertain
**Child Nutrition Reauthorization May Take More Time

SUPPORTING SAFE, STABLE FAMILIES FOR ALL KIDS
**Prevent Child Abuse America Launches New Website
** Family Support Services, College Funding for Foster Kids Shortchanged
**U.S. Among Worst Three Countries for Child Abuse in Industrialized World

THINGS TO DO! PLACES TO GO!
**Grand Rally to Leave No Child Behind -- October 15, 2003
**Ask Secretary Paige Your NCLB Questions
**Youth Court: A Legal Guide for Getting Involved
**Getting Tweens Moving
**Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride
**Trick or Treat for UNICEF Materials

EDUCATION NEWS
**Missed Opportunities: How We Keep High-Quality Teachers Out of Urban Classrooms
**Stateline.org Reports on Tutoring Services Under NCLB

THE LOW-WAGE WORKFORCE
**Setting the Standard for American Working Families
** New Poverty and Income Numbers Due Out This Week
** The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 35 Million Americans
**Truth and Transparency: The Federal Government's Financial Condition and Fiscal Outlook

KEEPING THEM FIT AND HEALTHY
**Study Finds Link Between TV and Soft Drinks and Overweight Kids
**Food Fight: The Inside Story Of America's Obesity Crisis, And What We Can Do About It
**Kids in Medicaid Managed Care Get Lower-Quality Care than Privately Insured
**State Budget and Medicaid Cost Containment Trends

FOCUS ON THE STATES

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NEW ON CONNECTFORKIDS.ORG

**Cradleboard Curricula
Much work has been done to remove Indian stereotypes from textbooks, but holes are often left behind in their place. The good news: resources are out there. Robert Capriccioso explores the Cradleboard Teaching Project--an Internet-based cultural teaching tool that might have a place in your school.
http://www.connectforkids.org/benton_topics1544/benton_topics_show.htm?doc_id=193542

**Pressroom Update
We've made big changes in our Pressroom. It's now a better tool for journalists and advocates looking for information on the issues that matter for children and families. Explore new links to timely research and articles that offer a "kids' context" on policy issues, and let us know what you think.
http://www.connectforkids.org/newsletter1538/newsletter.htm

**Talk Back: Readers Respond July-September 2003
We covered the serious stuff (education reform, obesity, playground safety). We covered the fun stuff (Rob Slob, Captain Underpants, Toni Morrison). In response, readers sent in many thoughtful remarks.
http://www.connectforkids.org/benton_topics1544/benton_topics_show.htm?doc_id=193545


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KIDS AND POLITICS

**Health Care Emerging as Presidential Campaign Issue Again
Many of the presidential candidates have offered health insurance proposals to help Americans in the face of rising health care costs, and to extend insurance to the growing number of uninsured. According to this Commonwealth Fund analysis, six Democratic proposals would expand coverage to people with low incomes. The Democrats' plans generally rely on group health insurance options, while the president's focuses on the individual insurance market. The Democratic proposals are more costly but cover more uninsured, ranging from an additional 22 million to 41 million people. The president's plan, at an estimated cost of $89 billion over ten years, would cover 4 million more people currently without insurance, but leave 37 million still uninsured.
http://www.cmwf.org/programs/insurance/collins_reformagenda_bn_671.pdf

**Senate Blocks New Media Ownership Rules
On September 16, the Senate voted 55 to 40 to block the Federal Communications Commission's new media ownership rules allowing big media to grow bigger.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21792-2003Sep16.html

Child advocates are cheering; many opposed these rules because of their potential to squeeze out quality TV programming for children.
http://www.childrennow.org/media/fcc-03/media-study-highlights-05-21-03.htm

**The Future of AmeriCorps Still Uncertain
There will be thousands fewer AmeriCorps volunteers to serve communities across the country because House and Senate negotiators failed to include an emergency $100 million AmeriCorps appropriation. Advocates are urging Congress to approve President Bush's request for $433 million in fiscal year 2004 for AmeriCorps, enough to expand the program to 75,000 volunteers. So far, the House has approved about $345 million, and a Senate committee passed $340 million.
http://www.saveamericorps.org

