Why Does Big Bird Matter?
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about the Mitt Romney, Big Bird, PBS fiasco and all of the political hoopla that has resulted from Presidential Candidate Romney’s comment at last week’s debate. And while we at Michigan’s Children like to avoid this type of hoopla, Big Bird does represent educational opportunities outside the classroom and brings to mind the impact that the elections will have on education.
Big Bird and Sesame Street epitomize the importance of having access to educational opportunities outside the traditional classroom – whether in high quality child care settings that provide engaging developmentally appropriate learning opportunities or in after-school programs that help connect what kids are learning in math class to real world experiences and careers.
In Michigan, we are starting to pay needed attention to our gap in academic achievement between low-income kids and kids of color and their peers – the equity gap. Pressure from the Federal government and our own demographics are forcing this attention, as Michigan’s kids of color continue to make up larger and larger shares of all our children – our future parents, voters and workforce.
As a state, we rely heavily on federal funding to support programs serving kids and families who struggle to access high quality opportunities outside of the traditional classroom. Much of our state’s efforts to provide these types of programs serve kids from low-income families and kids of color who struggle the most to achieve academically. And these high quality programs are proven to increase educational equity by helping to reduce the academic achievement gap. So what types of programs are we talking about? Federally funded programs in Michigan include:
- high quality home visitation programs that help parents become the great parents they want to be,
- high quality child care programs that allow parents to work while kids learn,
- school-based health and nutrition programs that keeps kids healthy and hunger-free so they can actively participate in the classroom,
- after-school programs that keep kids learning and engaged after the last school bell rings, and
- partnerships with community colleges and workforce development that keep young people in school or reconnect them to education.
So what does this mean for the elections? With the Congressional gridlock that we’ve seen, whether federal funding will continue to flow to our state for equity promoting programs is uncertain. Thus, it is our responsibility to elect individuals who we believe will be good stewards of our public dollars and will ensure that these types of programs will, at a minimum, maintain their funding and hopefully increase to serve more kids and better prepare our future workforce. At Michigan’s Children, we believe this means hiring (because that is what we’re doing when we elect public officials into office) individuals who believe in a fair approach to tackling the federal deficit that does not further cut programs that promote equitable opportunities to educational success.
In Michigan, we have a statewide Senate race and every single Congressperson is facing re-election this November. So do you know where the candidates stand on these types of issues? Learn how you can engage with candidates by visiting our Vote for Michigan’s children webpage.
-Mina Hong