A New Year Brings Hope

This month marks a new year, destined to be a momentous one. As we look forward to what this year may bring, El Centro, Inc. offers the following policy wish list. It builds on the collective experiences of those around whom our work always centers: the families with whom we have the privilege to work every day. As always, we welcome collaboration with individuals and organizations who share our vision of a public policy system that supports families and invests in our shared future.

Early childhood education: We know so much, now, about the importance of these early years of a child’s life. As we start this New Year, El Centro, Inc. hopes to see vigorous commitment, in Kansas and elsewhere, to capitalizing on this precious window of opportunity, with an increased investment in quality, affordable, early childhood programs. In Kansas, this means protecting the Children’s Initiative Fund and its emphasis on early childhood, as well as exploring additional opportunities, like all-day Kindergarten, adequate childcare subsidies, and workforce development for these critical personnel. Here, perhaps more clearly than nearly anywhere in policy, we know that today’s investment yields tangible and substantial dividends in savings tomorrow.
Health: We envision a policy debate not just about the relatively narrow impact that provision of health care services has on overall well-being, but more broadly—health education, infrastructure, and real attention to the social determinants of health. There is an obvious linkage between prosperity and health, and we know that building a healthier Kansas means, ultimately, a wealthier one, as well.
Housing: The Kansas housing market, while never hit as hard as that of other states, has still not fully recovered from the recession. We need to prepare now to help us better weather future storms, by building a state housing trust fund, investing in foreclosure prevention, and layering onto market approaches to housing development in hard-to-serve areas
Economic security: The families with whom we work mostly work themselves, and they are willing to work hard to provide for their families. Unacceptably, this labor often doesn’t translate into real economic security, but public policy can change that. We want to see the policy conversation about job creation and economic growth include a focus on those who are the engines of that growth: working Kansans. We need to address wage theft and labor exploitation, ensure that workers are trained for available jobs, promote fair wage policies, and provide a basic safety net for those who are, at least temporarily, unable to support themselves. This means, too, protecting Kansas’ most valuable economic investment: our public education system, which must be adequately and equitably funded.
Immigrant policy: Kansas can be a welcoming state, a place that explicitly decides to make changing demographics work for us, and that pursues policies—protection of our instate tuition, restoration of core voting rights, rejection of anti-immigrant profiling and local enforcement requirements, promotion of English-plus policies, and investment in civics and English instruction—that ease transitions for evolving communities and position Kansas to thrive in tomorrow’s landscape. Experiences around the country have increasingly demonstrated the fundamental truth that what’s good policy for immigrants is good policy for everyone, and Kansas would do well to learn those lessons.

What’s on your wish list for 2012? And, more importantly, what can we do together to make our wishes come true?