Mandatory full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Source: Campaign website, JohnKerry.com, "Issues"
Mar 21, 2004
Fully fund Head Start for all 3- and 4-year-olds
John Kerry has fought for increases in Head Start, child care and early education and will continue to do so as President. John Kerry will work to fully fund the Head Start program, so that every 3- and 4-year-old in poverty can receive
the comprehensive cognitive, social/emotional, health, and parent education services needed for success. And he will never block grant Head Start like President Bush has proposed doing, putting at risk an important and proven successful program.
Source: Campaign website, JohnKerry.com, "Issues"
Mar 21, 2004
Supports Child Abuse Prevention & Treatment Act
Kerry will make preventing instances of abuse and neglect a major priority. Kerry will support programs such as the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, and expand the primary federal child welfare program to include prevention services rather than
just placements after the abuse or neglect has occurred. Kerry believes every child in America should have health insurance coverage. Children with health insurance receive the preventive health care that avoids expensive emergency room visits.
Source: Campaign website, JohnKerry.com, "Issues"
Mar 21, 2004
New "Kids Safety Effort" at the FDA
John Kerry proposed a New "Kids Safety Effort" at the Food and Drug Administration that would require testing for prescriptions used for children and require any food containing a major allergen to be labeled clearly and consistently.
Source: Campaign website, JohnKerry.com, "Issues"
Mar 21, 2004
Fund Head Start to leave no child behind
We need to guarantee that our children are not made the abused of political slogans, Leave No Child Behind.
You have to fund education, and you have to guarantee that we're not content to just spend $50,000 a year on prison. Head Start needs full funding, children need to be funded in this country.
Source: Democratic Primary Debate, Albuquerque New Mexico
Sep 4, 2003
Voted YES on restricting violent videos to minors.
Vote to kill an amendment that would prohibit the distribution of violent video programming to the public during hours when children are reasonably likely to comprise a substantial portion of the audience.
Bill S.254
; vote number 1999-114
on May 13, 1999
Give parents tools to balance work and family.
Kerry signed the manifesto, "A New Agenda for the New Decade":
Strengthen America’s Families
While the steady reduction in the number of two-parent families of the last 40 years has slowed, more than one-third of our children still live in one- or no-parent families. There is a high correlation between a childhood spent with inadequate parental support and an adulthood spent in poverty or in prison.
To strengthen families, we must redouble efforts to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies, make work pay, eliminate tax policies that inadvertently penalize marriage, and require absent fathers to pay child support while offering them new opportunities to find work. Because every child needs the attention of at least one caring and competent adult, we should create an “extended family” of adult volunteer mentors.
Family breakdown is not the only challenge we face. As two-worker families have become the norm, harried parents have less time to spend on their most important job: raising their children. Moreover, parents and
schools often find themselves contending with sex- and violence-saturated messages coming from an all-pervasive mass entertainment media.
We should continue public efforts to give parents tools to balance work and family and shield their children from harmful outside influences. For example, we should encourage employers to adopt family-friendly policies and practices such as parental leave, flex-time, and telecommuting. Public officials should speak out about violence in our culture and should press the entertainment media to adopt self-policing codes aimed at protecting children.
Goals for 2010 - Cut the rate of out-of-wedlock births in half.
- Recruit a million mentors for disadvantaged children without two parents.
- Provide affordable after-school programs at every public school.
- Make every workplace “family-friendly.”
- Promote policies that help parents shield their children from violence and sex in entertainment products.
Source: The Hyde Park Declaration 00-DLC4 on Aug 1, 2000
Small Business loans for child care businesses.
Kerry introduced the Child Care Lending Pilot Act
A bill to create a 3-year pilot program that makes small, non-profit child care businesses eligible for SBA 504 loans. Amends the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 to allow the proceeds of loans made through the Small Business Administration (SBA) to local development companies for plant acquisition, construction, or expansion to be used to assist small, nonprofit child care businesses, provided that: (1) the loan will be used for a sound business purpose approved by the SBA; and (2) each business receiving the assistance meets eligibility requirements applicable to for-profit businesses.
Source: Bill sponsored by 17 Senators 03-S822 on Apr 8, 2003
Rated 0% by the Christian Coalition: an anti-family voting record.
Kerry scores 0% by the Christian Coalition on family issues
The Christian Coalition was founded in 1989 by Dr. Pat Robertson to give Christians a voice in government. We represent millions of people of faith and enable them to have a strong, unified voice in the conversation we call democracy.
Our Five-Fold Mission: - Represent the pro-family point of view before local councils, school boards, state legislatures, and Congress
- Speak out in the public arena and in the media
- Train leaders for effective social and political action
- Inform pro-family voters about timely issues and legislation
- Protest anti-Christian bigotry and defend the rights of people of faith.
Our ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization's preferred position.
Source: CC website 03n-CC on Dec 31, 2003
Fund 2,500 Boys and Girls Clubs in underserved areas.
Kerry sponsored a Bill to open 2,500 Boys and Girls Clubs
Amends the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 to make grants to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) to establish and extend club facilities where needed, with particular emphasis on establishing clubs in and extending services to public housing projects and distressed areas. Redefines the term "distressed area" to include an Indian reservation with a population of high risk youth of sufficient size to warrant the establishment of a BGCA. Earmarks specified funds to provide a grant to BGCA for administrative, travel, and other costs associated with a national role-model speaking tour program.
Corresponding House bill is H.R.1753. Became Public Law No: 105-133.
Source: Bill sponsored by 10 Senators and 24 Reps 97-S476 on Mar 19, 1997
