by David Safier
An agency that helps at-risk families in Tucson and across Arizona laid off 63 employees Tuesday, a loss that cuts deeply into a program that helps protect newborn babies.
A majority of the agency's cuts were in Southern Arizona communities, he said, "where services are already limited." There were 19 employees laid off in Tucson. The agency now has 198 employees statewide, in offices including Yuma and Bullhead City as well as Sierra Vista, Douglas, Safford and Nogales.
[snip]
[Eric E. Schindler, president of the Tucson-based Child & Family Resources Inc.] said his agency is bracing for more bad news, too, as DES also has announced plans to cut child-care subsidies for the "working poor." The agency also announced other cuts Tuesday.
[snip]
"We will see more children who are in need and there will be no services for them. We will see children who are left home alone because their parents cannot afford child care while they work," [Penelope Jacks, director of the Southern Arizona office of the Children's Action Alliance] said.
"Honestly, I think we are going to see more children die."
[snip]
The cuts also will impact the agency's Choices for Families program, which is similar to Healthy Families but focuses on children of all ages who are in at-risk homes.
OK, Rep. Kavanagh, it's time for some disparaging comments about all these Boys Crying Wolf. I'm waiting for you to tell us the cuts won't be fatal to the children affected by the cuts. They'll only become a little sicker and a little more abused. [UPDATE: Looks like Gould decided to field this one, not Kavanagh in another Star article about the DES cuts: "You try to make it look like the cuts you receive are really extreme," Sen. Ron Gould of Lake Havasu City said. "We see a lot of that political grandstanding going on now."]
I'm beginning to believe what I've heard some people say, that for conservative pro-Lifers, life ends at birth.
"Budget cuts are the only item on the table," the Rs said as they slashed services. Let it be on their heads.
I do wish each state and the feds were required to be within a budget. That is the only way to ensure long term success.
Sounds like LD26 voters should consider a recall since one rep doesn’t seem to think he needs to represent people in his district and the other seems mentally incompetent.
I think a better title would have been “Why do Republican legislators hate Arizona children.”
Mr. Safier,
You offer justification for your article title. Your justification is valid in your eyes but I find your justifications wanting.
For any endangered child I would hope that neither you nor anybody else would give up if their local government office had a layoff or budget cutback.
Government can be a solution, it isn’t the only solution.
http://www.delawareliberal.net/2008/10/15/on-political-civility/
Vic Williams expressed the quintessential Republican concern when he met with LD 26 voters in Phoenix. Williams said – more than once – that the most important thing for him to do is to “remain relevant” in his (Republican) caucus. When challenged by one voter who said that the most important thing for him is to represent his constituents, he did not respond.
Cap’n Melvin, when meeting with the same voter group, defended a single sheet of “statistics” that purported to show that Arizona is really (really?) 13th in the country in per pupil spending in the United States, not 49th, said “we should give money to the parents to spend as they see fit for educating their children.” When challenged by one voter who said “that’s just a euphemism for ending public education” – Melvin just shrugged his shoulders.
By the way, a woman in the audience had done a masterful job of debunking those data with real statistics, a copy of which was given to Melvin!!!
My conclusion? Republicans care more for their “ideals” than for either their constituents or for correct numbers!
Thane.
This is a very serious post I wrote, but the headline is playing with what the Bushies said whenever a Democrat criticized anything the administration did on the home or international fronts: Why do you hate America? I decided I’d see how they liked it thrown back at them.
And I also must say, there are times for civility and times when you have to express unbridled anger. I would ask, where is their civility — as in their acting like civilized people — in endangering children with budget cuts that could be lessened? My incivility is words that may sting a bit. Theirs is in action that may harm a baby’s development or his/her chance to avoid abuse. I’m willing to put the two on a scale and see which is more harmful.
“Why do Republicans hate Arizona?” Well if that isn’t as uncivil and divisive a statement as it is possible to make. I am not a Republican, nor am I a Democrat. I would never presume to generically allege that any Republican hates Arizona.
Such allegations fail to educate anyone and fail to maintain a civil environment for discussion.
I wonder if we can get the DES to give some address information on the families losing their funding so we can get them registered to vote.
We can even get a few recall elections going.
According to the Arizona Guardian, Pamela Gorman is claiming this is a “political stunt” to “gin up support.” I guess they believe their own propaganda about these agencies having a lot of “fat.”