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A little over ten years ago, my daughter was in the Head Start program. Back then, I had left an abusive marriage, and was a single mother. I went from living a comfortable middle class lifestyle, to living in poverty. But don't feel sorry for me. In many ways I was lucky, because if I had been in the exact same situation anytime in the last seven years, things would have been much worse for me and my children.
I say that I was lucky because, back then I qualified for a program called WIC. Through that program I was able to get milk, cheese, bread, eggs, cereal, and peanut butter for my children. But this program wouldn't be available to me today, because of cuts that the Bush administration has made to it.
The same thing is true for the Head Start program. For two years by daughter received a quality pre-school education and healthy lunches. And now, ten years later, she is a straight "A" student. But like the WIC program, we would not have qualified for Head Start today, because of cuts by the Bush administration.
It brings tears to my eyes when I think of all the women who are in the exact same situation that I was in, but who now are unable to receive any of the benefits that I did. What would I have done, if these programs hadn't been available to me? I can't even imagine. I was lucky, because those two years helped me (and my kids) get to a better place. Sadly, for the last seven years, the Bush administration has waged a war on the single mother. The policy...To preserve the traditional family, by making it so hard for a single mother to survive, that she has no other option but to stay in an abusive relationship with her children.
And we may be in the middle of an election year, but the Bush war on the single mother still continues. However, there is something that everyone can do to help...
On March 4, all across the country, thousands of advocates are joining together to March Forth in support of increased funding for child care and Head Start by calling or e-mailing their Members of Congress.
Access to child care and Head Start is vital to women's economic well-being and the ability of their children to succeed in school. The Bush administration’s proposed FY 2009 budget would continue the administration’s long-standing pattern of freezes or cuts to child care and Head Start. Under its proposed budget, 200,000 low-income children and their families would lose child care assistance, and 14,000 children would lose Head Start.
From Marian Wright Edleman at The Huffington Post...
How well did your Members of Congress protect children last year? The Children's Defense Fund Action Council answers this question in our new 2007 Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard. It grades every member of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on how well they voted to protect children based on 10 key votes in each house covering a range of issues, including the federal budget, child health, education, tax relief and minimum wage measures.
TUESDAY, TUESDAY, TUESDAY...Get your lobbying fingers ready and let's fight hard for child care and Head Start. The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) has a campaign going on that we should all jump on.
Call or e-mail your Senators and Representative and let them know that they must reject the President’s FY 2009 budget request for child care and Head Start and support more funding for these programs. To call your members of Congress, please dial 1-888-460-0813 and ask to be connected. To find out who your members are, search the NWLC directory.
To contact your elected officials and let her/him know how you feel, just use their handy dandy form. And while you are planning, post this action alert and get more people involved!
So, if you have a few extra minutes...I hope you'll consider taking action today, and March 4th For Head Start.
Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
CatherineBlogs, The Political Voices of Women, Care2 Election Blog
