Sacramento, CA – Dozens of young people, parents, social workers and child welfare advocates gathered at the Capitol today to demand that $124 million in cuts to programs for foster children and other at-risk youth be reversed before Friday’s conclusion of the legislative session. Noting that the state has assumed responsibility for 75,000 vulnerable children by placing them in foster care, participants in a news conference said deep cuts Schwarzenegger made to more than 50 programs for at-risk youth make him a “deadbeat dad” to foster children who rely on state support.
"These children were removed from their homes and placed into foster care because they were abused and neglected,” former Senate President pro Tempore John Burton said in support of today’s effort. Burton, founder of the John Burton Foundation for Children Without Homes, continued, “The Governor's decision to cut $80 million from the state's child welfare budget is just another form of neglect, one that threatens the well-being of thousands of California children. Like any good parent, it's time for the state to keep its promises."
In signing a package of foster care reforms in 2006, the Governor said, “a society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable,” and promised to “make the foster care system stronger for birth parents, foster parents, and especially our youth.” But advocates pointed out that the Governor’s 11th hour veto directly contradicts this pledge, weakening an already overburdened child welfare system and putting thousands of vulnerable children at risk of abuse and neglect.
“Just two years ago, Gov. Schwarzenegger looked my peers and I in the eye and promised that he would follow through on the state’s responsibility to protect foster youth like us,” said Jayson Carruthers who spent 8 years in foster care in Los Angeles County. “California’s foster youth need the Governor to stand up for us.”
“The transitional support I received when I turned 18 enabled me to succeed, but I know too many youth who won’t make it without that support, “said Nicole Hudley, a former foster youth who was recently emancipated. “By cutting more than 50 critical services for at-risk youth, Gov. Schwarzenegger has not only broken the promise he made to us, he’s put thousands of foster youth in serious danger.”
Gov. Schwarzenegger’s last-minute “blue pencil” vetoes to 50 programs that serve vulnerable youth will put tens of thousands of youth in danger of abuse, delay placement of children in permanent homes or reunification with their families, and mean thousands more children who “age out” of foster care won’t have the transition services they need to avoid homelessness, jail and despair. A detailed list of the impact of the Governor’s cuts on at-risk youth is attached.
If allowed to stand, the Governor’s “blue pencil” cuts would reduce the support for already woefully underfunded programs for at-risk youth by $90 million in state General Fund dollars and would cost another $34 million in federal matching funds.
Organizers of today’s event include the California County Welfare Director's Association, the California State Association of Counties, the John Burton Foundation, California Youth Connection, the California Alliance of Child and Family Services, the Youth Law Center, Service Employees International Union, the Child Abuse Prevention Center and many more.