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Every Child Matters is making children a national priority. We urge policymakers to support, and the public to demand, needed investments to close the opportunity gap facing America’s children and families.

With staff in several states, and through work with state partners across the country, we build grassroots support to build a bright future for every child. Join us!

Kids need you to join the fight. You can start by following us on Facebook for updates and ways to take action. Attend a town hall to ask your representatives where they stand on issues affecting children, or find a local organization that works to empower parents and advocate for kids. Thank you for being part of the movement for America’s children and families!

Join the Digital Dialogue

Every Child Matters and the Caucus for Kids campaign are proud to announce the launch of #DigitalDialogue, a unique candidate engagement tool featuring video collected on the campaign trail over the past year. Watch the videos, and then use the embedded social media tools to urge candidates to talk more about these issues!

Go to Digital Dialogue!

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Whether it's funding health care, protection from harm, quality child care and universal pre-K, after school education programs, or nutrition assistance, every child deserves a great start. Investing in our children is the best investment our nation can make. Your tax-deductible donation allows us to engage more people and more communities across the nation in our campaign for children.

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Be a Child Advocate!

Make a difference by writing or calling your member of Congress or state legislatures. Try asking questions at a town hall meeting, writing a letter to the editor, speaking to a community group, and so much more! Read our “How To's of Advocacy” to find out all the ways you can ensure every child matters.

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Digital Dialogue

Engage with the candidates on issues affecting children

Select Candidate

Select Issue

Early Education
Children's Health

"It is valuable to American society that these children have everything they could possibly need to thrive."

Marianne Williamson

From the candidate website: “Affordable childcare and Universal pre-K”

Tom Steyer

Our grassroots advocates haven’t recorded this candidate on the campaign trail yet. Help change that by using the tool below to share our call for more public dialogue about early education.

From the candidate website: “Without guaranteed access to a good education, there’s no such thing as equal opportunity. Our government must protect the right to a free, quality, public education from preschool through college and on to skills training.”

"From my perspective we need to build on [the Affordable Care Act], not start all over, because of things like pre-existing conditions."

Steve Bullock

From the candidate website: Support the FAMILY Act, creating a national family and medical leave program covering 50% of wages for 12 weeks. This will make sure that Americans who work can take time to care for a loved one or address serious medical needs without fear of losing their source of income.

"I believe health care is a human right, not a privilege. I believe we have to join every other major country on earth and guarantee health care for every man, woman, and child.”

Bernie Sanders

From the candidate website: Create a Medicare for All, single-payer, national health insurance program to provide everyone in America with comprehensive health care coverage, free at the point of service.

"And so I want to make sure that you and your family can live in the certainty that your health care will always be affordable."

Pete Buttigieg

From the candidate website: “Through Pete’s Medicare for All Who Want It plan, everyone will be able to opt in to an affordable, comprehensive public alternative. This affordable public plan will incentivize private insurers to compete on price and bring down costs. If private insurers are not able to offer something dramatically better, this public plan will create a natural glide-path to Medicare for All. The choice of a public plan empowers people to make their own decisions regarding the type of health care that makes sense for them by leveling the playing field between patients and the health care system.”

"It's morally reprehensible that we don't have universal healthcare coverage in this country. We should. We need it."

Michael Bennet

From the candidate website: “The Bennet Administration will establish Medicare-X, a true public option that starts in rural areas where the market is failing too many people with only one or no insurers. Over the course of two years, Medicare-X expands to every county in the country and becomes available on the small business exchange. Medicare-X gives people the ability to make a choice about what kind of insurance that have for their families, whether that is keeping their private insurance or purchasing the public option.”

"I'm for universal child care in the United States of America. It's been proven to be beneficial every place that's had it."

Andrew Yang

From the candidate website: “Education in America starts too late. It has been shown that there are massive benefits to offering pre-kindergarten options to children throughout their lives, especially for those from low-income families. It also increases sociability, and it relieves the financial burden of finding daycare for families who struggle to afford it.”

"If we say that we are a country that values children and family, we have to understand that working families need affordable child care."

Kamala Harris

From the candidate website: “Kamala will also fight for women’s economic rights by mandating equal pay, working to ensure workers have access to paid family and medical leave, and making quality child care affordable for working families.”

Michael Bloomberg

Our grassroots advocates haven’t recorded this candidate on the campaign trail yet. Help change that by using the tool below to share our call for more public dialogue about early education.

“What’s very important to me is I don’t want childcare workers to see themselves as second class citizens…. I want our childcare workers to be as well-educated as possible, well-trained as possible, and paid.”

