| WAVING THE WHITE FLAG
Earlier this week, the Trump Administration signaled its new purpose for the only federal agency focused on children, the Office of Children and Families. Their revised vision is framed as “…embracing the fundamental principle that the best economic program is a job, and the best social program is a family.”
We can’t argue with those two points. But what is missing from this sweeping declaration of what a federal agency should do is any reference to how this Office fits into that vision.
To state the obvious, a guarantee to paid family leave after welcoming a new child or to care for a sick child would fit perfectly into the Administration’s recasting of the Office because it keeps families connected to employment while they care for their children at the most critical points of their development and growth.
It’s also worth noting that the glibness of the statement ignores the hardship that disabled parents face working, the heartbreak of those who live in areas where their skills don’t suit available jobs, or the heavy lift of working parents who care for a disabled child or family member.
Evidence of the increasingly influential natalist movement can be found in the Office’s pronouncement that it will prioritize “promoting marriage and family formation.” Again, we don’t argue with the premise since there are decades of data that tell us that children do better when they are parented by two adults in a household. However, given the rise of political violence fueled by false narratives of sexuality and sexual orientation, now doesn’t seem to be the wisest time for the federal government to dip its toes into the highly personal decisions of marriage and parenting.
The Office announced it will launch initiatives that “recognize and support the value of human life.” What’s not clear is what that really means. Gun violence is the leading cause of death among children, far surpassing any other risk to their lives like car crashes or cancer.
So far this year, school children have suffered the traumatic impact, death, and injury of 105 school shootings that killed 33 adults and children and injured 101 others. Seven children lose their lives to gun violence every day. That’s why it’s especially surreal that the only federal office focused on kids releases a new plan that fails to call for measures to stop the carnage of children in its efforts to recognize and support the value of the human lives.
Unfortunately, the language to describe the purpose of the Office also stokes fear about crime, even though crime in most communities is at 50-year low, fuels anger by invoking a call for the government to stop usurping the rights of parents, and rekindles dangerous narratives that breed an outsized distrust of federal government.
Candidate Trump made it clear that, as President, he would terminate the federal role in promoting diversity, equity, or inclusion, ending any support for families navigating the very sensitive issues of their child’s gender identity. The Office’s new purpose puts those campaign pledges into action.
What it’s not doing is practically helping parents be better parents, work their way out of poverty, and responsibly care for their children. And it declares defeat with respect to protecting human life by willfully ignoring the number one threat to our children’s lives – gun violence.
To put it simply, we expect more of any president when it comes to kids.
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