New political ‘Milk Party’ making waves on children’s issues

The Children’s Movement of Florida is spearheading the newest political movement making waves in the United States, calling themselves, endearingly “The Milk Party.” The play on the “Tea Party” name was not a nod to agreement on all issues, but a respect for the attention garnered in the last few months by the Tea Party, a goal that The Milk Party also has. And why shouldn’t they? Their goal is to represent one the most valuable resources in the United States: our children.

Despite the cutesy name, their aim is a good one: putting needed political attention to children’s issues and calling on political candidates to use government resources to benefit future generations. The movement is non-partisan and supports any candidate that aims to make children a priority. To do so, the citizen-led group is attempting to make loud media waves to force candidates to pay attention to important children’s issues in these pre-election weeks.

Currently, the group is in the middle of a 17-city tour across the state of Florida during the month of September, called “The Children’s Express.” Each stop include appearances and speeches by Milk Party leaders, children's advocates, entertainers and local celebrities.The audience: educators, parents, grandparents, politicians, and anyone and everyone who the Milk Party can get to listen. As an added bonus, there are also refreshments served at every location. What else would they serve but milk and cookies?

In a rally on Friday, held in Lakeland, Florida, the group pulled their resources to discuss the importance of children’s issues such as pre-kindergarten education, child health care, help for grandparents raising their grandchildren alone, early intervention for special needs children, and opportunites for at-risk children, among others.

David Lawrence, President of the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and former CEO of the Miami Herald, summed up the group’s mission statement in his speech on Friday as he explained the importance of children’s issues being on the forefront of the political scene instead of an afterthought:

"You want a bullet train? Here's $3 billion for a train. You want a prison? We'll get you two. …I know that all 160 of our lawmakers care about children, but you wouldn't know it to see what comes out of the Legislature. It costs $57,000 for juvenile incarceration. It costs $20,000 for a prisoner, but we can't get a third of that for our schools.”

At the rally, the group called for a debate on children’s issues between Democratic Gubenatorial Candidate, Alex Sink, and Republican Rick Scott prior to the Nov. 2 election. While Scott has yet to respond , Sink has already agreed to the debate.

It appears as though the Milk Party has made their voices heard loud and clear and if anyone was hoping to ignore them, that is no longer an option.

So the question is, will we be seeing a spread of the Milk Party to other states? The answer: we certainly hope so.

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