Thread by @Rstorechildhood

🧵 The State of the Union address sets the tone for the year on the sitting President’s agenda.

That said, as advocates for the whole health of children, what stuck out to us?

Note that generally the president does not actually pen the speech, rather it’s pulled together by speechwriters and advisors, then given to the president for edits and approval.

In other words, the speech is not just a case for support for the presidents agenda, it’s indicative… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

“Children” were mentioned about a dozen times and “education” was used just 3 times.

The bulk of it was jobs jobs jobs bipartisan jobs jobs jobs seniors jobs jobs jobs folks folks and finish the job. Only a smidgen on children’s issues and rights.

While increasing access to broadband is worthwhile, this is inaccurate. Parents were driving to McDonalds for WiFi for virtual school, not on the regular for routine homework. Teachers know what students don’t have access and don’t set kids up to fail.

President Biden discussed at length the cost of insulin and prohibitive cost of other drugs due to the greed of Big Pharma.

It’s a little hard to hear this while also knowing the US has spent a serious chunk of change for Covid vaccines, to the tune of billions of dollars. Big… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Access to preschool for 3-4 year olds- this sounds good! Of course, due to our collection PTSD from the teachers unions keeping our kids out of school and then their member dues funding democrat campaigns… public preschool makes us nervous. Is this just a way for Randi to get… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

This was a perfect opportunity to add a mea culpa and explain why schools should never close again.

But it’s clear that isn’t happening from this administration. Humility is attractive Joe. Try it out.

We have to point out the “let’s give public teachers a raise” comment…

We love teachers. We do!

The thing is, most of us parent advocates are from blue states where 1- teachers are paid really well, 2- schools shut down longest and 3- teachers unions in these parts have an… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

So, forgive the knee jerk reaction. It’s just feels like salt in a wound. If the teachers unions were more localized, instead of being a funnel for democrat coffers, many more disenfranchised blue state parents wouldn’t have balked at this.

Public safety- yes! Everyone wants to live in a place where they can walk, ride, or drive safely without fear of harm by others or by public safety officers.

Biden mentioned mental health decline of young people and issues with Big Tech essentially running experiments on children for profit.

The digitization of childhood- through social media as well as the infiltration of tech into education- is a huge issue and we hope the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The irony of disparaging “running experiments on children for profit” is not lost on us… considering vaccine and booster mandates for college students or the NYC DOE sports mandate allowed and encouraged by this administration.

We realize the world doesn’t revolve around our kids and that the #sotu2023 encompasses the whole of a president’s agenda. It’s just disappointing, though not surprising, how quickly the ongoing needs of children has disappeared from the agenda.

Full transcript of #sotu2023 can be found here if you’d like to read it yourself. msn.com/en-us/travel/n…