The economic recovery bill, signed into law by President Obama on February 17, includes more than $100 Billion for the U.S. Department of Education. That’s less than the original House bill asked for, but more than twice last year’s federal education funding, as the Alliance for Excellent Education reports.

President Bush's fiscal year 2009 budget proposal includes $2.8 billion in cuts to programs that impact children—a 3 percent drop from last year's federal budget. First Focus, a bipartisan children's advocacy organization, takes a reader-friendly look at the numbers and what they say about our nation's priorities.

Anyone planning a Semester of Service or Global Youth Service Day project is invited to register for these calls, all at 2:00 pm EST. February 17, 2009 will cover partnerships and volunteer recruitment, March 3 will discuss fundraising and grantwriting and the March 17 webinar will address media and web communications.

WKCD is launching a web-based national petition campaign to make college access and success for low-income students one of the Obama Administration's top priorities.

New Youth Connections, a youth-written publication from Youth Communications, has a special issue of true stories by teens about the election -- titles include "Teen Pregnancy: An Election Issue?" "Electoral College Made Easy" and "Awakening the Youth Vote," just to name a few!

When the What Kids Can Do youth-led news bureau, Y-Press, covered the recent Presidential conventions, half the team camped out at the DNC and the other half at the RNC. Each team produced slideshows and audio commentaries that capture what makes the Democrats blue and the Republicans red (and why we need to find common ground between the two).

At the end of 2008, child advocates across the country quietly cheered some successes in Congress—including significant reform to the child welfare system—while raising concerns about a setback that may leave many homeless children without services they need.

To borrow a tagline and flip it: what happens in Washington, doesn’t stay in Washington—far from it. Budget and policy decisions on Capitol Hill (and in state capitals across the country) have a big impact on even the smallest neighborhoods.

September 15— The National Collaboration for Youth (NCY), a 40 year old coalition of youth-serving nonprofits, has proposed a national policy agenda, “Toward a Brighter Future: An Essential Agenda for America’s Young People.”

The Every Child Matters Education Fund and its local, state and national partners are hosting a nonpartisan event on the capitol steps in Washington, DC, and all 50 states to draw public attention to issues affecting America's children—poverty, health care, juvenile incarceration, early care and education, child abuse, and after-school programs.