Special Appeal

These last few days have been a wake-up call for me. We can't coast to victory. If anyone who's reading this blog is an Obama supporter, donate, donate, donate, volunteer, get out and register voters.

I don't want to be a doomsayer, but I think the highest thing at stake here is the survival of the human race. McCain with his insane foreign policy is about 1000% more likely to start WWIII than Obama. The many other ways in which an Obama administration will be better... it all kind of pales in comparison.

If you're on the fence, I'm going to enclose some material here about Obama touching on issues faced by parents of children from the foster care system.

Also, here's a link to foster care alumni advocate and blogger Larry Adams (aka PrairieGuy), ex-Republican and Obama supporter.


From the campaign fact sheet:

Barack Obama is a committed advocate for children. He will make sure that every child has health insurance, expand educational opportunities for low-income children, extend resources for low-income families, support and supplement our struggling foster care system, and protect children from violence and neglect.

Health Cover Every Child: Barack Obama is committed to making sure every child has health insurance. Forty-seven million Americans lack health coverage, including nine million children. Obama has a plan to sign legislation providing quality, affordable health care to all Americans by the end of his first term. Obama’s health plan will mandate coverage of children.

A History of Expanding Health Care to Children: As a state senator, Obama sponsored and helped pass legislation that expands Illinois’ KidCare program which provided coverage to 150,000 parents and their children.

Expand Medicaid and SCHIP: Together, Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) provide health coverage for one in four of our nation’s children. Currently, over 28 million children are enrolled in Medicaid, the nation’s major source of health coverage for low-income people. SCHIP, which targets low-income uninsured children who do not qualify for Medicaid, covers 6 million additional children. Obama will expand eligibility for the Medicaid and SCHIP programs and ensure that these programs continue to serve their critical safety net function.

Promote Healthy Lifestyles: One out of every 3 children and adolescents—25 million—are overweight and obese because of excessive food intake and lack of physical activity. How a community is designed (its roads, buildings and parks) can have a huge impact on the health of residents, especially children. For instance, nearly one-third of Americans live in neighborhoods without sidewalks, and less than half of our country’s children have a playground within walking distance of their homes. This lack of a safe place to walk and play is a major contributor to the growing numbers of overweight children. Obama introduced the Healthy Places Act to help state and local governments assess the health impact of new policies or projects, whether it is a new highway or shopping center. Once the health impact is determined, the bill gives grant funding and technical assistance to help address potential health problems.

Protect Children and Families from Lead Poisoning: Lead is a neurotoxin and especially harmful to developing nervous systems of fetuses and young children. There are currently 400,000 children suffering from lead poisoning in the U.S. Obama has fought to get the Environmental Protection Agency to publish long overdue rules for how contractors involved in the renovation and remodeling of homes should deal with lead paint hazards. He introduced the Lead-Free Toys Act to require the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban any children's product containing lead. Obama also introduced legislation that would help protect children from lead poisoning by requiring all non-home-based child care facilities, including Head Start programs and kindergartens, to be lead-safe within five years. The legislation would also establish a $42.6 million grant program to help local communities pay to make these facilities safe.

Help Autistic Americans and their Families: Barack Obama believes that we must do more to help support Americans with ASD, their families, and their communities. Throughout his career, Barack Obama has worked with families affected by ASD to raise awareness and to provide support to parents and families living with ASD. As president, Obama will build on these many years of advocacy and ensure that his administration prioritizes ASD research, public awareness, and lifelong support services. Obama will seek to increase federal ASD funding for research, treatment, screenings, public awareness, and support services to $1 billion annually by the end of his first term in office. Obama will also continue to work with parents, physicians, providers, researchers, and schools to create opportunities and effective solutions for people with ASD.

Education Expand Early Childhood Education: Research shows that half of low-income children start school up to two years behind their peers in preschool skills and that these early achievement gaps continue throughout elementary school. Obama has been a champion of early childhood education since his years in the Illinois legislature, where he led the effort to create the Illinois Early Learning Council. Obama has introduced a comprehensive “Zero to Five” plan to provide critical supports to young children and their parents by investing $10 billion per year to create: Early Learning Challenge Grants to stimulate and help fund state “zero to five” efforts; quadruple the number of eligible children for Early Head Start and increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both; work to ensure all children have access to pre-school; provide affordable and highquality child care that will promote child development and ease the burden on working families; and create a Presidential Early Learning Council to increase collaboration and program coordination across federal, state, and local levels.

Expand Summer Learning Opportunities: Differences in learning opportunities during the summer contribute to the achievement gaps that separate minority or low-income students from their white or middle class peers Obama’s “STEP UP” plan addresses the learning and achievement gaps among grade-school children. The “STEP UP” program supports summer learning and enrichment opportunities for disadvantaged children through partnerships between local schools and community organizations.

Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities: Expanding access to high-quality afterschool programs will help children learn and strengthen a broad range of skills and provide relief to working parents who have to juggle child care and work responsibilities. A recent survey found that African American parents have a higher demand for afterschool than other parents and struggle more to find quality afterschool options. Barack Obama will double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more children. Obama will include measures to maximize performance and effectiveness across grantees nationwide.

