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Jewish Funds for Justice and our partners want to give you an opportunity to express your own domestic Jewish agenda to the candidates.

Here is how it works.

For more information on the campaign, read What's At Stake.

THE ISSUES:

CHILD CARE. Parents are finding it increasingly difficult to raise a family.  In 1999 and 2000, approximately 2.7 million people who needed to take leave couldn't afford the unpaid time off.  Poor parents are less likely to take time off for their child's birth and they are denied access or assistance for quality child care.   Full-time, center-based child care can cost from $3000 to more than $13,000 annually per child, placing a strain on even middle class families.   Since 2002, more than 150,000 families have lost critical assistance with these costs.  In 2001, 40% of poor, single, working mothers without federal assistance paid at least half their cash income for child care.
 
CIVIL RIGHTS. Despite significant progress, discrimination is still a reality for too many Americans. For every dollar white men earn, women earn approximately 77 cents, Latinas earn 56 cents, and African-American men earn 75 cents. Women are more likely to suffer violence; a woman is raped every 6 minutes and battered every 9 seconds. At the federal level and in most states gays and lesbians lack even basic civil rights protections. Affirmative action is being eliminated from the public sector, with colleges becoming increasingly homogeneous and opportunity blocked for many black and Latino students.
  
EDUCATION. A high-quality public education is essential to ensure opportunity for all Americans.  In 2000, 2 out of 3 fourth graders couldn't read proficiently and 7 out of 10 inner-city and rural fourth graders couldn't read at the most basic level.  The most recent data on urban 12th graders finds that 84% are not proficient in math and 83% are not proficient in science.   For students who do graduate, attending college now means taking on substantial debt as costs have risen and grants are scarce. Between 1994 and 2004, college costs skyrocketed by 30% and 26% at public and private colleges, respectively.   

ENVIRONMENT. Our world is waking up to the implications of the damage we have done to our environment.   The flow of ice from glaciers has doubled in the past decade. If nothing is done, sea levels could rise up to 20 feet.  There are twice as many Category 4 and 5 hurricanes as there were 30 years ago. Without action, global warming will cause an estimated 300,000 deaths a year by 2035. Pollution continues to do damage. Nine million children have been diagnosed with asthma; between 1980 and 1994, the number of children under 5 with asthma increased by 160%.   Each year, 1.8 million to 3.5 million illnesses are caused by swimming in water contaminated by sewage overflows and an additional 500,000 from drinking contaminated water.