“We want to see this country take its rightful place in the world. We want to see every child here given the chance for a good education; for the health care that he or she needs; for a job that will support a family; for development not only in the cities but in the rural areas as well.”
That was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talking. National Public Radio was reporting on Clinton’s visit last week to Myanmar (Burma), the first by a U.S. secretary of state in more than a half-century.
If you weren’t aware of where she was, you might have thought Clinton was talking about us, right here at home. Granted, the part about “this country [taking] its rightful place in the world” might have been a bit of a puzzle, the U.S. of A. being the sole superpower and all that. But then, there is so much concern in some quarters that this country is losing its pre-eminence (or “going to hell in a handbasket” for those with a more dramatic bent), that it might not have seemed all that strange for the nation’s top diplomat to take time out to remind us of our appointed place.
So for all that matters, I choose to think Clinton was talking to us right here. The good people of Myanmar may eavesdrop if they want.
“We want to see every child here given the chance for a good education.”
That we certainly do — so strongly, in fact, that the education law commits us to leave no child behind. The trouble is, opportunities don’t come evenly spread. We have a wide variance in chance. Some children get it; others don’t. To that extent, a good education is a matter of circumstances, the luck of the draw.
Children, as they say, are sponges, indiscriminate learners who soak up whatever they are exposed to (sometimes to the great embarrassment of parents). A chance for a good education remains the best argument to invest in all those activities that come together under early childhood education. And especially for the children who lack adequate stimulation, we know that the best bet is to make up very early for the lack of exposure or there will be no taking a personal or a national “rightful place.”
We can applaud, then, that this country last year spent roughly $8 billion on Head Start and Early Head Start programs, which provide learning opportunities for 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds in low-income families.
Having applauded that, it bears remembering, too, that right here, we are far from doing the best we ought to. For instance, Head Start and Early Head Start are the nation’s premier “give them a chance” programs, yet they served fewer than 1 million children, a fraction of the preschoolers who need a leg up. More discouraging still, early education programs are low on the totem pole, among the first to be cut when policymakers are shaking budgets for pennies. Yet researchers can’t say enough about the tremendous opportunities for learning and growth at this stage in the brain’s development. It does not seem to be great respect, either, considering the required training and compensation, for those who devote their time to preschool teaching.
It would be nice if we could meet the goal Clinton would like to see Myanmar attain.
[The chance] for the health care he or she needs.
Again, this is an excellent standard as challenging for us to achieve as it surely must be for Myanmar. For two years now, we’ve been slugging it out on health care, among other things arguing whether we can afford the cost of expanding health care to more families, more children.
The number of children who have no health insurance has dropped significantly over the years, thanks to the Children’s Health Insurance Program and expansions in the Medicaid program for poor families.
The Census Bureau this fall said the percentage of children under 18 who are uninsured has dropped from 12 percent in 1999 to 9.8 percent last year. Worth applause? You bet. All the same, 9.8 percent represents some 7 million children who had no medical coverage last year. It doesn’t mean the uninsured children didn’t receive help when things got dicey. But it probably means parents delayed seeking care while illnesses festered. It probably means it took longer to receive appropriate care, prolonging avoidable pain, threatening life and increasing the cost of care.
[The chance] for a job that will support a family.
Poverty has risen across the United States, the effects of a lousy economy still rippling through communities, creating a large population of newly poor. By the hundreds and thousands, citizens are Occupying public spaces, registering their displeasure at the dire shortage of jobs that will support a family in cities and rural areas.
Of course, Secretary Clinton was painting a picture of the future for the burdened citizens of Myanmar. For all we know, she might have been talking to us.
Ofobike is Beacon Journal chief editorial writer. She can be reached at 330-996-3513 or by email at lofobike@thebeaconjournal.com.
