The socialization of American children aged 0-5 in middle to lower-class areas has become increasingly worse over the past couple of decades. The number of families in which children are raised without the father has tripled from 8 million in 1960 to 24 million today, according to Wade F. Horns article entitled There is no Substitute for Parents V socialization of childrenЁ as it appears in USA Today.

This petition calls for an extended paid leave of absence for mothers and fathers of newborn children, at a set rate V as determined by income, salary, position in company, or by an average government subsidized rate V with respects to programs like Head Start, circa 1965.

The advantages of a newborn child being raised by two parents - especially the father - are as follows, but are not limited to:

- Lower crime rate:
o Boys raised without a father figure, are more likely to commit juvenile crimes, and most girls raised without their father will be more susceptible to negative actions associated with low self-esteem and possibly diminishing sense of self-worth.

- Lower poverty rate:
o According to Horn, Almost 75\% of American children living in fatherless households will experience poverty before the age of 11, compared to 20\% of those raised by two parentsЁ.

- Increased child development:
o In their first year of living, children need the different elements of both parents in their lives. The mother can provide the child with nurturing care, love and affection and the kind of biological care that only a mother can provide, while the father provides the newborn with a strong backbone and a paternal sense of pride and dignity. In a strong and devoted household, this will promote good moral values within the childs psyche.

The Head Start program, founded as in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson now exists to serve low income families by helping their toddlers to become educated and to receive proper care. This program, however, only subsidizes children ages 3-5, which is important to a degree, but the newborns brain is constantly developing from the first minute he can see, smell, touch, taste and hear. These first 7-8 months are really the most important in any newborn childs neurological development, and is also when the parents should be with the child the most V since, after about a year the child will start exerting his own forms of self-dependence (not to say the child is independent, but he will certainly shy away from attention in some regards).

I believe the solution of the poor socialization of newborn children into society rests not with the quality of schools or daycares, but with the level of attention and the quality of attention given to the newborn by his or her parental units, especially the father, who (in most cases) Will still tend to work more than the mother.

This petition calls for the Head Start program of the government to focus subsidization of the funds of its programs into the employees of high-traffic, high-stress companies or jobs, in order for the parents of a newborn child to have a longer, (at least eight month) paid maternity leave.

Funds of the program could go to:

- Substitute job training (office only)
o Train others in a related field how to do the position of the employee on leave
- Work from home
o Supporting the parent, while he/she does work from home via:
X Email
X Fax
X Telephone
- Boosting company insurance for parents of the newborn during leave
- Adjusting 401k benefits for higher ranking employees.
- Etc.

This petition will be sent to the California senate.


~Michael S.