Iowa is getting 20-thousand dollars from a national non-profit group that seeks to improve the lives of kids. “America’s Promise” board member Harris Wofford says the goal is to ensure kids have at least one caring adult in their life, access to health care, a safe place to live and play and a good school. “Promises are something, especially if you make them to young people, that you’d better keep,” Wofford said during a statehouse news conference this morning. Wofford declared Iowa a “State of Promise” and Governor Tom Vilsack says the Iowa Legislature is “primed” to commit more money to programs that benefit kids. Vilsack says the candidates from both political parties who ran for the legislature promised in their campaign literature that they’d “support education…health care…and economic opportunity.” Vilsack says Iowa is a good place to raise a child, but there’s “obviously” more work to do. “America’s Promise” was founded in 1997 after a summit of all the living U.S. Presidents, with Nancy Reagan sitting in for her husband. Colin Powell, out-going U.S. Secretary of State, was the organization’s founding chairman.
