Youth Rally In Capitol Rotunda

{Frankfort, Kentucky}...A crowd of more than 1,000 people gathered Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda to advocate for the needs of children. Kentucky Youth Advocates executive director Terry Brooks said the group's legislative priorities this year are to get the state to do more about child abuse deaths, prevent superintendents from assigning teachers who are being disciplined to alternative school programs, promote an earned income tax credit for low-income families and reduce the number of children jailed for status offenses through use of diversion programs. Keynote speaker Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson outlined some of Gov. Steve Beshear's priorities for children, including increasing state funding for early childhood education to cover those who are at or below 160 percent of the poverty level, increasing funding for state social workers, fighting the prescription drug abuse problem, sparing basic classroom SEEK funding from budget cuts and raising the school dropout age to 18.