As noted before, for most of the 1980s, Paula and I lived in the Philadelphia area. It was a dynamic period in our careers and in our lives. It’s where our daughters were born. Our return to the Midwest was prompted in part by thinking it was the best environment for our children’s future (our son was not yet in the picture).
We came to know numerous interesting characters in Philadelphia, including a work colleague I’d place high on that list. Two decades earlier, Jule Sugarman was a primary creator and an early administrator of the national Head Start program. Jule and I weren’t especially close, but we attended a great many meetings together -- he usually outlining new initiatives, me seeking ways to fund his concepts -- for a university health care complex.
Jule had big ideas and often shared his proposed ventures, at least in broad strokes. An approachable, shirt-sleeves guy, trousers hiked up over his rounded waist, he’d generally linger after meetings, interpreting what had just transpired. His 2010 New York Times obituary quoted early-day Head Start colleagues, saying Jule was “absolutely central in mounting the program… an administrative genius… with bureaucratic brilliance.” Long before we met, he’d overseen the closure of Alcatraz, worked alongside LBJ in the War on Poverty, and served on President-Elect Carter’s transition team. The Seattle Times called him “a legend among public-policy administrators and a hero to children’s advocates.”
Worth noting: As of last fall, since 1965, Head Start has served 40 million children and families. Iowa received almost $81 million for Head Start “slots,” in FY 2022 and served more than 7,000 children.
A second person, a Pennsylvanian from the Pittsburgh area I’ve known for a decade through Americans for Democratic Action, had his own big idea in the 1980s. Allen Kukovich built a distinguished record in the Pennsylvania House and Senate, his crowning achievement coming three decades ago. In the early 1990s, Allen envisioned and championed the Pennsylvania Children's Health Care Partnership Act. Quoting a public radio story, “In Pennsylvania, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was one state program the federal government (examined) when creating the national CHIP program, signed into law in 1997 by President Clinton. ‘Pennsylvania was absolutely a leader on this issue,’ said Joan Alker, executive director, Center for Children & Families, Georgetown University, an acknowledged CHIP expert.”
More than any other individual, Allen is the “father” of CHIP, first in Pennsylvania and, because this program became a model, the national program that helps pay for children’s health care. Worth noting: Nationally, more than seven million children were enrolled in CHIP in 2022. In Iowa, as of March 31, 2023, CHIP serves 62,015 children… a significant benefit to these kids, their families, and our state.
I cite my late colleague Jule and my friend Allen for their leadership in making the world dramatically better for children. They’re examples of people with big ideas who saw them through to the ultimate benefit of millions. I also cite them to underscore the urgent need for a NEW initiative to address the current leading cause of children’s death in America (19%)… firearms. Worth noting: In 2023, there have been more mass shootings than days in the year thus far (mass shooting defined as when four or more people shot/killed). While every such incident is tragic, death or injury of innocent children is especially deplorable… and should be unacceptable to us all.
Look, I know it won’t be easy, nevertheless, for our CHILDREN’S sake, our country needs another Jule or another Allen: someone with vision and capacity, someone with tenacity and perseverance to lead us toward safer streets, safer schools, safer communities, indeed, a safer world for everyone. But of highest priority, for our children. Let’s start there. For as Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president emerita of the Children’s Defense Fund, says, “A nation that does not stand for its children does not stand for anything… and will not stand tall in the future.”
Kurtis, thank you for your column and thank you for telling us about Jule and Allen and reminding us of a time when children were so important in the conversation of policy making in our country. Those programs changed the lives of so many children and their families.