**Child Nutrition Reauthorization May Take More Time
Six child nutrition programs are set to expire on September 30, 2003. Given the crowded Congressional calendar it is likely that Congress will keep the programs going with a continuing resolution, giving advocates more time to urge lawmakers to include program improvements in the reauthorization legislation. The Food Research and Action Center says school meal programs need increased funding to keep pace with increased need.
http://www.capwiz.com/frac/issues/alert/?alertid=2813571&type=CO


The American School Food Service Association supports efforts to make school food options healthier for kids -- by expanding the fruit and vegetable pilot program, addressing the problem of competitive junk foods in school, and a program to encourage healthier foods and physical activity (IMPACT act).
http://capwiz.com/asfsa/issues/bills/


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SUPPORTING SAFE, STABLE FAMILIES FOR ALL KIDS

**Prevent Child Abuse America Launches New Website
Healthy Families America works to prevent child maltreatment in families with children birth to five years old. This newly designed Web site has state-specific information, evaluation studies and information to help advocates and concerned citizens expand and improve these services that help support new families.
http://www.healthyfamiliesamerica.org/home/index.shtml

** Family Support Services, College Funding for Foster Kids Shortchanged
The Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) legislation of 2001 was designed to curb the need for foster care by helping communities offer family-strengthening services like parent nurturing initiatives and home visiting programs for new parents. The legislation also included the Chafee voucher program, offering financial assistance to foster kids for college or postsecondary training -- the only federal money specifically targeted to help teens aging out of foster care get schooling. President Bush requested $200 million for the PSSF program, but the House and Senate each appropriated $99 million. Instead of Bush's recommended $60 million for the Chafee voucher program, the House appropriated $45 million and the Senate $42 million. Child advocates are urging the President and the Congress to make the money match the mission in upcoming conference committee negotiations.
http://www.cwla.org/advocacy/alrt030905.htm

**U.S. Among Worst Three Countries for Child Abuse in Industrialized World
UNICEF's Innocenti Research Center reports that young children raised in the United States, Mexico, and Portugal have the greatest chances of dying from neglect or other forms of mistreatment among the 27 industrialized nations that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/68351/1/


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THINGS TO DO! PLACES TO GO!

**Grand Rally to Leave No Child Behind -- October 15, 2003
Child advocates are sponsoring a Grand Rally on October 15th in Washington DC, to bring attention to the needs of children and kinship care families. Grandparents, relative caregivers and all those who support them are welcome. If you plan to attend, be sure and register and set up a meeting with your Senator or Congressperson's office to speak about the needs of children and kinship care families. For more information, contact the Grand Rally staff at 202-662-3656 or via e-mail grandrally@childrensdefense.org

If you can't join the Grand Rally in person, you can call 800-736-9594 on October 15 to talk toll free with the office of your Member of Congress about the needs of grandparents and other relatives raising children.

**Ask Secretary Paige Your NCLB Questions
Submit your questions now for Education Week's live Web chat on the No Child Left Behind law with U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, on September 24 from 2:30 to 3:30 pm ET.
http://www.edweek-chat.org/question.php3

**Youth Court: A Legal Guide for Getting Involved
This U.S. Justice Department satellite videoconference will take place on September 25, 2003, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. ET. Some 900 youth courts are currently operating across the country, a program in which youth sentence their peers for minor delinquent and problem behavior.
http://www.dlnets.com/DOJ/CIVILtelereg.htm

**Getting Tweens Moving
The Extra Hour For Extra Action Campaign is designed to increase the number of hours tweens (kids between ages 10 and 14) participate in physical activity, beginning the day daylight savings time ends on the last Sunday in October. This toolkit from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ideas, suggestions and ready-to-use materials to implement this program, plus an opportunity for your community organization to win a $500 grant to support your organization's physical activity program.
http://www.cdc.gov/youthcampaign/special_event/hour_for_action.htm

**Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride
They are nurses, meat packers, construction workers, busboys, janitors and chefs. But millions of undocumented immigrants who work hard and pay taxes find it is a very difficult road to legalize their status and reunite their families. The goal of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride is to help bring attention to the "broken immigration system" and draw a better roadmap to citizenship.
http://www.iwfr.org

