Written by Matt McCoy | 30 July 2010

This year, the Legislature took the final step in extending health insurance to 30,000 Iowa children who’d been uninsured when we began our health care for kids initiative three years ago.

The state’s Hawk-I program and the federal Medicaid program are key to our efforts. These programs provide critical health care coverage for children from Iowa’s low- and moderate-income families.

Making full use of what these programs have to offer is a smart investment in the health of Iowans. In the end, everyone’s health bills are lower when families aren’t forced to rely on expensive ER visits for their medical care.

Because of our children’s healthcare initiative, Iowa now has one of the highest percentages of insured kids in the nation. According to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, Iowa ranks No. 1 overall in health care for children. The Commonwealth Fund also praised our state for children's access to care, quality of care, family insurance programs, and the potential for Iowa children to lead long, healthy, productive lives.

This is something we should all be proud of. Research has shown that access to health care coverage increases a child’s school performance by almost 70 percent. It also improves a child’s readiness to learn, their ability to pay attention in class and leads to better school attendance.

To learn more about health care options available for children from low- and moderate-income Iowa families, go to www.hawk-i.org/en_US/index.html.

To read the full report from the Commonwealth Fund, visit www.commonwealthfund.org/publications and click on “U.S. Variations in Child Health System Performance: A State Scorecard.”

Written by Matt McCoy | 29 July 2010

All children can benefit from preschool education, but for far too long our state lacked a comprehensive approach to ensuring all Iowa families had access to high-quality preschool.

When studies began to show our kids were entering kindergarten without the language and literacy skills they needed to be successful in school, we responded by establishing a Voluntary Statewide Preschool Program that has made high-quality preschool available to families throughout Iowa.

Because of our efforts, more than 21,000 Iowa preschoolers in 326 school districts are expected to benefit from at least 10 hours per week of high-quality instruction by this fall.

Before the Statewide Preschool Program was created, only 19 percent of 3- and 4-year-old children in Iowa had access to quality preschools. That has jumped to 60 percent today. And thousands of additional children attend Head Start, Early Childhood Special Education and other programs that prepare them for a strong start in school.

In spite of tough economic times, I’m committed to maintaining the Voluntary Statewide Preschool Program and other early learning opportunities for our children. The benefits are obvious when kids start kindergarten and continue through graduation.

Not only that, strong preschools are good for the economy in our local communities. Business leaders and employers all across Iowa say access to high-quality childcare and preschool make it easier to attract and retain good employees and businesses.

Thank you to all who’ve taken part in making this important effort a reality, including parents and grandparents, local schools, community and business leaders, and especially the caregivers and preschool teachers who work hard every day to make sure our kids are getting the skills they need.

By getting our next generation of Iowa leaders off to great start, we are helping to ensure a successful future them, for ourselves and for our state.