The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.
~James Baldwin
A litmus test for a U.S. President and leadership is caring for America’s kids and children worldwide. A deciding question when choosing a President should be: How will they protect children in the U.S. and around the world now and in the future?
Look at children you love this new year and ask, are their futures and the futures of children around the world being protected?
AI
In “Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth,” concerns center on the dangerous push of AI on children, without consideration of the repercussions.
AI also affects children living in poor neighborhoods, who face severe health consequences from data centers, as gas-powered turbines pollute the air with carcinogens and asthma-inducing chemicals.
Child Labor
The U.S. must protect children from dangerous jobs that have not been permitted in the past due to age and safety concerns. This is especially concerning for young people who enter the workforce out of economic necessity.
Child Trafficking
Child trafficking is a worldwide problem, UNICEF claims approximately 28 per cent of identified victims of trafficking globally are children. In America: 300,000 American children are victims of commercial sexual exploitation each year.
Climate Change
We witness catastrophic climate change events, floods, fires, and debilitating storms with displaced families and loss of children’s lives. Many public schools burn or are swept away.
UNICEF describes climate change as a “child rights crisis” revealing how it hurts children:
- Diseases become more prevalent and dangerous.
- More droughts increase hunger.
- Children’s health and development are negatively effected.
Consumer Protection
Children deserve a Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) focused on products that affect their lives. Dismantling this agency puts kids at risk. Project 2025 seeks to eliminate the CPSC. The CPSC informs the public about recalls and products that risk injury or death. What kind of example does this show the world?
Disabilities
Millions of children with disabilities falter globally facing exclusion, discrimination, a lack of prepared teachers, physical barriers, underfunding of schools and infrastructure for care.
In America the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has been dismantled by the U.S. ED.
Education
The National Center for Education Statistics reported 49.6 million students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in fall 2022.
Without a U.S. ED, states may break up free public schools and create more unregulated charters and vouchers. This creates a stratified system of rich and poor and this puts all of us in jeopardy.
Consider countries who support their public schools and teachers like Finland and Japan.
Food Insecurity
Many children face food insecurity and can’t learn when hungry. Feeding America claim nearly 14 million children faced hunger in 2023. One in every five children are unsure where they’ll get their next meal according to the USDA.
Gun Safety
Who’s keeping America’s children safe in their schools and in public places when it comes to gun safety?
The Biden administration signed into law a gun safety bill, which involved Democrats and Republicans (see below), and many believe this has made Americans safer. But much more is needed.
…President Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law, marking the first major gun legislation in nearly three decades. The law introduced enhanced background checks for gun buyers under 21, closed the “boyfriend loophole” to prevent convicted domestic abusers from purchasing firearms for five years and allocated $15 billion in funding for issues like school security and mental health.
Healthcare
All Americans and children deserve access to quality healthcare including vaccines. Many countries offer this.
Americans deserve a reputable, trustworthy doctor with an understanding of public health leading the country, who doesn’t cut research.
Weill Cornell Medicine reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cut 22 mRNA vaccine research projects worth nearly half a billion dollars—cuts that would affect our ability to cope with future pandemics. We’d also miss out on the opportunity to develop mRNA vaccines for other diseases and improve the ones we already have.
Homelessness
The 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress reports:
On a single night in January 2024, 259,473 people in families with children were experiencing homelessness in the United States, the largest number since data collection began. Nine in ten people experiencing homelessness as families were sheltered (p.26).
In 2024, over half of all people in families with children experiencing homelessness were children under the age of 18 (56%) (p. 28).
Immigrants
We’re a nation of immigrants, and not creating a decent immigration system for those who come to this country is tragic. Even when immigrants become citizens they may be unjustly targeted.
Many immigrants have families, often extended families with children and grandchildren. Separating children from the parents who sought a better life in America is especially egregious.
International Development
The Agency for International Development (USAID) once helped children around the world, administering foreign aid, focusing on economic development, humanitarian relief, health, democracy, and disaster recovery in developing countries.
A Harvard report outlines how the loss of USAID has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people many children from preventable diseases.
LBGTQ
Project 2026 targets women along with the LBGTQ community by focusing on the only men and women raising children.
Failing to positively address the LBGTQ community, children here and around the world will continue to face stigma, bullying, discrimination, family rejection, homelessness and mental health issues like depression and suicidal ideation.
Mental Health
Public schools are in a unique position and should lead the world in helping children and teens with mental health difficulties get the assistance they need. So why must school districts be forced to apply for grants to fund school psychologists and other mental health experts for school districts (Stone, 2025)?
Poverty
UNICEF reports that more than 19 percent of children live in extreme monetary poverty and an estimated 900 million children face multidimensional poverty.
OXFAM reported in September 2025 that According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2024, there were 43.7 million people in poverty (a poverty rate of 12.9%), and 9.7 million children living in poverty (a poverty rate of 13.4%).
War
The world needs compassionate leaders who care about all children in Gaza, Israel, and Ukraine and other war-torn nations, leaders who consider how children are affected by war.
In Ukraine The equivalent of about 150 classrooms of children have been killed or injured in since the start of full-scale war.
In Gaza, as of late 2025, an estimated 50,ooo children have been killed since the war began in October 2023.
In Israel, 56 children have lost their lives since the war in Gaza including those who died during October 7 and have been victimized by the war.
References
Stone, M. (2025, December 11). Amid Cancellations and Legal Fights, Trump Admin. Awards New Mental Health Grants. Education Week. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/amid-cancellations-and-legal-fights-trump-admin-awards-new-mental-health-grants/2025/12.
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