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Coalition Says Government Not Meeting Kids' Needs

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Coalition Says Government Not Meeting Kids' Needs

By Claire Kellett, Reporter

By Shannon Booth

Story Created: Oct 11, 2006 at 11:30 AM CST

Story Updated: Oct 11, 2006 at 4:57 PM CST

A coalition of groups in Iowa says the government is falling short when it comes to the needs of kids.

In Iowa 98,000 children under the age of 18 are living in poverty.

It is numbers like this that is the driving force behind a statewide push for Iowa leaders to stand up for programs that help children and youth.

Groups like the Iowa Citizen Action Network want to bring awareness to the labor, health and human services budget.

It's a broad national budget, but it covers a lot of issues that deal directly with kids like child welfare services, head start programs and daycare funding.

Ultimately the money would provide support for Iowa welfare families and the groups says that's important because in the past seven years the percentage of poor children in Iowa has grown by more than 90 percent.

Without this funding the coalition says there will be less services available for children and fewer staff at head-start programs.

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