Child-and-Family-policy-cenIowa voters want the presidential candidates to talk more about on how their proposed policies would impact children, according to a public opinion poll released today. Charles Bruner, director of the Child and Family Policy Center, is hoping the results of the survey will also direct the media to focus more attention on kids’ health and education.

“In 2012, when we did analysis of the presidential debates, we found although kids are 24-percent of the population and 100-percent of our future, less than 2-percent of questions were asked around child policy issues,” Bruner said. The poll involved 501 Iowans who voted in either the 2012 or 2014 elections.

Bruner said the results should push the candidates to speak up on child policy issues. “Overall, when we asked around 11 policy questions, 77-percent said that kids were a very important issue to address, second only to jobs and the economy,” Bruner said. “When asked about what are the one or two most important issues, kids actually ranked at the top.”

Brian Ahlberg is director of the Every Child Matters Education Fund. “The broad conclusion that we reached from this is something that we already felt and thought we knew, which is that Iowa voters clearly want presidential hopefuls to speak directly to how their policy stances will affect children,” Ahlberg said. “They want campaign debates, overall, to focus on which investments are needed to assure the best opportunities for our kids’ success.”