Our View: Ask candidates questions on behalf of children

Renee Jenkins, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, knows how great baby-kissing can look in campaign photos. But she would like candidates to understand that “it’s no longer good enough just to kiss a baby during the campaign. You’ve got to show us you intend to work for children’s issues when you get to the statehouse, when you get to Congress and when you get to the White House.”

Jenkins spoke Tuesday at a national press conference in Washington, D.C. Thirty child-advocate groups convened to plead their message to politicians and to the media. Children’s issues, they say, are being ignored this election season. Children’s issues stand in line behind the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, alternative energy strategies and Social Security concerns.

Except for brief mentions of the candidates’ plans to insure uninsured children, and discussion of No Child Left Behind, children’s issues this election season have been banished to the political equivalent of the kids’ table. There’s too much going on at the adults’ table for many to even notice.

Yet leaders elected in November will make decisions regarding education funding, poverty relief programs and health care access for families. The coalition of children’s groups is urging voters to ask questions of candidates, such as “More than 8 million children have no health insurance. How will you ensure that children grow up healthy?”

Closer to home, Mary Ann Murphy, executive director of Partners with Families and Children: Spokane, is well aware of the ignored kids’ table of issues. It happens every campaign season, she said.

“People give lip service to the value of children, but children don’t vote. Among policymakers, that makes a huge difference. So it is partly caught up with their inability to speak for themselves,” Murphy said.

Adults can become the voice of children at campaign forums. Murphy suggests some questions for state legislative candidates, including: “Do you have a long-term vision for children that goes beyond two-year and six-year election cycles?” and “How can we prevent school dropouts?”

Our children are our future. Voters will hear candidates say this during these elections. Voters who care about kids must insist that candidates have concrete plans for making that future a healthy one.