Hailing human rights

This past weekend, I attended the "Change Our World" celebration--the annual fundraiser for the Idaho Human Rights Education Center, an organization whose board I serve on. It was a wonderful evening during which we paid tribute to Holocaust survivor and human rights memorial docent Rose Beal and heard from Dr. Linda Ricketts, the keynote speaker and a distinguished humanitarian and educator. After inspiring the crowd with her words, Dr. Ricketts then dazzled the crowd by belting out jazz standards while sitting in with the New Trio combo.

On a related note, I was up in Coeur d'Alene last week and had the privilege of visiting the Human Rights Education Institute there. It's an impressive facility that currently houses an exhibit honoring some of the world's great advocates for peace.

Equality, justice, opportunity, and fairness are all values that will guide and inform my work in the Legislature. Human rights is very much a political issue. And given Idaho's reputation as a haven for bigotry and intolerance (a reputation that isn't always deserved but is prevalent nonetheless), ensuring that our lawmakers protect and secure human rights for all the state's citizens is an economic issue as well. We will not succeed in a global economy if we fail to extend equality to all Idahoans, regardless of race, color, gender, creed, and sexual orientation. We cannot succeed if we fail to acknowledge and understand our state's growing diversity, and the challenges and (more importantly) opportunities that such diversity offers.

Our Legislature has a pretty poor record on these issues, often choosing to divide and marginalize certain segments of our population. But I believe that economic, demographic, and social trends will compel the Legislature to begin thinking in new ways about human rights.

Candidate forum was missing something: Republicans

A week ago this past Thursday, I attended a legislative candidate forum sponsored by the Association for the Education of Young Children, the Idaho Women's Network, the Snake River Alliance, Idaho Equality Committee, Interfaith Alliance of Idaho, and United Vision for Idaho, among other organizations. I was there to talk about early childhood education, women's issues, human rights and a safe energy future. This was a great opportunity to address a number of issues that are important to District 19 voters (and to me) and perhaps draw some contrasts with my opponent on such issues; unfortunately my opponent was a no-show.

Why would he skip out on this forum? I can't really say for sure. Plenty of advanced warning was given about this event--at least a month, if I'm not mistaken, to free up one's calendar. No Republicans showed up, with the exception of District 17 candidate Daniel Loughrey, who was sick and called in his answers to the questions that were provided in advance. I suppose some Republicans might argue that the sponsoring groups are generally regarded as left of center and thus the cards were stacked against them. But in District 19, these groups are generally held in high regard and I would venture a guess that much of their support and membership is drawn from the district.

So why duck the issues and questions that many in the district care about most? I can only surmise that perhaps it's because the answers he would give to questions on human rights, reproductive rights, energy, and the role of faith in politics might not jibe with the values and preferences of District 19 voters.

There will be another chance to hear us go head to head on the issues this coming Wednesday (October 1), when the Boise Young Professionals will sponsor a debate between us. You can register to attend here: http://www.chamberhub.com/cgi/foxweb.dll/wlx/cal/wlxprofile?caleid=959&cc=BMCC.

Making Children a Public Policy Priority

Last Thursday, I attended Idaho Voices for Children's Early Learning Forum: The Economics of Investing Early. IVC is a statewide advocacy organization whose mission is to develop and promote a state-level unified policy agenda that targets child health, education, safety, and family economic security.

We learned about what they're doing in Utah (which seems far more pragmatic and progressive in its approach to early childhood ed), some of the latest KidsCount statistics (which underscored the obvious and overwhelming need for quality childcare in the state), and were treated to an interesting conversation about legislative possibilities (or lack thereof) with Sen. Elliot Werk (D-Boise) and Rep. Mack Shirley (R-Rexburg).

It's been shown for every $1 we spend on education, $17 are returned to society. Yet, as a state and a country, our public investment in children only starts to increase well after most of their brain formation is complete. And in Idaho, it's even more grim (see below). I'm left once again wondering why our own state government allows extremist ideology to trump common sense and fiscal responsibility, particularly given where we stand in relation to the rest of the country.

