Thousands of babies, children and youth in Florida will lose access to vital services that lay a foundation for their future if the Congress passes a Continuing Resolution (CR) which has already cleared the Republican-controlled House. This is according to data released today by the nonpartisian Children’s Leadership Council (CLC), consisting of 57 of America’s leading child, youth, and family organizations, which represent millions nationwide.
The CLC data show the impact that billions of dollars in cuts contained in the House passed CR would have on America’s children, youth and families, with particular attention focused on Early Head Start, Head Start, child care, Maternal and Child Health Block Grant program, school-based health clinics, Community Services Block Grant, Low Income Heating Assistance Program, Pell Grants, and Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Youth Services.
Although children did not cause the recession or run up the huge federal deficits, they will take a major hit if Congress embraces the CR budget cuts.
According to CLC, Florida will lose over 9,000 Head Start and Early Start spaces, from a program that promotes school readiness and early childhood development through enhancing social and cognitive development. The data also show that, over 2,000 jobs associated with the Head Start/Early Head Start program would be lost, as well as, and nearly 700 classrooms from current enrollment levels. The impact of Child Care Development Block grants is equally disastrous. Some 21,000 Florida children are at risk of losing child care support under the Childcare Development Block grant, if the cuts go through.
The Pell Grant program provides grants to low- and moderate-income undergraduate students to help pay for college. Pell Grants also help low-income working adults return to school to improve their skills. The House proposal would reduce funding for Pell Grants by approximately $5.7 billion or 24 percent, and would reduce the maximum discretionary Pell Grant award by $845 (from $4,860 to $4,015), or 17.4 percent. These cuts would impact over 550,000 Florida students and will likely result in funding cuts to Florida of $368 million.
The House bill would not fund youth activities under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) this year. The WIA, which provides funds to states to provide job training, job search and other employment assistance for low-income adults and workers who jobs have been eliminated, if the cuts go through, will affect about 15,000 Florida youths who will no longer be served.
According to the CLC data, the impact of selected K-12 programs would bring about cuts to the tune of $57 million and $45 million in education for the disadvantaged and school improvement, respectively.
With mental health and substance abuse programs already underfunded, Mental Health Services Block grants are a major source of funding to help state and local government health systems serve adults and children at risk or experiencing mental illness. If the Republicans have their way however, Florida could expect to see cuts of $1.7 million and $6.3 million respectively, in their Community Mental Health Services Block grant and Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block grant.
The bottom line is, millions of American babies, children and youths will be sicker, hungrier, colder, less prepared to succeed in school, more likely to miss out on college, and harder pressed to find gainful employment if Congress embraces the CR budget cuts, CLC said in a statement.