Low-Income Families Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit: In the Illinois State Senate, Obama led the successful effort to create the $100 million Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). As president, Obama will reward work by increasing the number of working parents eligible for EITC benefits, increasing the benefit available to parents who support their children through child support payments, increasing the benefit for families with three or more children and reducing the EITC marriage penalty which hurts low-income families. Under the Obama plan, full-time workers making minimum wage would get an EITC benefit up to $555, more than three times greater than the $175 benefit they get today. If the workers are responsibly supporting their children on child support, the Obama plan would give those workers a benefit of $1,110. The Obama plan would also increase the EITC benefit for those families that are most likely to be in poverty – families with three or more children.

Strengthen Fatherhood and Families: Since 1960, the number of American children without fathers in their lives has quadrupled, from 6 million to more than 24 million. Children without fathers in their lives are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime, nine times more likely to drop out of school, and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. Obama has re-introduced the Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act to remove some of the government penalties on married families, crack down on men avoiding child support payments, ensure that support payments go to families instead of state bureaucracies, fund support services for fathers and their families, and support domestic violence prevention efforts. As president, Obama will sign this bill into law and continue to implement innovative measures to strengthen families.

Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit: The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit provides too little relief to families that struggle to afford child care expenses. Currently the credit only covers up to 35 percent of the first $3,000 of child care expenses a family incurs for one child and the first $6,000 for a family with two or more children. And the credit is not refundable, which means that upper-income families disproportionately benefit while families who make under $50,000 a year receive less than a third of the tax credit. Barack Obama will reform the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit by making it refundable and allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit for their child care expenses.

Support Parents with Young Children: As president, Obama will expand the highly-successful Nurse- Family Partnership to all low-income, first-time mothers. The Nurse-Family Partnership provides home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income expectant mothers and their families. The trained nurses use proven methods to help improve the mental and physical health of the family by providing counseling on substance abuse, creating and achieving personal goals, and effective methods of nurturing children. Proven benefits of these types of programs include improved women’s prenatal health, a reduction in childhood injuries, fewer unintended subsequent pregnancies, increased father involvement and women’s employment, reduced use of welfare and food stamps, and increased children’s school readiness. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis concluded that these programs produced an average of five dollars in savings for every dollar invested and produced more than $28,000 in net savings for every high-risk family enrolled in the program. The Obama plan would assist approximately 570,000 first-time mothers each year.

Expand Paid Sick Days: Half of all private sector workers have no paid sick days and the problem is worse for employees in low-paying jobs, where less than a quarter receive any paid sick days. Barack Obama will require that employers provide seven paid sick days per year.

Support and Supplement Our Struggling Foster Care System: The foster care system is failing children who need help the most. Obama recognizes that part of the solution is to increase the quantity of foster homes, improve training for foster parents and increase coordination between law enforcement and child welfare officials so that abuse can be stopped. Young adults graduating from foster care often have a rough time living independently. One study found that within two to four years only 54% had completed high school, less than half had jobs and 25% had experienced homelessness. Obama will invest in innovative new job training and workforce development programs that will provide those in foster care with the skills necessary to compete in the modern American workforce.

PROTECT WOMEN AND CHILDREN Reduce Domestic Violence: One in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. Obama will protect women and children from domestic violence. He introduced legislation to combat domestic violence by providing $25 million a year for partnerships between domestic violence prevention organizations and fatherhood or marriage programs to train staff in domestic violence services, provide services to families affected by domestic violence, and to develop best practices in domestic violence prevention.

Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect: There are nearly three million annual reports of child abuse and neglect. The tragedy of child abuse claims thousands of innocent lives each year, while ruining millions more. Moreover, it has been estimated that the direct cost to taxpayers of child protection and foster care is $20 billion, while another $100 billion is spent on issues related to child abuse, including crime, prisons, mental health, special education, medical care, and drug abuse. Obama is committed to preventing child abuse and supports proven and effective means to combat the tragedy of child abuse.

Register and Restrict Sex Offenders: Barack Obama helped create a national sex offender database through his cosponsorship of Dru’s Law. The law was incorporated into the larger Adam Walsh Child Protection Act, a measure Obama also supported. Obama also consponsored the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. The bill is set to bring stiffer penalties to bear against those who commit sex crimes against children under the age of 12. It also creates an online National Sex Offender Public Registry and gives grants to local law enforcement agencies for prevention and investigation. Obama supports the KIDS Act, which requires sex offenders to provide their Internet identifiers (email addresses, instant messaging tags, etc.) for use in the National Sex Offender Public Registry.

Protect Meth’s Youngest Victims: Children living in or visiting methamphetamine labs not only face great physical danger from chemical contamination and fire and explosions, but they are at a heightened risk for abuse, neglect, and continued social and developmental problems. Obama cosponsored legislation providing assistance to the children of methamphetamine abusers in the U.S. Senate, and he will continue to support meth’s youngest victims as president.