Bernie Sanders

From the candidate website: “Enact a universal childcare and pre-kindergarten program.”

Joe Walsh

Our grassroots advocates haven’t recorded this candidate on the campaign trail yet. Help change that by using the tool below to share our call for more public dialogue about early education.

"I have always been a big believer in preschool and getting kids child care and everything else they need."

Amy Klobuchar

From the candidate website: “Shared prosperity is about ensuring all families have a fair shot in today’s economy, and Amy believes that this means investing in quality child care, overhauling our country’s housing policy, raising the minimum wage, providing paid family leave, supporting small business owners and entrepreneurs, as well as helping Americans save for retirement.”

"I propose universal access to a pre-k program. And it has to be a quality program."

Steve Bullock

From the candidate website: “Steve will also work with Congress to ensure every family who wants to participate has access to a quality pre-K program. Early childhood education and preschool improve a child’s educational achievement throughout their school years while preparing them for success as an adult.”

Andrew Yang

Our grassroots advocates haven’t recorded this candidate on the campaign trail yet. Help change that by using the tool below to share our call for more public dialogue about children's health.

From the candidate website: Candidate Website:“As President, I will…

Propose and fight for a paid family leave policy, requiring employers to offer at least 9 months of paid family leave, distributed between parents however they see fit; or 6 months of paid leave for a single parent.” Read More

"We could do universal child care
for every baby in this country, universal pre-k for every three year old and four year old, and we could raise the wages of every childcare worker and preschool teacher in this country."

Elizabeth Warren

From the candidate website: “The federal government will partner with local providers — states, cities, school districts, nonprofits, tribes, faith-based organizations — to create a network of child care options that would be available to every family. These options would include locally-licensed child care centers, preschool centers, and in-home child care options. Local communities would be in charge, but providers would be held to high national standards to make sure that no matter where you live, your child will have access to quality care and early learning. Child care and preschool workers will be doing the educational work that teachers do, so they will be paid like comparable public school teachers.”

"If we do this, we can put every single child age three, four, and five in school. Not day care, school."

Joe Biden

From the candidate website: “Provide high-quality, universal pre-kindergarten for all three- and four -year-olds. For families with young children, finding highly quality pre-K is a major financial, logistical, and emotional burden, with potentially life-long consequences for their children. As President, Biden will work with states to offer pre-K for all three- and four-year-olds. This investment will ease the burden on our families, help close the achievement gap, promote the labor participation of parents who want to work, and lift our critical early childhood education workforce out of poverty.”

"I'm taking a close look at a Universal Basic Income type of program to be able to provide more flexibility, security, and options for parents, and not limit it to external child care."

Tulsi Gabbard

From the candidate website: “We need to make sure we are investing in the future of all of our children. In order to invest in our future, we have to provide adequate resources and meaningful accountability to ensure that all our students have equal access to quality education.”

"I think we need universal pre-k and we need a massive expansion of zero to three or early childhood, particularly for lower-income families."

John Delaney

From the candidate website: “While in Congress, Delaney introduced H.R. 3466, the Early Learning Act, which would provide every four-year-old child guaranteed access to a free Pre-K program, fully paid for by a surtax on high income earners of 1.5% on income over $500,000.”

"It's something that can be done I think very easily by a company."

Donald Trump

"How can a parent maintain their dignity when they have a dying child and not a damn thing they can do about it?"

Joe Biden

From the candidate website: “As president, Biden will protect the Affordable Care Act from these continued attacks. He opposes every effort to get rid of this historic law – including efforts by Republicans, and efforts by Democrats. Instead of starting from scratch and getting rid of private insurance, he has a plan to build on the Affordable Care Act by giving Americans more choice, reducing health care costs, and making our health care system less complex to navigate.”

“I believe that with child care and with universal pre-k, what we have is an opportunity to make sure that every single child in our country gets off to a strong start.”

Julián Castro

From the candidate website: “My ‘Working Families First’ Credit includes a universal child credit of $3,000 per child for every family of modest means and a major expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit. As I’ve previously proposed in my “People First Education” platform, we will provide universal pre-K education, and now I propose expanding that to include universal child care; these programs will lower the cost burden on working families and increase wages for child care workers. Together, the new credit, pre-K education, and child care will help us achieve a bold new goal to reduce child poverty by two-thirds.”

Elizabeth Warren

Our grassroots advocates haven’t recorded this candidate on the campaign trail yet. Help change that by using the tool below to share our call for more public dialogue about children's health.

