The Education Begins At Home Act

By Elenora Giddings Ivory

A bi-partisan bill called The Education Begins at Home Act (S. 503/ H.R. 3628) has been introduced to expand and improve in-home parent coaching programs. Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-IL) is the lead sponsor in the House. The Senate lead is Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-MO), a Presbyterian.

Some readers may know this concept as the local “home visiting program.” These coaching programs help new parents get the information, skills and support they need to promote healthy child development. Many of us need coaching in the very subjects our children are tackling in schools, with concepts that may not have been taught to us or learned by us when we were students ourselves.

The Education Begins at Home Act (EBHA) would establish the first dedicated federal funding stream for quality, voluntary home visitation programs for parents with young children. Under such programs, specially trained home visitors deliver parent education, providing guidance on enhancing children’s development from birth through kindergarten entry.

The EBHA would authorize $500 million over three years through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help states establish or expand quality home visitation programs at the state and local level. Of this amount, $400 million would be authorized for states to:

1. provide eligible families with voluntary early childhood home visitation at least monthly;
2. offer annual health, vision, hearing and developmental screening for eligible children;
3. provide referrals for eligible families, as needed, to additional resources;
4. offer group meetings to further enhance the information and skill-building addressed during home visits;
5. provide training and technical assistance to early childhood home visitation staff; and
6. coordinate various models of early childhood home visitation to ensure families are receiving the most appropriate and effective services to meet their needs.

An additional $100 million authorization over three years would support home visitation efforts targeted at English language learners and military families. This program would give assistance to struggling middle-income families and offer a great boost to those in poverty.

Quality early childhood home visitation programs lead to research-proven, positive outcomes for children and families, including greater school readiness, enhanced child health and development, improved parenting practices, and reductions in child maltreatment and later criminality.

A broad coalition of organizations is working to move this important legislation forward. Among them are organizations dealing with child abuse, child advocacy organizations and social workers.

There are currently 16 co-sponsors of the Senate bill and 44 co-sponsors for the House bill. You can urge your Senators and Representatives to become co-sponsors, if they are not already there. Go to the PresbyAction Center to ask your legislators how they stand on this bill. Put your zip code in the GO box to the right. Click onto each of your Senators and then your Representative and send a question about this bill to them.

We need to build support on Capitol Hill and throughout the nation to ensure that the bills receive a hearing and begin moving forward this year. Since there are not many legislative days left in this congressional session, it may not be realistic to expect passage of this legislation in the 109th Congress. Congress has a short summer recess scheduled and election campaigns in the fall. To encourage action, Congress should be pressed to hold hearings on these bills now, in preparation for the 110th Congress in January.

S. 503 is currently in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, chaired by Sen. Michael B. Enzi (R-WY), who is a Presbyterian. H.R. 3628 is before the House Sub-Committee on Education, chaired by Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE). If reintroduced in January, these bills would be given new numbers and yes, another email from you would be necessary.

Support for this concept is certainly a positive way to fight crime and invest in our children while at the same time giving a boost to the whole family. Home visitation is an effective, research-based and cost-efficient way to bring families and resources together and to ensure that all children have the opportunity to grow up healthy, ready to learn and able to become productive members of society. Investing in this research-proven approach now will mean savings down the road in health, education and criminal justice costs.

When will congress increase the minimum wage?

By Carolynn Race

At the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in June, commissioners approved a number of resolutions that included calls for fair wages for workers. One resolution, “On Raising the Federal Minimum Wage,” calls for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

…to communicate to all members of Congress its desire that legislation to increase the minimum wage be swiftly passed and at least reflect the increase in the cost of living since the last minimum wage increase in 1997, with the goal of a wage level sufficient to lift full-time workers out of poverty. Additionally, middle governing bodies, local congregations, and individuals are encouraged to support efforts to increase the minimum wage at federal, state, and local levels as well.

The Assembly-passed resolution also encouraged Presbyterians to take advantage of the resources and advocacy opportunities of the National Council of Churches Let Justice Roll campaign.

An Assembly-approved report on Economic Security for Older Adults included a recommendation calling for the Stated Clerk to encourage Congress to work towards providing workers in the formal, long-term care system decent wages, benefits, and working conditions. Another resolution, on Just Globalization, urges “United States government agencies and authorities to increase the minimum wage toward a living wage and enforce minimum wage laws, worker safety regulations, and rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively, in accordance with longtime General Assembly support for such measures, and support the inclusion of similar worker safeguards within all of U.S. bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, as is already the case in European Union trade agreements.” (Details about these resolutions and other Assembly business are available at the LES Web site.)