**Trick or Treat for UNICEF Materials
Order your orange boxes now and find out how you can help students in your local school participate in this annual Halloween fundraising event to provide children around the world with lifesaving medicine, better nutrition, clean water and sanitation, quality basic education, and emergency relief.
http://www.unicefusa.org/trickortreat


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EDUCATION NEWS

**Missed Opportunities: How We Keep High-Quality Teachers Out of Urban Classrooms
Large city schools don't have trouble attracting the best and brightest teachers -- but they do have trouble when it comes to actually hiring them. Based on a close look at four urban school districts, the New Teacher Project finds that strategic recruitment efforts have led high-quality candidates to apply in large numbers for hard-to-staff districts. But they often take jobs in suburban districts because urban schools find it hard to make final offers before July or August. Existing rules allow late notice about teachers' plans to retire or transfer, and most state budgets are not finalized unt June 30 -- so districts don't always know their needs. This report recommends that districts, teachers' unions, school and state stakeholders unite to provide specific school placements for the vast majority of new teachers by May 1 each year.
http://www.tntp.org/docs/reportfinal9-12.pdf

**Stateline.org Reports on Tutoring Services Under NCLB
Transferring to another school is not the only solution offered by the No Child Left Behind law for students in failing schools. The law requires that states use some of their federal education money to provide tutoring and supplemental services for under-performing students. Stateline.org reports most states are complying, but there's room for improvement.
http://www.stateline.org/story.do?storyId=325142


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THE LOW-WAGE WORKFORCE

**Setting the Standard for American Working Families
One way to change conditions of low-wage work is to start by adopting a self-sufficiency standard -- as a policy goal, a counseling tool and a benchmark for helping families move out of poverty. Self-sufficiency strategies that can help families meet this goal include promoting systemic change in a particular industry to promote higher-wage careers, training women for higher paying "men's work" jobs, combining literacy and job skills in training programs, providing seed money for small businesses, and establishing Individual Development Accounts that match funds saved for buying a house, getting an education or starting a business. Wider Opportunities for Women reports on the first phase of their Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Project and how 35 states are using the self-sufficiency standard to improve opportunities for families. E-mail vstaples@wowonline.org for one free copy. The report will be online soon.
http://www.sixstrategies.org/about/about.cfm

** New Poverty and Income Numbers Due Out This Week
On Friday, September 26th, the U.S. Census Bureau will release the latest data on poverty and income for 2002.
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2003/cb03-142.html

The same day, the Brookings Welfare Reform & Beyond Initiative is sponsoring a public forum to highlight the new figures and their meaning and implications for families and policymakers.
http://www.brookings.edu

** The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 35 Million Americans
A quarter of the American workforce earn at or under $8.70 an hour, or $18,100 a year, the current U.S. official poverty level for a family of four. Their jobs usually lack health care, child care, pensions and vacation benefits, and often include hazardous working conditions, says Beth Shulman in her new book on the low-wage workforce. Shulman argues that common myths about low-wage work (that they are stepping stones to better jobs, require no skills, or are filled by teens and others who don't need the money) prevent these conditions from commanding the kind of public policy attention they deserve. She warns that these jobs are expanding as a share of our economy, and middle-class jo ar are beginning to look more and more like them -- with fewer benefits and ss job security. (Summary and reviews available online; the cost of the book is $20.97.)
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?endeca=1&ean=9781565847330

**Growing Number of Children in Severely Distressed Neighborhoods
Between 1990 and 2000, the number of kids living in high-poverty neighborhoods declined, but the number of children living in severely distressed neighborhoods characterized by high rates of poverty grew. In 2000, over a third of all poor black children and almost one in five poor Latino children lived in severely distressed neighborhoods, compared with 3.9 percent of poor non-hispanic white children. This Kids Count report paints a picture of increasing isolation of large numbers of poor minority children being left behind in resource-poor neighborhoods with worse schools, fewer opportunities for adult-supervised activities and fewer role models of working men or married-couple families, despite the economic surge of the 1990s.
http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/distressed_neighborhoods.pdf