From the candidate website: Candidate Website: “Elizabeth supports Medicare for All, which would provide all Americans with a public health care program. Medicare for All is the best way to give every single person in this country a guarantee of high-quality health care. Everybody is covered. Nobody goes broke because of a medical bill. No more fighting with insurance companies.

The basic business model of an insurance company is to take in as much money as you can in premiums and paying out as little as possible in health care coverage.

That leaves families with rising premiums, high deductibles, and fighting with insurance companies to try to get the health care that their doctors say they and their children need.” Read More

"We can't expect to do better with the shortages that we experience unless we are willing to compensate providers for what it is worth."

Pete Buttigieg

From the candidate website: “OTHER CRITICAL POLICY AREAS:
Pass paid family and medical leave
Extend pay and benefit protections to uncovered workers
Invest in high-quality childcare and early childhood learning programs”

"As president, I would work to make sure that we increase the pipeline of people who can go into these specialties and assist communities as they try and create greater children's hospital models."

Julián Castro

From the candidate website: Medicare for All
Strengthen Medicare for those who have it, and expand it to achieve universal healthcare coverage by including all Americans within the program.

Allow individuals to obtain supplementary private insurance or opt-out of Medicare if they have a high-standard private insurance plan through an employer or organization that is regulated under the Affordable Care Act
Ensure all Americans will have health care coverage at all times at a lower cost to themselves
Enroll newborns and anyone who loses employer-sponsored insurance immediately into Medicare so that all Americans are insured at all times
Combine other publicly-run health programs, such as Medicaid, into one Medicare program. The Indian Health Service and the Veterans Affairs system would continue to offer their unique services to support Tribal communities and veterans, and would be supplemented by Medicare.

Deval Patrick

Our grassroots advocates haven’t recorded this candidate on the campaign trail yet. Help change that by using the tool below to share our call for more public dialogue about early education.

From the candidate website: “Education from pre-K to community college, and right through workforce development and retraining, because education is the single best investment the public can make in its own collective future.”

Marianne Williamson

Our grassroots advocates haven’t recorded this candidate on the campaign trail yet. Help change that by using the tool below to share our call for more public dialogue about children's health.

From the candidate website: As president, I would advocate for the following:

Proper prenatal care, regardless of ability to pay.
Proper healthcare for pregnant women.
Maternal and Paternal leave.
Nutritional excellence in food that is served and sold at public schools.
Improve school nutrition programs and nutritional opportunities for America’s children overall.
Ban advertising of junk food that specifically targets children.”

“Fund programs in all our educational systems, pre-k through college, designed to teach nutrition and lifestyle skills to help cultivate long-term health.” Read More

“Guaranteeing Nutritionist(s) and health and wellness experts in every public-school district with the focus of teaching nutrition, movement and exercise, stress management and other related lifestyle skills to help cultivate long-term health.” Read More

"As a country, we've got to provide early childhood education, and we have to provide quality."

Michael Bennet

From the candidate website: “Michael will work to ensure that all of our children receive a high-quality education, from early childhood through high school; college students can pursue their studies without incurring the crushing burden of debt; more people seeking an alternative to college can pursue high-quality apprenticeships and job training; and Americans throughout their lives can advance their careers by improving their existing job skills or learning new ones.”

Joe Sestak

Our grassroots advocates haven’t recorded this candidate on the campaign trail yet. Help change that by using the tool below to share our call for more public dialogue about early education.

From the candidate website: “Expand early childhood education to all 4-year-olds.”

"I think the main thing we gotta do is start early, but also have standards and accountability in K-12."

Bill Weld

"Every single step of the way of my eight years in the White House, we are going to make gains on expanding coverage, lowering costs."

Cory Booker

From the candidate website: “As president, Cory will fight for access to quality, affordable and universal health care, end attacks on the Affordable Care Act, and act to bring down prescription drug costs.”

“In a much bigger way, we’ve got to take on this health care and make sure it’s available. That’s why I favor this non-profit public option, doing more to make pharmaceuticals more affordable by bringing down the price, by taking on the pharmaceutical companies, doing more when it comes to caretakers, and that would be for seniors and people with disabilities.”

Amy Klobuchar

From the candidate website: “Too many Americans struggle to pay for health care and their prescription drugs. Senator Klobuchar believes that the Affordable Care Act is a beginning, not an end, and that changes need to be made on both the state and federal level to bring down health care costs. She has fought the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and believes that we must do more to help people gain affordable coverage rather than kicking people with pre-existing conditions off of their health insurance.”

"We need to start valuing children from the earliest of stages."

Cory Booker

From the candidate website: “Guarantee universal early childhood education.”