OPINION:
Critics routinely accuse the Trump administration of not caring enough about the most vulnerable among us and point to various funding reviews of welfare programs and program cancellations as evidence of indifference. As a nurse and a former member of Congress, I see it very differently.
Take, for example, how the administration has handled children’s health. Children are, without question, the most vulnerable among us, and the Trump administration has made this issue one of its top policy priorities.
Just this month, the Department of Education announced more than $200 million in mental health grants for schools after reevaluating earlier efforts. In September, the Make America Healthy Again Commission released a sweeping strategy aimed at reversing decades of failed policies that fueled America’s childhood chronic disease epidemic.
No doubt about it: The Trump administration recognizes that our approach to children’s health needs to change. Still, recognizing the problem is only the first step. Real progress will require more than new federal grants, reports and programs.
In my time working in health care and on Capitol Hill, I’ve learned that children’s health is shaped less by Washington announcements than by the environments youngsters move through every day — from the school bus to the hallways and classrooms where they spend most of their time — long before they ever sit down at a desk.
Parents understand this instinctively. They worry about the food their children eat, the air they breathe, the noise they are exposed to and whether schools are creating conditions that help them stay calm, focused and ready to learn. Yet too often, public health debates focus on treating problems after they arise rather than reducing the everyday stressors that contribute to them in the first place.
As a nurse, I’ve seen how sensitive children can be to chronic irritants such as poor diets, diesel school bus exhaust, poor air quality and constant overstimulation. For those with preexisting conditions, such as asthma, allergies or sensory challenges, these factors compound quickly. A rough start to the morning can mean a harder time concentrating and learning once the school day begins.
That’s why a serious conversation about children’s health has to extend beyond counseling offices and into the ordinary routines that shape a child’s day, including hallways, cafeterias, playgrounds and even the ride to school.
Different communities face very different challenges. Rural districts manage long routes and harsh weather. Urban schools contend with congestion and idling. Suburban systems juggle aging infrastructure, staffing shortages and tight budgets. The right answers will vary, and that’s exactly how it should be.
What matters is giving parents and local leaders the flexibility to reduce unnecessary health stressors where they can, using solutions that make sense locally, which is exactly what the Trump administration’s federalism-minded education policies have sought to do.
In some schools, that may mean improving ventilation in older buildings. In others, it might mean smarter scheduling to reduce overcrowding or noise. In still others, updated transportation choices — whether propane options or American-made electric school buses — may help reduce exhaust exposure both inside and outside the bus.
Studies show that electric school buses provide significant cost savings over the long haul while providing particularly important health benefits to students with respiratory conditions. The bus ride to school is just as important as diet or exercise to a child’s success in school, so when electric buses’ up-front costs can be met, we should consider the role they can play in our efforts to make American children healthier.
No matter what specific policy is being debated, the danger always comes when concern for children’s health is transformed into rigid national mandates. One-size-fits-all policies often crowd out better local solutions and undermine trust. We’ve seen that mistake made before, and families are right to be skeptical.
The Make America Healthy Again team is right to emphasize sound science, realigned incentives and private-sector collaboration. When those principles are allowed to be paired with initiatives that make our students and our country stronger, the fruit of the MAHA Commission’s labor will ripen that much faster.
If we really care about protecting the most vulnerable among us, we should work to improve the everyday environments that shape children’s health, starting long before the first bell rings. That’s how we will truly make America healthy again.
• Renee Ellmers is a registered nurse who represented North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District from 2011 to 2017. She was on the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health.
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