No Kidding! The Children's Alliance blog

Our 2013 Legislative Report describes the Children's Alliance's work for kids in partnership with coalitions and individuals from all across Washington state.

Together, our teamwork over the 2013 session won:

• Equitable health care: we strengthened Apple Health for Kids so that it now offers affordable coverage to all children;
• Quality pre-K: we expanded the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program so it meets the early learning needs of more children;
• Food for kids: we won a partial restoration of food stamp benefits for thousands of children and immigrant families.

Congress is considering deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps), our nation’s number-one defense against hunger. Policymakers representing Washington’s 1 million SNAP recipients, 39 percent of whom are children, should consider these four facts as they ponder a vote:

We congratulate our state’s legislators for making progress on oral health in the 2013-15 biennial budget. State lawmakers passed a budget that restored full dental benefits to adults on Medicaid.

Reversing that harmful cut means dental coverage for 700,000 adults. That’s a good step forward. But our oral health crisis is far too big to solve in one step.

That’s why we’re taking action, this summer, to call attention to a proven solution to get more kids and families the dental care they need.

Washington’s children have lost a fierce champion and we have lost a beloved friend. We are heartbroken.

As we mourn the sudden loss of Kip Tokuda and share our condolences, we reflect upon the many contributions that he made to children and families in Washington.

Kip was the consummate child advocate. His legacy will live on through the many ways his work and service touch the lives of Washington’s children.

Washington’s children are worth investing in. And one of the biggest payoffs for all of us comes when we invest in their first five years – when early learning helps kids create a brighter tomorrow. 

There’s promising news for children ages birth to 5, and therefore for our shared future. New state-by-state data shows that the President’s Preschool for All proposal would benefit 7,451 Washington children from low- and moderate-income families in the first year alone.

Quality pre-K helps kids build success in K-12 and saves money down the line. Brains are like buildings: they start with a foundation. Birth to age 5 is a crucial time to give kids the kinds of enriching environments that help them make smart choices, express their feelings, control their impulses and learn the other behaviors that put them on a solid footing for the rest of their lives.

As we mourn the loss of Brewster C. Denny (1924-2013) and share our condolences with his family, we pause to remember the many contributions that he made to children and families in Washington and to the mission of the Children’s Alliance.

Brewster was a champion and an inspiration for the Children's Alliance. His passionate belief in the power of effective public policy to improve the lives of children is now embedded into the core of the Children’s Alliance.

Throughout the 1990s, Brewster served as the founding co-chair of the Children's Budget Coalition, an enterprise to create a unified children's budget that was endorsed and promoted to policymakers by dozens of child advocacy and child-serving organizations. As staff to the Coalition, we had the privilege of supporting his great leadership and learning from his ability to foster collaboration. In recognition of his service, the Children’s Alliance presented Brewster with an Outstanding Advocate for Children Award in 1997.

President Barack Obama wants to put real money behind his Plan for Early Education for All Americans. His proposed budget for federal fiscal year 2014 opts for smart new investments in a comprehensive birth-to-5 education plan.

His multi-pronged strategy will expand access to and improve the quality of early childhood education by:

A week after the state Senate, the state House of Representatives passed its budget on Friday, April 5. Negotiations between budget leaders in the House, the Senate and the Governor’s office have begun.

What are the key ingredients of a good state budget for kids?

Hungry children gained the unprecedented support of a majority of the State Senate this week. As the News Tribune's Politics blog reported on Tuesday, 25 of 49 Senators co-signed a letter asking budget leaders to fully fund State Food Assistance.

As the Senators wrote:

The state legislature has missed an opportunity to get more kids and families the preventive oral health care they need.

The dental access legislation, House Bill 1516 and Senate Bill 5433 did not move forward out of their policy committees, despite a large and diverse statewide coalition of health care advocates and the leadership of Rep. Eileen Cody (D-34th) and Sen. David Frockt (D-46th). The Washington State Dental Association is ignoring the input of its own member dentists and is blocking an innovative and evidence-based solution to our state’s dental access crisis.

A licensed dental practitioner remains a viable part of the solution – for the oral health of Washington’s underserved communities and as a workforce opportunity for dedicated dental professionals.

Dental practitioners are already serving tens of thousands of patients in other states. Watch this short video to learn more:

State lawmakers are talking a lot about how to fulfill our Constitutional promise of educational opportunity to Washington’s children. Many of them recognize that we get the greatest return on our educational investment when we fill classrooms with children who are ready to learn.

Brains are like buildings; they rest on the foundation laid down by a child’s earliest experiences. That’s why sound nutrition, healthy mothers, stable living situations and primary care are all so essential. And also why early learning is so important.

So it’s been a great achievement for the Children’s Alliance and our friends to push a new bill through its chamber of origin and on to the Senate, where it will be heard in committee this Friday.

Have you ever asked your state legislator to support a fair and balanced approach to the budget, including closing tax loopholes or new revenue, only to hear them say, “Sorry, my hands are tied”? Well, yesterday morning the Washington State Supreme Court untied their hands.

In a 6-3 vote, the Court ruled that a supermajority requirement – a two-thirds vote – to raise revenue or close tax loopholes is unconstitutional. This is good news for kids!

The court opinion states that the Supermajority requirement enabled a “tyranny of the minority” – referencing the fact that a minority of legislators  - as few as 17 individuals in the Senate – could block legislation to close tax loopholes or raise revenue.