“What we do to our children they will do to society”
PLINY said that 2500 years ago.
Across the country, leaders are slashing or freezing funding not just for education, but also for health care, childcare, and the basic supports children need to grow up whole. As states unwind Medicaid and CHIP, more than 6 million children have already been removed from coverage since 2023, with some states cutting more than a quarter of enrolled kids.
Proposed federal Medicaid cuts strip an estimated 57 billion dollars from children’s health care over ten years, forcing states to reduce benefits, narrow eligibility, or cut other services. Food assistance is also at risk, as policymakers explore ways to shift SNAP costs to states or reduce future benefits, leaving families with children hungrier and less stable.
Federal and state actions are freezing or cutting childcare and early education dollars, delaying reimbursements and closing programs that low‑income families depend on. In 2026, the federal government even froze nearly 2.4 billion dollars in child care funds for five states, threatening care for more than 500,000 children from low‑income families.
Saving money by denying children child protection services, health care, mental health support, nutrition, foster care, education, and other critical developmental assets is an illusion. Every dollar “saved” now shows up later as higher costs in crime, hospitals, special education, policing, courts, and prisons.
Minnesota has seen this logic before. When the I‑35W bridge fell into the river after years of under‑maintenance, the repair bill, deaths and the human cost far exceeded what timely upkeep would have required. In the same way, when we underfund children’s services today, we are building future collapses: more troubled, traumatized, and disconnected youth who become expensive, long‑term “problems” for schools, communities, and the justice system.
Visit a prison and consider the correlation between under/untreated childhood trauma, failed students and prisoners, and the cost of decades of institutionalizing a child through child protection/foster care, juvenile justice, jails and the prison system. Add the human suffering of crime, the disruption in classrooms caused by untreated trauma, and the growing fear in our communities.
Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Blatz put it plainly: “The difference between that poor child and a felon is about eight years” and keep in mind that America’s prison recidivism rate at nine years has stayed at 80% for twenty years.
If we are not willing to provide health care, mental health services, child care, and education for children today, we have no right to expect wise, compassionate governance from them when it is their turn to lead tomorrow.
God help us if we keep calling this “saving money.”
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Spread the word. Share this post with parents, teachers, faith communities, and local media; ask them to press leaders to protect kids’ budgets first.
Do you know your state representative – find them here
Find out and tell them that short term savings DO NOT APPLY to children.
As a guardian ad litem, I watched county policy remove four children from a stable, loving father solely because he could not afford childcare—because the waiting list for subsidized care was thousands of families long (it still is today). Paying foster care for four children was almost certainly more expensive than helping that father pay for childcare, not to mention the unnecessary pain inflicted on the children. The children home after years in foster care were not alright returning to care.
I do not blame the frontline workers. They are implementing policies set by elected officials. In a representative democracy, it is up to us to elect leaders whose budgets have common sense.
Do you know your state representative? Find out and call them with a simple message: short‑term savings do not apply to the politics of children. What we do to our children today, they will do to society tomorrow.
States are slashing education rather than think through measures that would be less damaging to children. Saving money by denying education, health or mental health services, foster care, or other critical developmental assets, to children is way more expensive than making children whole and ensuring that they become contributing members of the community.
Minnesota will soon be facing huge cuts to children’s services due to the cuts due to war and economic struggle. As the bridge fell into the river because it was not maintained, these children will fall into the category of troubled, dysfunctional, and nonproductive, costing the community for many years to come.
Visit a prison and consider the correlation between failed students and prisoners, and the cost of thirty years of institutionalizing a child. Add the cost and human suffering of crime, disruption in the schools from under treated at risk children and growing fear in our communities. Remember MN Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Blatz statement, “the difference between that poor child and a felon is about eight years”.
If we aren’t willing to provide education for children today, we ought not expect much governance from them when their turn comes as legislators and managers tomorrow.
God help us
*As a guardian ad-Litem, it was my job to support the county in its efforts to remove children from a very stable and fit father who could not afford daycare (and the list for subsidized day care had 4000 names in front of his). Putting four children into foster care could not have been less expensive than subsidizing day care for this man (think of the unnecessary pain caused the children – have we no soul?)
Don’t blame the workers. They are hardworking people working with the resources and training they have. They are forced to implement policies drafted by elected officials.
It is up to us (in a representative democracy) to see that we elect officials that create policies that have more soul and make more sense.
KIDS AT RISK ACTION / KARA / INVISIBLE CHILDREN
#ChildrenFirst
#InvestInKids
#EducationNotPrisons
#ChildWelfare
#MNPolitics
#FosterCare
#PublicPolicy
#LongTermCosts
#PrisonReform
#MoralBudget
#KARA
