Choose Our Children
Contributed by Patricia Chesbro, Choose Chesbro
We are failing our children. In 2025, the overall well-being of Alaska’s children ranked 40th out of the 50 states, according to data collected by the Annie E Casey Foundation. Statewide, 13% of our children live in households below the federal poverty line, yet the percentage in rural Alaska reaches almost 40%. Further, we rank 49th in education, a service that has historically helped people move out of poverty. Our children and young people deserve better. I am running for State Senate, Seat M, to work toward improving our children’s futures. This seat is responsible to advocate for the needs of the greater Palmer area as well as Trunk Road to Fairview Loop.
Surely, there are many reasons for our failed policies; there is no single person or group at fault. We share the blame. Perhaps we voted for people whose only solution was to cut budgets. Perhaps we have rejected the concept of working together to address problems. Perhaps many of us did not vote at all. Perhaps we just watched as corporations got richer and our state coffers dwindled. Perhaps we were looking so closely at our own present that we were not planning the best decisions for our children’s future. Perhaps our priorities were less important than investing in Alaska’s future. It may be great to have a state vegetable, but is it worth the legislature’s time?
Recently, former Governor Bill Walker described a series of 500 meetings he held in 2015 to design a fiscal plan that would address the future of our revenue and spending priorities. That plan did not pass that legislature. Without a long-term fiscal plan, current legislatures find themselves drawing from savings, reacting to fluctuating income streams and unexpected expenses, and underfunding state services. It is time to rejuvenate talks around a fiscal plan that both preserves the PFD on which so many rely and develops revenues to stabilize our budgets. Each decision made by the next legislature should focus on our children’s future. Their future is Alaska’s future.
When elected, I will Choose our Children in every vote.