Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2011
288 pages
Genre: Advice
Publication Information
It may "take a village to raise a child," but most American families are struggling, with diminishing social support, to do the job on their own. While parents work longer hours for less and the costs of childcare, healthcare, and college skyrocket, the share of the U.S. budget spent on kids has fallen 22 percent since 1960. More and more children may well not make it to a healthy, productive adulthood. That's terrible for them--and for us as well.
It doesn't have to be this way. In this book, renowned expert David L. Kirp clarifies the importance of investing wisely in children. He outlines a visionary "Kids First" policy agenda that's guided by a "golden rule" principle: Every child deserves what's good enough for a child you love. And he offers lively and inspiring, on-the-ground accounts of five big cradle-to-college initiatives that can change the arc of all children's lives: strong support for parents; high-quality early education; linking schools and communities to improve what both offer children; giving all youngsters access to a caring and stable adult mentor; and providing kids a nest egg to help pay for college or kick-start a career.
"An important, well-researched wake-up call, and any part of it that educators and lawmakers take into account is worthwhile." - Kirkus
"David Kirp's book could change the policy debate about how to improve the lives of children. It's smart, sharp, and clear about what we need to do to lift the kids who need help the most." - Diane Ravitch, Author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System
"In an era when answers to America's myriad social problems seem dismally remote, David Kirp comes to the rescue with important ideas for giving our kids better lives. Kirp thinks big, writes beautifully, and compels our attention. His agenda is practical and necessary. And if America's children had any political clout, they'd demand it." - Robert B. Reich, Former U.S. Secretary of Labor and Chancellor's Professor Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
This information about Kids First was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
David L. Kirp is a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and was founding director of the Harvard Center on Law and Education. He recently served on President Obama's transition team. His most recent books are The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics and Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education.
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