Why Hillary Clinton was the best first lady
...ldren living in foster care and worked for the passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, a landmark legislation which reformed our nation’s child welfare system by putting considerations of children’s health and safety first. In April of 2000 at an event called “Remarks at the Fight Crime Invests in Kids Child Care Event.” It tells us that at-risk children who receive quality child care today are much less likely to commit crimes tomorrow. They’re less likely to enter school with serious behavioral problems. They are less likely to be arrested. They are less likely to break the law again and again when they grow up to be adults” (Wastson, 96). She was advocated in investing in child care to save the lives of the children. Research had shown that the importance of a child’s earliest experiences greatly effected their future development. Mrs. Clinton also directed her attention to our nation’s youth by encouraging the development of positive opportunities for young people and offered ways to help them avoid substance abuse, teen pregnancy and delinquency. She helped launch the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and hosted the 1998 White House Conference on School Safety: Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence and participated in the White House Strategy Meeting on Children, Violence and Responsibility. The First Lady was also instrumental in the development of the AmeriCorps National Service Program through which young people may perform a year of full-time service in exchange for scholarships or student loan forgiveness (Watson). In the new economy where earning potential depends solely on educational achievement, it is essential that our nation’s children are meeting world-class standards in order to secure their futures. As First Lady, Mrs. Clinton pushed the envelope for education reforms to improve the quality of the public education our children receive, including teacher quality, increasing academic standards and accountability-striving to at least master the basic skills needed in today’s world (Clift and Brazaitis 140). As a supporter for charter schools and early childhood education, ensuring children enter school ready and willing to learn, the potential gain is for a “greater flexibility from bureaucratic rules, so that parents, teachers, and the community can design and run their own schools, and focus on setting goals and getting results,” she said at the Charter School Meeting in August of 1998 (Clift and Brazaitis 140). As every American deserves the right to affordable, quality healthcare, Mrs. Clinton has championed a broad array of health initiatives, from the reform of our health care delivery system to prevention programs that ultimately help Americans lead longer, healthier lives. She became the chair of President Clinton’s Task Force on Health Care Reform, and advocated health care coverage for all Americans. She has worked to strengthen Medicaid and Medicare and to promote childhood immunizations. She also helped to create and promote the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides health insurance for the millions of children who are currently uninsured. In addition, Mrs. Clinton has worked to address specific health problems, including pediatric AIDS, childhood asthma, breast cancer, and colon cancer. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a phenomenal role model for women around the world. In addition to helping ensure the economic security of women and their families by advocating access to micro credit-small loans made to non-traditional borrowers-to enable thousands of American women to start their own small businesses. She also supported the Administration’s efforts to increase minimum wage, promote equal pay laws, and fund legal services for low-income families. She then turned her focus to the Social Security debate, trying to ensure the features of Social Security that are important to women are preserved and strengthened. But in my opinion, her strongest security and economical fight was to prevent bankruptcy from adversely impacting women and families, particularly in terms of child support collection. While most of the First Lady’s admirable work was the done at home for the American people, her most profound and respectable work was what she accomplished overseas. With the support and advice of the Secretary of State, the President asked his wife, the First Lady to promote American values and interests worldwide. Since 1993, the First Lady has visited more than sixty countries as a means to achieve this objective (Clift and Brazaitis). She took the message of human rights, social development and empowerment of women around the globe, advocating for equality in education for girls and body, meeting the critical health needs of women and children, a...