Second, I am committing my Administration to support strong, family-based early education programs that will help Alaska's children get a better start in life. I'm talking about programs like Headstart, the program that provides education and training for Alaska's most needy families. I'm also talking about immunizations, about better nutrition, about the prevention of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and about Alaska's public health nurses, who are on the front lines in the fight for wellness. Even with a fiscal gap of more than 500 million dollars this year, we must recognize the need for prevention programs. My commissioner of corrections, Margaret Pugh, is happy to point out that the biggest expense isn't helping children get ahead of the curve, it's having to put so many adults behind bars.
Every child deserves the right to have hope.
To make sure our kids do have hope, Alaska needs a fundamental shift in the way it looks at children's issues. Too often, we don't invest our money wisely. We are driven by crisis. We wait for abused and neglected children to fail in school. We wait for troubled adolescents to turn to drugs.