This is from the Shaffer Report (a newsletter that compilies news relating
to Autism) ed 2/27/03
Thought you might be interested:
US Trend: States Target Disabled over Bleak Budgets
Passing Burden Onto Disabled Kids
http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0227montini27.html
During times of billion-dollar budget deficits, children are red ink.
Children can be subtracted. Particularly children whom we rarely see or turn
away from when we do. Children with cerebral palsy. Children with autism.
Children with Down syndrome. Children for whom one guardian angel is not
enough, who require therapists and caseworkers and teachers with special
skills. Children who in times of billion-dollar budget deficits are red ink.
On Friday their parents will bring some of these children to the
Arizona state Capitol. Some of them will arrive in vans with devices
attached to the side that can lift the wheelchairs the children require.
Some will bring children whose disabilities are less obvious but no less
devastating.
The parents will bring their children to the Capitol tomorrow because
they are afraid that the men and women who run state government see their
little boys and little girls only as numbers on a spreadsheet. Which can be
subtracted.
"There is in this state a wonderful network of parents whose children
must deal with disabilities of all sorts," says Theresa Cutler, whose
4-year-old son Paul has autism. "Right now, the proposed cuts in programs to
DDD (Department of Developmental Disabilities) would simply devastate those
families. And, we think, it would harm the state even worse in the long run.
Caring for children is one thing. Denying those children care, however,
means you're going to have to care for them as adults, and that is much more
costly."
One proposal has the state discontinuing services for a family with a
total income over $40,000. Those who make less would be required to pay at
levels ranging up to 20 percent of their salaries. Jessica Irwin is a
therapist with more than 50 clients, none of whom would qualify for benefits
under such a plan.
"It's insane," she says. "Working parents would have to quit jobs in
order to care for children. That means fewer taxes for the state. Also,
there would be no therapy because they couldn't afford it on their own. Some
of these parents actually may have to look into the possibility of turning
over guardianship of their children to the state in order to have the child
institutionalized."
Every politician in the state will tell you that his or her top
priority is children, as it should be. On Friday a group of parents will
bring their children to the Capitol as a way of reminding them of that
pledge. There will be hearings soon in the Appropriations Committee of the
state House and Senate to discuss how much must be cut from the state
budget. The accountants went through line by line and have made
recommendations for severe reductions. It is a business where warm blood is
transfused with cold red ink.
"We should remember that the state only pays a third of the cost in
most of these cases," Theresa Cutler says. "The federal government
contributes the rest. Deep cuts will only throw away all that federal money.
And for what? We estimate it costs about $14,000 to treat a child for a
year, but $55,000 to care for an adult. Shouldn't the state be more
interested in my son becoming a taxpayer some time down the road, rather
than an institutionalized adult?"
They will bring their children to the Capitol on Friday, and all those
who see them will thank their lucky stars and rush home that night in order
to give an extra hug to their happy, healthy kids. If the legislators look
and listen, they will find out that children who so cruelly must face the
challenges of genetics and disease can grow into happy, productive adults.
And we'll learn something, too. Depending on what the people in power
eventually decide, we'll learn which of the two groups at the Capitol, the
children or the politicians, actually are developmentally disabled.
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