This page presents the views of the candidate Cindy Axne (D), running in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District in 2018 against incumbent candidate Rep. David Young (R). Both candidates were invited to respond to the coalition’s questions on six important federal child and family policy issues. All responses are printed without editing.
A thank you to the Axne campaign for responding to these important questions.
15 percent of Iowa children live in poverty and 22 percent live in families whose parents lack secure employment. There is a growing number of people who are working but unable to afford the basic necessities of life. Particularly when children are very young, their needs are greatest, and their families are at the lowest levels of their earnings. The growing inequality of income and wealth in America is developing into disparity of opportunity for our kids, where higher income households have more access to opportunities for greater success. Persistent poverty is one of the strongest predictors of future health, education and social well‐being. Strong work support programs and policies focused on family economic security, including the social safety net, lower rates of children living in poverty and enable families to meet both their caregiving and breadwinning roles.
What actions will you take to reduce multigenerational poverty and ensure that all children have access to equal opportunities to achieve success?
Cindy Axne
I believe that public schools are the great equalizer and that every child should have the opportunity to succeed, regardless of the zip code they grow up in. That’s why I fought for all-day kindergarten for all students in West Des Moines when I found out that some students received an inferior education based on the luck of the draw. When I worked for the State Government of Iowa, I worked with the community empowerment program to help them identify and work with communities where children weren’t getting the start that they needed to be successful later in life, and formed a number of non-profit government partnerships to help those communities get the services they needed. In Congress, I will never stop fighting to ensure that our communities have the resources they need to make sure our children succeed early on.
