Dashing out the door for a parent-teacher conference, but I had to link to a great blog post by Nancy Folbre. She says bluntly that the public sector doesn't prioritize children. She looks at the latest findings about public spending:

Two salient patterns emerge. First, public spending on children
amounts to about 2.2 percent of the gross domestic product. By
comparison, we spend about 5.3 percent of G.D.P. on the elderly.

Second, public spending per child goes up after children reach age 6, despite considerable research showing that younger children enjoy especially significant benefits from early-childhood education.

Largely as a result of differences in public subsidies, full-time, year-round child care for young children costs more than public university tuition in 44 states.

Evidence also suggests that young children are particularly vulnerable to the ill effects of poverty. Yet 19 percent of children in the United States lived in poverty in 2009.

Parents continue to bear most of the costs
of rearing the next generation, while the elderly reap significant
benefits — whether they have helped raise children or not. Children
grow up to become working-age adults paying the taxes that help finance
Social Security and Medicare.

Yet, the old people in my town continue to write letters to the local paper arguing that they shouldn't have to pay taxes for schools.

UPDATE: Commenters are debating the pros and cons of letting children vote.