**Truth and Transparency: The Federal Government's Financial Condition and Fiscal Outlook
In this sober address on September 17, Comptroller General David M. Walker, calling himself the de-facto Chief Accountability Officer of the United States government, warns we're in a fiscal hole and we should stop digging. Urging the press to educate the American public about the ticking of the fiscal clock as the country heads into the baby boom retirement with deepening deficits, Walker calls on the federal government to start exercising more discipline on both the spending and the tax side. Charging that America is "flying blind or without adequate instruments," Walker recommends a government-wide strategic plan and a set of national indicators to assess America's position and progress over time, and calls for changes in accounting procedures to quantify the long-term costs of major spending and tax proposals before legislation is enacted into law.
http://www.gao.gov/cghome/npc917.pdf




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KEEPING THEM FIT AND HEALTHY

**Study Finds Link Between TV and Soft Drinks and Overweight Kids
associated with obesity among middle-school students. Latinos spend more time watching television and consume more soft drinks than non-Hispanic white or Asian students.
http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/157/9/882

**Food Fight: The Inside Story Of America's Obesity Crisis, And What We Can Do About It
Former Surgeon General David Satcher says that Dr. Brownell's new book, Food Fight: The Inside Story Of America's Obesity Crisis, And What We Can Do About It, provides much of the necessary ammunition to win the fight for the health of America, especially our children.
http://mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0071402500.html

**Kids in Medicaid Managed Care Get Lower-Quality Care than Privately Insured
Medicaid-insured children enrolled in managed care plans had lower immunization rates and fewer well-child visits than privately insured children in such plans, says a Commonwealth Fund-supported study. The authors conclude that providing continuity in primary care to Medicaid populations presents unique challenges. Parents of children enrolled in Medicaid may lack reliable transportation, for example, or face language barriers in communicating with providers and have inflexible work schedules.
http://www.cmwf.org/programs/insurance/thompson_childrencommercial_itl_676.pdf

**State Budget and Medicaid Cost Containment Trends
Medicaid is a fast-growing and significant part of most state budgets. This 50-state survey from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured tracks state budget and Medicaid cost containment trends.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/healthcast/kff/22sep03


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FOCUS ON THE STATES

**State-by-State News

Georgia
The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that Georgia state officials are considering cuts to Medicaid and CHIP programs.
http://cme.kff.org/Key=318.C4M.r.D.LCmTJv

Kentucky
A 1985 lawsuit brought by the Council for Better Education resulted in sweeping education reform in Kentucky. Accusing the legislature of inadequately funding public schools, the group has launched a new suit.
http://www.ecs.org/ecsmain.asp?page=/html/newsmedia/e-clips.asp

New York
New York Public Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has announced a universal free breakfast program for all children attending New York Public Schools. Universal breakfast has been shown to reduce the stigma associated with free or reduced price meals by allowing all students, regardless of economic status, to enjoy a free, nutritious breakfast and numerous studies have shown that students who eat a school breakfast perform better on standardized tests and have less discipline or health related problems during the school day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/13/nyregion/13SCHO.html

Pennsylvania
Join Pennsylvania's virtual Child Advocacy Network to get information on children's policies and help speaking up for kids.
http://www.papartnerships.org

Texas
To combat childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes, the Texas Department of Agriculture has tightened its policy on foods such as hard candy, gum and soda. New state regulations ban elementary schools from selling or giving away foods that have minimal nutritional value during the school day and restrict such food in middle schools during the lunch period. (See the September 9 article, "Agriculture Department Comes Up With a List of What Snacks are OK at Schools.")
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/states/texas/northeast/6727752.htm

Utah
Public schools need more American Indian teachers, counseling services and relevant social studies instruction to improve the academic performance of American Indian students, a task force has told Utah state lawmakers.
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Sep/09182003/utah/93441.asp

Virginia
A new donation will enable Smart Smiles to expand dental services to Hampton Roads, Richmond and Northern Virginia, with a goal of serving 5,000 children by 2005.
http://cme.kff.org/Key=318.C4M.t.D.KsqvTn

Washington
By more than two-to-one, voters rejected a 10-cent-a-cup tax on espresso drinks that would have gone to support day care and preschool, improve the quality of teachers and staff and replace some programs' lost state funding. If it had succeeded, proponents predicted the tax could have raised as much as $7 million annually and served 5,000 children. (See the September 17 article, "Latte Tax Creamed; Plan Had Been Called Daring, Silly.")
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001733043_espresso17m.html


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