WHAT’S HAPPENING NATIONALLY
* 41 states in the US offer public pre-K educational programs (including the District of Columbia).
* The US Conference of Mayors passed Resolution #36 to advance “Quality Pre-K for All.”
* Business Week magazine called preschool education one of its “25 Ideas For A Changing World.”
* Early education is a bipartisan issue with wide support from governors, mayors, legislators and business leaders across the nation.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN IDAHO
* Idaho is one of only ten states in the nation without a public pre-K education program.
* Idaho provides no state funding for Head Start. Approximately 20% of eligible children receive Head Start services.
* Idaho has no state policy which provides for school readiness assessment.
* 30% of Idaho 3 and 4 year olds are enrolled in preschool programs compared to 45% nationally.
* 5% of kindergarten students attend full-day kindergarten compared to 63% nationally.

Open space advocates rejoice!

Granted, it's a modest step as compared to the City of Boise's $10M Foothills Levy (for which my campaign's Treasurer, Lauren McLean, deserves a lot of credit), but Ada County Commissioners have set aside $500,000 for open space preservation in their 2009 budget. See this excellent op-ed for background. And kudos to Commissioner Paul Woods, without whom such an initiative would never have made it on to the county commission agenda, I suspect. Paul's re-election campaign also needs your support.

Focusing on the Transportation Crisis

Last week I attended the kickoff of the Governor's Transportation Funding Conference in Boise. Here are some of the more salient quotes I jotted down as the hosts welcomed the audience, as well as my own thoughts as they were uttered:

Otter: "People are acutely aware of the deteriorating infrastructure that we have."

Me: I'm not sure most people really are aware, particularly when the ruling party continues to bang the tax-cut drum, insisting that in spite of enormous and long overdue infrastructure needs, we need to be returning money to taxpayers. People haven't received the message: "Due to lack of investment and planning and increased stresses on our infrastructure, we've dug a huge hole for ourselves and it's now going to be very expensive to restore roads and bridges from their current state of disrepair."

Otter: "You're all part of this solution. I don't know what the solution is."

Me: I'm pretty sure you do know what the solution is--some combination of higher taxes and fees. You just don't want to say it. Instead, you'll provide all the evidence and let people draw their own conclusions.

Otter: "We're heading towards a crisis that puts our economy at risk."
Me: We need more of this sort of candor.

Crapo: "As a strong fiscal conservative Republican, I believe this spending is justified."
Me: Government spending that's justified?? You mean the private sector ("the markets") can't solve this issue? Why is it so difficult to admit that government can deliver services and serve the public interest in ways that the private sector simply cannot and should not? Why apologize for wanting to spend public money on a system of roads and bridges that nearly everyone uses and expects to be well maintained and safe? See Oliver Wendell Holmes' quote on taxes.

Crapo: "We must not forget our transit needs."
Me: I appreciate mention of public transit, though the other lead-off speakers did seem to forget about such needs. Kudos to Sen. Crapo for bringing it up, though it's a shame it's still treated as more of an afterthought. The transit issue has to assume a larger place in the overall discussion--otherwise, we're simply talking about myopic band-aiding of a more serious problem (our addiction to oil). Cheap gas is history. People want to get out of their cars. We need alternatives to driving our own cars and we need the funding mechanisms (and the legal authority) to build such solutions.

I returned at the end of the day for the public comment segment, which was to have begun at 4:00. I arrived at 5:15 and they hadn't begun taking comments. Then they took a 15-20 minute recess, at which time I had to leave.

Hats off to Dept. of Transportation from some great information, including this brochure and this web site. They make a compelling case for needed investment and mustering the political will to make such investment.

New West journalist and Dist 21 legislative candidate Sharon Fisher has more:

P.S. Here's a bonus fact: the fuel efficient Toyota Camry is Idaho's most popular car. Whouda thunk?

Why we live in Idaho

Last week the Cronin clan enjoyed a mini-vacation in the New Meadows area. Several of the pictures are from Twin Lakes, northwest of Brundage, which made for a great family day-hike. We didn't catch any fish and it was a bit cold up there, but the scenery was beautiful. And yes, clean air and clean water do matter and we need legislators who will fight for this issue.