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| From L to R: Sam Garrison, Joe Costa, Assemblymember Ricardo Lara, Marisol Barrios and Thomas Lee |
Yesterday the Los Angeles Times had an article on the
proposed budget cuts that Governor Brown will be addressing later this week.
And so begins the annual ritual of adjusting the budget to reflect revenues. Given
that these revenues do not match the budget’s projected revenue stream, we
envision additional cuts to services. As always, this discussion will trigger an
acrimonious round of proposals to determine which of the poor options we have
will be selected. Inevitably, these cuts
will further erode the already fragile “safety net” that supports education and
services to vulnerable children and families.
In an effort to play a
role in the process, Sam Garrison, Hillsides board member and chair of our
Government Affairs and Public Policy Committee, facilitated a round of
conversations in Sacramento this past week with staff of our local elected officials.
We introduced ourselves and hopefully established the kind of rapport with
these policymakers that will keep them sensitive to the needs of all we serve. Besides
Sam, Thomas Lee, director of Youth Moving On, and Marisol Barrios, director of
communications and advocacy, joined me in these meetings. We met with staff
from the offices of Gilbert Cedillo, Kevin de Leon, Ricardo Lara, Roger
Hernandez, Carol Liu, and Felipe Fuentes.
There is no way to avoid
some very significant cuts in this kind of constrained public funding
environment. No elected official relishes making decisions that sacrifices
needed services. Our visit last week was an opportunity for us to suggest to
the legislators some criteria and priorities to consider in making these very
difficult decisions. We can only hope that such advocacy will lead to decisions
that support the delivery of care to the most vulnerable.
We advocated the
importance of not being shortsighted in what funding reductions must be made--some
level of support must be maintained in order to minimally sustain the needs of
the most vulnerable. Cuts to avoid would include those that only exacerbate
poor situations and eventually lead to more costly solutions, often placing the
needy at a greater risk of harm. Certainly from our perspective it is very
important to maintain the already significantly reduced funding for education. Fewer
school days, more children in a classroom, and further elimination of ancillary
and support services for school-aged children only threaten the integrity of
the public education system and reduces it to not much more than custodial
care.
In addition to advocatingfor support of education, in particular funding for special education, we also informed
staff of the need for continued funding of mental health services to support
children who have experienced abuse, neglect or violence. Inadequately funding these kinds of services
places these children and families at considerable risk of further harm. As
resilient as children can be, they are especially vulnerable when needed
services are sacrificed, threatening to weaken the gains that they may have made.
Failure to effectively address the needs of these children and youth only opens
the door to chronic behaviors and disorders that jeopardizes their long-term
well-being and that of our society and community as a whole!
Challenging times require courageous
and prudent actions. Legislators are typically receptive to the input of their
constituents. As we begin the arduous exercise of balancing the State budget
and making very difficult decisions, we ask you to join with us in any way you
can to encourage our representatives to hear the voices of the vulnerable
children, youth and families as they deliberate in January.
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