Back in 2019 when she was a presidential candidate, Kamala Harris rolled out her Children’s Agenda — a comprehensive set of policies aimed at improving the lives of children. Those of us in the children’s community received it with great acclaim. She was not the only one, certainly, in the Democratic primary, to have centered her ideas on children. Namely, Sen. Cory Booker, who recently sat down with our own Bruce Lesley to talk about his plan to cut child poverty, was also joined by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders who put childcare at the center of their presidential agendas.
But — if you follow the link to Harris’s Children’s Agenda now, it redirects to Joe Biden’s website. At first, this feels like a disappointment, that her ideas, and perhaps her attention, are now elsewhere. Thankfully, few things on the internet die, and you can still view the plan in its entirety on this archived website. But why not duplicate Joe Biden’s website “take over” of Sen. Harris’ plan IRL? Biden’s campaign could simply adopt Harris’ Children’s Agenda as its own.
It wouldn’t be without precedent. Vice President Biden has been open to adopting his rival’s plans. He quickly gained Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s support soon after she dropped out of the race by adopting several of her plans — ranging from student debt to clean energy. And, famously, after Sen. Bernie Sanders conceded the nomination to Vice President Biden, the two campaigns formed a unity task force to ensure the support of a wider electorate at the end of a contentious primary season.
At the same time, Vice President Biden has been rather silent on the issue of children so far in his campaign. There are notable exceptions, of course, like his child care plan, but there is plenty of room for him to promote his running mate’s more holistic approach to children and families.
Furthermore, Sen. Harris’s Children’s Agenda has only become more relevant in the time since she first unveiled it. In 2019, we could not have anticipated a global health crisis and the subsequent economic collapse, nor could we have predicted the growing demand to correct racial inequities that have sprung up across the country and gripped the nation’s attention.
Sen. Harris’s plan addresses these immediate crises and our long-term battle for children to receive their fair share in a few key ways. It calls for an Executive Order to #EndChildPoverty, a goal to “ensure every child has access to health care”, and a mandatory review of “the impact of the President’s budget and actual federal spending on children” to name a few important demands.
Tonight Sen. Harris will take center stage, albeit a virtual one, at this year’s Democratic National Convention. She is a well-known figure, but she will be introducing herself to the world as the first woman of color on a major party ticket. She will also have an opportunity to introduce the world to an agenda that would #Commit2Kids in a way that is desperately needed. Here’s hoping she takes that opportunity, and that her running mate takes all of her good ideas.