The federal minimum wage has remained stagnant at $5.15 per hour since 1997. That means a person working full-time all year will earn just over $10,700 annually — not nearly enough to lift individuals or families out of poverty. In its 2005 study, Out of Reach, the National Low Income Housing Coalition calculated the nation’s average “housing wage” — the hourly wage that someone must earn by working 40 hours a week 52 weeks a year to be able to afford rent and utilities in the private local housing market — and found that wage to be $15.78 an hour. (Details are available at the National Low Income Housing Coalition Web site.) Research has shown that if the minimum wage were raised to $7.25 per hour, 7.3 million people would benefit, including 1.8 million parents with children under the age of 18.

As if to justify miserly pay, critics of increasing the minimum wage often stereotype minimum wage workers as teenagers living with their families who are working for “fun” money. In fact, the typical minimum wage earner is an adult woman, not a teenager. According to A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business, and Our Future by Holly Sklar and Paul Sherry, three out of four minimum wage workers are age 20 or older. Two out of three are women, although women are just under half of the total workforce. More and more minimum wage workers are retirees working to supplement their meager Social Security benefits.

The 217th General Assembly has spoken about these issues — but has Congress responded? On June 21, Congress rejected an amendment to the defense authorization bill (S. 2766) by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) to increase the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour by a vote of 52-46. Though the majority of Senators voted for this amendment, the Senate was operating under a unanimous consent agreement, so adoption required 60 votes. The Senate also rejected (by a vote of 53-45) an amendment by Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY) that would have increased the minimum wage to $6.25 an hour and would have made changes to business and labor law.

In the House, supporters of an increase to the minimum wage have been stymied by House leadership. However, in June, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said that he would allow a vote on increasing the minimum wage before year’s end. Prior to Mr. Boehner’s announcement, the House Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment to the Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill (H.R. 5647) to increase the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour by January 2009.

How can Presbyterians get involved in the effort to increase the minimum wage?

• Learn more about minimum wage legislation at the federal and state level. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is part of Let Justice Roll, a coalition of faith- and community-based organizations seeking to advance federal and state efforts to increase the minimum wage. The Let Justice Roll Web site, is a tremendous resource, with worship ideas, advocacy tools, and research and analysis about the minimum wage.
• Pray for low-wage workers and consider incorporating “Labor in the Pulpits” into your worship service on the Sunday before Labor Day. Interfaith Worker Justice has developed materials for congregations which is available at the Interfaith Worker Justice Web site and Presbyterian Resources for Worker Justice .
• Find out if your state has a campaign to increase the minimum wage. Let Justice Roll is working with faith organizers in several states to increase state minimum wages. Individuals and congregations can become involved in the state campaigns by collecting signatures for ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage, hosting community forums, raising wage/labor issues in worship and Christian Education classes, and speaking with their state legislators about the need for an increase to the minimum wage. To learn about state initiatives and to get involved, go to the Let Justice Roll Web site.
• Advocate for an increase in the federal minimum wage. Our message is clear: Ask your U.S. Representative and Senators to vote in favor of legislation to raise the minimum wage to at least $7.25 an hour, and to oppose any provisions that would weaken existing minimum wage eligibility, overtime protections or other labor laws. The current minimum wage keeps workers in poverty. Tell your elected officials you believe strongly that “A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it!”
• Check the websites of the Presbyterian Washington Office and Let Justice Roll for current updates on the status of federal minimum wage legislation.

Haiti’s crushing debt burden

By Catherine Gordon

Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land!

“When will the new moon be over,” you ask,“that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may market our wheat? skimping the measure, boosting the price, and cheating with dishonest scales! buying the poor with silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals; selling even the sweepings with the wheat!”

The lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “I will never forget anything they have done.”
Amos 8: 4-7

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest countries in the developing world. Its per capita income — less than $ 400 — is considerably less than one-tenth the Latin American average. About 80 percent of the rural Haitian population live in poverty. Moreover, far from improving, the poverty situation in Haiti has been deteriorating over the past decade.

There is a staggering level of poverty in Haiti. Life expectancy is only 53 years compared to the Latin American average of 69. Less than half of the population is literate. Only about one child in five of secondary-school age actually attends secondary school. Health conditions are poor. Vaccination coverage for children, for example, is only about 25 percent. Only about one-fourth of the population has access to safe water and almost one quarter of the children under five are chronically malnourished. Six percent of the adult population is infected with HIV and there are already more than 160,000 AIDS orphans in the country, with only two doctors for every 10,000 people. The overwhelming majority of the Haitian people live in deplorable conditions of extreme poverty, and Haiti’s population continues to grow at a high rate, estimated at almost 200,000 people per year.

Haiti’s international debt is estimated at 1.4 billion US dollars and rising. Scheduled debt repayment for 2005 was $56.3 million. To put this figure into perspective, in 1999 Haiti spent $4 per person on health and $5 per person on education, while also spending $5 per person on debt.

