“We want our next president to make early education a priority.”

From the video, “Iowans Press Candidates on Early Education,” posted by Save the Children on August 5, 2015

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“Save the Children Action Network (SCAN) is running a multi-pronged strategy in the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina designed to convince candidates from both parties that preschool is a winning issue among swing voters.”

“Mark Shriver, SCAN’s president, formed the 501c(4) organization last year to ‘turn up the heat’ on legislators and policymakers.

“‘At Save the Children through the last 12 years, I’d go around the country and talk to people and they all tell me I’m doing God’s work and this is critically important,’ said Shriver, 51, a former Maryland lawmaker and nephew of President John F. Kennedy. ‘But when push comes to shove, they’re not putting their money where their mouth is.’

“‘Too many politicians think of education as ‘nice but not necessary,’ Shriver said in an interview. ‘We’re trying to look at this from purely a political perspective. How do we make early-childhood education a priority and a necessity for the voters who are going to elect the next president of the United States?’”

“Save the Children crusades to make preschool a top-tier campaign issue,” the Washington Post, August 12, 2015