Parenting & Family Quote by Donna Shalala

Child success is built by a web of relationships and resources, not by schools alone. Donna Shalala centers the everyday adults who shape a child’s trajectory: coaches who create structure and belonging, mentors who model resilience, and community members who notice, encourage, and hold kids accountable. The phrase people involved in kids' lives at every level widens the lens to include teachers, counselors, youth workers, bus drivers, librarians, faith leaders, and neighbors. These are the anchors of a safe, predictable environment where young people can take risks, fail, and try again.

The second move is economic. Supporting children requires supporting their parents. When wages are low, schedules unstable, and benefits scarce, families live with time poverty. A parent who must juggle two jobs cannot reliably attend parent-teacher conferences, supervise homework, or volunteer at practice. Better jobs, with living wages, predictable hours, and paid leave, translate directly into more presence, patience, and energy at home. The homework line is shorthand for the daily, unglamorous investments that compound into educational attainment.

Shalala’s policy background gives this emphasis weight. As Secretary of Health and Human Services and later a university president and member of Congress, she pushed for approaches that tackle upstream determinants of health and learning. The argument resists silver bullets, whether a single program or a punitive fix. It favors a wraparound ecology: after-school programs that do not just keep kids busy but connect them to mentors; schools that coordinate with community groups; labor and family policies that free up parents’ time and attention.

The point is pragmatic rather than sentimental. If society wants safer neighborhoods, higher graduation rates, and healthier kids, it must pay for the infrastructure that produces them: dignified work for adults, and networks of caring adults for children. When parents are supported and communities are engaged, the everyday work of raising a child becomes possible, and the results follow.