In April, Haiti was added to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) list of heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) eligible for debt cancellation. Under harmful economic conditions of the World Bank and IMF’s debt relief program, Haiti will not see this relief until December 2009 at the earliest, by which time the country will have made $220 million in repayments. The current program also excludes cancellation of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) debt which counts for $470 million, nearly half of the country’s debt to international financial institutions.

Haiti’s debt kills. Instead of being able to invest in education, health care or the environment, Haiti’s people are forced to repay a debt they did not incur or benefit from.

Haiti’s debt is unjust. Its first centuries-long debt was exacted by the former colonial power, France, to repay slave holders for their losses after Haiti won its independence. In 1825, France offered Haiti official recognition in return for 150 million francs. Having just recovered from a revolution Haiti was bankrupt and so took out a loan from a French bank. This was the beginning of Haiti’s long term debt. However, it was estimated by a critic of the agreement that the wages owed slaves but never paid during the period of 1665 to 1790 was 25 billion francs.

Almost half of Haiti’s current debt was accrued under the Duvalier dictatorship and used to finance the Duvalier family’s lavish lifestyle and support their 29 year rule, which was notorious for human rights abuses. Rather than use their influence to stop the abuse, international financial institutions kept the money flowing to Haiti’s unelected leaders, knowing it was not reaching Haiti’s people. When Duvalier left, these organizations chose to hold Haiti’s people responsible.

Our faith calls us to pay attention to the world beyond our doorstep. As has been taught to us by the prophets and the New Testament, God stands with the powerless against the powerful. For Amos, the spiritual sin of the economically powerful was that they could lounge on couches, eat lambs from the flock, drink wine from bowls, but “are not grieved over the ruin of their poor neighbors.” [Amos 6:4-6]

The 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) passed an overture expressing concern for the people of Haiti. It gave thanks for the life and dignity of all human beings, especially those in conditions of poverty, and called on the members of the Church to pray and advocate for peace, stability, and justice for Haiti and its people. Specifically, the General Assembly requested that the President and Congress address the political and social situation in Haiti with the resources available in our nation and adopt a policy for the empowerment of Haiti’s people.

One way Presbyterians can help make a difference for the Haitian people is to contact their Representatives in the House and ask them to co-sponsor a Haiti debt cancellation resolution (H.RES. 888) urging the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Inter-American Bank to cancel Haiti’s debt. The resolution was introduced on June 22 by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and currently has 25 cosponsors.

Announcements for Washington Report to Presbyterians

The PC(USA) Washington Office mourns the loss of Josiah Beeman

Josiah Beeman, a well-known leader in both political and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) circles for many years, died June 14 in Falls Church, Va., at the age of 70. Beeman was director of the Washington Office of the then-United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America from 1970-1975. He also served many elected positions in the PC(USA), including the Advisory Council on Church and Society, 1965-1969; the General Assembly Council, 1983-1989, which he chaired 1988-1989; and chair of the Mission Design Committee that designed the new structure for the reunited PC(USA) in 1987. Beeman is survived by his wife, Susan. To read the Presbyterian News Service article about Josiah Beeman’s life, go to the GA217 Web site.

Save the Date: Ecumenical Advocacy Days for 2007, March 9-12, 2007

The dates for next year’s Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice have just been announced. Mark your calendars for March 9-12, 2007 and plan to come to Washington, D.C. for this exciting event. More details will be available in the coming months at Ecumenical Advocacy Days Web site.

Celebrating Matt Lewis and Cynthia Gervais

The Presbyterian Washington Office is grateful for the contributions of two fellows, Matt Lewis and Cynthia Gervais, to our staff team.

Matt Lewis is a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow. The Fellowship, a project of the Congressional Hunger Center, is a unique leadership development opportunity for motivated individuals seeking to make a difference in the struggle to eliminate hunger and poverty. Matt spent six months examining issues of hunger and poverty at the Oregon Food Bank and is spending six months at the Washington Office, examining how national budget and tax decisions impact hunger and poverty. He is developing resources for congregations on federal budget and tax policies, which will be available in August on this Web site. Matt is a 2005 graduate of Dartmouth College. In August, he will join the staff of OMB Watch as a fiscal policy analyst.

Cynthia Gervais has completed one year of her two-year placement at the Presbyterian Washington Office. Cynthia is a seminary student at Wesley Theological Seminary and is working with the Office through Wesley’s Practice in Ministry and Mission program (PMM). The PMM program seeks to assist and support students in attaining the necessary pastoral experience for church ministry, providing students with an interaction between their academic work and the Christian life. Cynthia is particularly interested in issues related to children, health care, education, and economic justice.

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