Parents and children protest state budget deadlock
http://www.sfbayview.com/20070808358/News/Front_Page/Parents_and_children_protest_state_budget_deadlock.html
by Diana Spatz, LIFETIME
Wednesday, 08 August 2007
Low-income children and parents from Oakland and San Francisco held a
press conference at the State Building in Oakland last week to protest
the push by Senate Republicans to cut more than 200,000 poor children
off the welfare rolls to balance the state budget. "Children like me are
targets in the state budget this year," said 13-year-old Jasmine Hain,
POOR Magazine youth scholar and one of the children who will be cut off
public assistance if the Republican senators have their way. "We're
already poor. If they do this to my family, it will be a nightmare."
Poster-sized photos of a baby with a black bull's-eye target on her
diaper drove the protestors' message home. "They're targeting my
children to balance the state budget," said Jasmine's mother, Vivian
Hain, a LIFETIME member, Poor News Network staff writer and CalWORKs
student in Oakland.
The protestors were members of LIFETIME, a statewide organization of
low-income families working to educate policymakers on the impact that
the proposed changes to CalWORKs will have on poor children and their
families. During the press conference, several media outlets covered the
event, while CalWORKs children passed out information on the state
budget crisis to more than 300 visitors to the State Building.
Four-year-old Zosia Scislowski gave her frank assessment of the
situation: "The oppressors are trying to take our welfare."
To break the budget stalemate, the approval of two Senate Republicans is
needed. However, a full month into the budget deadlock, Republican
senators refuse to approve a state spending plan unless it includes an
additional $700 million in tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy.
The proposed tax breaks will be funded by changes to CalWORKs, the state
welfare program, that will push nearly a quarter of a million poor
children off the welfare rolls - and deeper in poverty.
"These proposals are economic abuse of poor children," said Jewnbug
Strohlin, a CalWORKs student at City College of San Francisco active
with Welfare Queens, a project of POOR Magazine in San Francisco. "It's
not right to balance the budget on the backs of poor children."
Under current state welfare rules, CalWORKs parents are cut off welfare
once they reach their five-year lifetime limit or if they fail to meet
stricter welfare to work rules. However, under the state's safety net
program, their children can still receive aid.
Under the proposed changes, if a CalWORKs parent is sanctioned off
welfare, their children will be cut off too. More than 50,000 low-income
children will lose benefits under the proposed "full family sanctions."
In addition, the proposed changes will impose retroactive time limits on
children whose parents have reached their five-year lifetime limit on
welfare, resulting in the immediate termination of nearly 200,000
low-income children from the welfare rolls. Research shows that since
2003, the majority of CalWORKs parents who have reached their time limit
on welfare were working and playing by the rules, but in low-wage,
dead-end jobs not earning enough to "income off" the welfare rolls.
"Families like mine can't afford these cuts," said Dawn Love, a CalWORKs
mother caring for her disabled daughter, while working and attending
Chabot College in Hayward. "Don't punish children because their parents
are poor."
Patricia Arana, an immigrant mother living in Oakland, expressed concern
about full family sanctions. Arana and several other mothers described
being illegally sanctioned due to caseworker error and losing cash
assistance, as well as childcare, counseling and other support services
that enabled them to escape domestic violence, enroll in education and
training programs and hold down jobs.
The sanction caused Arana and her disabled son to lose their housing.
"If not for my boyfriend taking us in, we would have been homeless."
Under full family sanctions, her son would have been illegally
sanctioned, "and my family would have had nothing." After nearly 18
months without cash assistance, Arana's caseworker illegally cut off her
son's MediCal benefits, too. Last week, she won her state appeals and
all benefits to her family were restored.
While the proposed changes to CalWORKs will save the state money in the
short run, research indicates that such measures may cost the state much
more over time. Studies show that after similar measures were adopted in
Texas, the impact on low-income families was severe. The number of
parents on welfare who were working declined by more than 300 percent
while 45 percent of the state's welfare block grant now goes to Child
Protective Services to remove children from their homes.
"When a parent deprives their child of food or shelter, it's called
child abuse. When the government does it, it's called balancing the
budget," said Diana Spatz, executive director of LIFETIME.
LIFETIME encourages everyone to contact their state senator to share
your concerns about the proposed changes to CalWORKs and urge them to
pass a fair budget that values all families - especially supporters in
the following counties:
• Alameda County: Call Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata at his
Sacramento office at (916)651-4009 and his district office at (510)
286-1333.
• Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara or Santa Barbara
Counties: Call Sen. Abel Maldonado at (916) 651-4015.
• Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, San Benito or Northeast Monterey Counties:
Call Sen. Jeff Denham at (916) 651-4012.
• Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura and Kern counties: Call Sen.
George Runner at (916) 651-4017.
To find out who the state senator is that represents your district, go
to www.sen.ca.gov, go to "Senators" on the sidebar and click on "Your
Senator." Meanwhile, check out the Oakland Tribune and the California
Progress Report (californiaprogressreport.com) for coverage of the event.
Contact LIFETIME's East Bay Office at 1880 Fairway Drive, San Leandro,
CA 94577, (510) 352-5160 or their Student Parent Help Line at (888)
404-7726, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots,
you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit http://geds-to-phds.org/.
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....
CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.
every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*
Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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