One mother's perspective on special education:

Obama and Education
by CatM
Sat Sep 06, 2008 at 03:15:57 PM PDT

We live in NJ, which has the highest per capita rate of autistic disorders in the nation. I have three children, two with Asperger's/ADHD and one ADHD/probable PDD-NOS. For those unfamiliar with such terminology, ADHD = attention deficit disorder and Asperger's is akin to high-functioning autism; PDD-NOS is pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified, meaning someone with autistic traits but insufficient in number to merit a diagnosis.

You might think that McCain's promises of letting us choose our children's schools would hold a lot of appeal for mothers like me. After all, the struggle to obtain the educational considerations my children need is exhausting and often disheartening. The private schools for kids with Asperger's in my area are out of reach, at $35,000 a year. I know McCain's promises are empty, which is why I prefer Obama on education for my special needs children.

I reviewed the education platforms of each candidate. Like McCain's speeches, his is vague, stocked with catchphrases to appeal to his base; these aren't policy ideas--they're platitudes.

Education was never a McCain priority. As states axed programs to finance No Child Left Behind mandates--a policy McCain supports--McCain voted against full funding. His new platform calls for greater funding for NCLB, yet it also expands programs that shift money from public schools to private schools--a program many can't take advantage of; tell me how a $3,000 grant is going to enable me to afford the $35,000 annual tuition (each kid) for the local schools in NJ that teach kids with AS.

The chief focus of McCain's "policy" is giving states money so they can competitively bid against one another for the top graduates in education, once again leaving poorer school districts with the short end of the stick. He plans to offer $4,000 credits to parents who use virtual learning; this includes $4,000 for homeschoolers who provide their children with "virtual learning" opportunities. This smells suspiciously like the Bush plan that funded private organizations who wanted to provide health programs. Conservative and fringe religious groups, eager to get a bite of that pie, sprouted up with programs everywhere that were covert opportunities to sneak religion into our children's curriculum.

In contrast, Obama--with 2 school-aged daughters of his own--recognizes the disaster of NCLB and its negative impact on our kids. As a result of NCLB's reliance on standardized testing, our schools ignore learning and social problems in children, provided they can pass their tests; they can't afford to do otherwise.

As an example, kids with Asperger's (AS) perform well on these tests early on, so the school says academically they don't need assistance. As kids with AS age and classes require more deductive reasoning, their test scores in several areas drop. Only if they drop below average will the school intervene. Meanwhile, years have gone by that could have prevented these kids from ever reaching the point where they struggle hopelessly to answer questions like "What does Susie feel when she loses her ball?" Standardized tests stress all children, but especially those with learning disorders.

NCLB forces schools to consume valuable resources that could have funded programs for kids with autism disorders. Though I live in a state where 1 out of 94 children has an autism disorder, our district funds 0 programs for these kids.

What will Obama do? His plan

...include[s] funds for states to implement a broader range of assessments that can evaluate higher-order skills, including students’ abilities to use technology, conduct research, engage in scientific investigation, solve problems, present and defend their ideas.

This is the key to change in education. Broader assessments are fundamental, because today's narrow tests fail to capture the problems many of these kids have. So many kids with ADHD and/or AS have trouble with higher-order skills, but it may not drag down academic performance notably until high school or college, contributing to high drop out rates. Recognizing and addressing these problems early on, preventing them from becoming a burden, will greatly improve our children's ability to succeed.

Obama also wants to expand summer learning opportunities. My sons' school offers summer learning opportunities--but only for kids who are 'regressing.' They denied funding for my sons to attend a social skills camp for kids with Asperger's this summer because one showed progress compared with last year and the other did not regress on his standardized test (just in every other aspect of school). And any way, the law only requires the school to address academic struggles, not social ones (unless they are disruptive). Obama wants to expand child care credits, too; this will let working parents with lower incomes better afford programs and camps for their special needs kids.

The current system fails because it makes no effort to prevent failure, only to try to reverse it. NCLB forces schools to care more about ensuring kids succeed annually on those tests than ensuring they succeed in life. I am especially impressed with Obama's plan to increase funding that will allow schools to stop using cookie-cutter lesson plans and instead tailor programs to individual student needs.

As always, McCain offers more of the same--tax credits for people who will qualify only if they can afford private schools in the first place. They certainly won't help people like me. McCain's plan will hurt my children by diverting money from their schools that is needed to implement autism and other programs for kids with learning disabilities whose struggles go beyond academic.

Obama places a high value on math and science in his program, two areas where children with Asperger's often excel. He rightly points out that our country lacks qualified workers. Many successful people are theorized to have shown signs of autistic disorders. It could greatly benefit society to help schools find ways to educate children with spectrum disorders rather than letting these kids fall by the wayside, unable to keep up with the struggle of a one-size-fits-all curriculum. I believe Obama recognizes this.

As for McCain? His educational plan is thin, indicating the importance it will have in his administration. As a VP candidate, he picked someone who wants to teach creationism in schools and exclude sex education. This says the most about how much McCain values educating our children.