Saving the Children

The United States has created programs to help save or enhance poor children’s lives, yet by keeping the budget too tight also denies many of them access to help. For example, about half of the children eligible for a popular nutrition program do without because the government doesn’t think it can afford to cover everyone. The ones who are left out of food and health programs are at greater risk of illness and learning difficulties. Because it will cost more to correct such problems than it would to prevent them, it is time for Congress to stop pinching pennies.

Three years ago a report supported by the Department of Agriculture told why the women, infant and children’s nutrition program, known colloquially as WIC, should be expanded. The food and medical checks provided under the program helped cut from 33.3% to 20% the rate of fetal deaths late in pregnancy. Premature births, which often result in either death or serious problems for an infant, were reduced. Women in the program had babies with larger heads, normally a sign of better brain growth. Their children did better on vocabulary and memory tests.

Helping children get a better start in life is simply the right thing to do. It can also save money. A Harvard School of Public Health study found that by reducing premature births, the program helped avert $3 in hospital costs for each $1 spent on better nutrition.

Many members of Congress admire the work done by the WIC program and indeed have fought against cuts the Reagan Administration sought. But they need to go even farther. Some of the key players are Californians, such as Rep. Leon Panetta, chairman of the House Budget Committee; Rep. Augustus F.Hawkins, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, and Rep. George Miller, who heads the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families and who has introduced major legislation aimed at expanding success stories like the WIC program.

These legislators know that the American people want to help children. But they need help persuading their colleagues to do it now, when it will do some good, rather than later, when they would just be picking up the pieces.