Newsletters
Maine Children's Alliance Newsletter 02/07/06
Kids CountOmbudsman's Report
Federal Update
Board of Directors
122 Legislature
Kids Count
KIDS COUNT DAY AT THE LEGISLATURE
The 2006 Kids Count Data Book will be released on February 28, 2006. Join us for Kids Count Day at the Legislature and help us advocate for children! We will meet in the far room of the cafeteria in the Burton Cross building for breakfast from 8:30 until 9:30. During breakfast, we will review the most important findings in the data book, and provide a brief training for those who wish to provide information to their legislators. We will help you understand the data and explain it to your legislator, if you wish. You will how this data can guide sound policy for Maine's children and families.
Call the Maine Children's Alliance at 623-1868 if you would like to attend the breakfast. We will assist you in arranging a meeting with your Representative and Senator on that day.
NEW IN 2006: KIDS COUNT OUTREACH PROGRAM
In order to strengthen our voice for children, the Maine Children's Alliance has created a new community organizing program. Working with data and the principles of advocacy, MCA and consultant Gail Chase can provide training and ongoing support to help you frame your message, deliver information and work collaboratively to help decision makers—whether they be your local school board members or your State representative—to develop sound policy.
For more information contact Gail Chase at gchase@uninets.net.
2005 Ombudsman's Report
OMBUDSMAN REPORTS PROGRESS—CHILD PROTECTION, FAMILY REUNIFICATION ARE MAJOR AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT
In his third annual report, Maine's Child Welfare Services Ombudsman says that the State of Maine is making progress toward its goals in revamping a child protective system that had previously been the subject of widespread complaints. "Maine is experiencing a sea change in its child welfare system," said Ombudsman G. Dean Crocker, in summarizing his findings in the report for 2005. "Maine has fewer children in state custody and more children being supported in their homes. This is a better arrangement for children and their families, who benefit from this support and stability, and for the State, which has fewer expensive out-of-home placements."
The report describes recommendations made in the 2004 report, and the State's response. It says that training and supervision are being provided to "acknowledge family and parent strengths while ensuring the safety and well-being of children." The Ombudsman also finds that the Office and Child and Family Services is increasingly involving children's relatives in providing care when their parents cannot.
More information about the Ombudsman, and copies of the report, can be found on the web at: http://www.mainechildrensalliance.org/am/publish/ombudsman.shtml
Federal Update:
When we last surveyed the Congressional budget situation, there seemed some hope of turning back the tide of anti-child and anti-family provisions. Those hopes have not been borne out, however. The House adopted an unfavorable conference report, 216-214.
In the Senate, Vice President Dick Cheney returned from abroad to cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the conference report, after five Republicans - including Maine's two senators - joined 44 Democrats and one independent in opposition. These were difficult votes and we owe a debt of gratitude to our delegations in both houses, and particularly to Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins in the Senate.
The budget bill is not yet law. The House still needs to vote on minor changes the Senate made in the legislation. Stopping the bill at this point is a long shot, but one that must still be pursued and the vote will be on February 1, 2006.
We can take comfort in the performance of the Maine delegation, which unanimously opposed the final budget, and fought against its worst provisions throughout 2005.
The legislation that may now become final is not nearly as damaging to children's programs as it might have been although it has some very significant problems for children and families.
Starting with the presentation of the President's budget in January, we knew we would be on the defensive. The misuse of the "reconciliation" process, invented in the 1990s to help reduce a mammoth federal deficit, made things considerably more difficult and complex. Rather than pairing budget cuts and tax increases, as Congress had done 10 years ago, Congress used tax cuts to force greater spending cuts, including in such statutory programs as Medicaid that required Congress to abrogate its existing commitments to the states.
Through the work of groups like the Maine Children's Alliance and its allies in Maine and in Washington D.C., many poorly devised provisions of the budgets bills were eliminated or revised. Yet the result is not anything we can be happy about.
In some respects, the conference report is even worse, in its welfare-to-work aspects, than the House bill we were so concerned about earlier. Now that we have had time to actually review the 744-page conference report, which as usual went unread by the members of Congress who had to vote on it, the scale of the difficulties for children's programs is clearer.
The conference report dramatically increases work requirements for parents to unrealistic levels, and it provides an almost insignificant amount in child care subsidies for those parents who will be working longer hours to gain assistance. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the tighter work requirements will create a need for $11 billion in additional child care, while the bill provides just $1 billion in new funding.
To see how unrealistic the work requirements are, consider the rules for poor, but working two-parent households. To receive any TANF benefits, both parents must work 35 hours a week every month - even though we know parents must sometimes stay home because they are ill or must care for a sick child. If they do this more than a day or two, they may lose their benefits. This disincentive to marriage is particularly ironic because other provisions of the bill are designed to encourage parents to marry.
States will also lose flexibility on meeting work requirements. Some states, including Maine, have given work credits for attending post-secondary schooling. Our state's successful Parents as Scholars program has been shown to increase earnings and success in the work force, and thus help children who live in those families. Programs like Parents as Scholars may now lack federal support under the terms of the conference report.
Although many senators made a firm commitment not to allow Medicaid cuts in the final bill, the conference report does make reductions of nearly $10 billion over five years, and perhaps three times that amount in the following five years. Most of the "savings" in the Medicaid budget, the CBO finds, will come because poor families are unable to meet the required co-pays and will not be able to obtain services. While few would deny the need to contain health care costs, these barriers to health care for the poor will do nothing to meet the goal of cost containment. It will ensure that poor children and their parents will have health problems that will be more severe and more expensive to treat by the time they appear at emergency rooms to receive charity care.
It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the welfare and health care provisions of the conference budget bill are almost deliberately punitive, particularly since good alternatives were available.
Sen. Snowe, for instance, urged that instead of cutting Medicaid services, Congress instead reduce the subsidies given to private insurance plans to offer the Medicare drug benefits. Since a bewildering variety of drug plans - 40 in all - are currently being offered to seniors, it's clear the subsidies were not necessary. Instead, Medicare is forced to pay top prices for prescriptions, while offering additional subsidies to private companies with taxpayer dollars. Olympia Snowe's plan was common sense, but it did not prevail.
We did win some victories. Sen. Snowe single-handedly forced negotiators to drop some of the future tax cuts from the bill. This was significant because, under the reconciliation rules, scaling back the tax cuts might also have meant that the spending cuts were not as deep. The total reconciliation package now cuts $40 billion in spending, rather than the $50 billion that seemed inevitable a few months earlier. Other estimates put this tax cut at over $90 billion so it is clear that the budget cuts will not offset the tax cuts and not lead to deficit reductions.
There were other positive changes. There are no cuts to the Food Stamps program in the conference report. Alarming cuts in child support enforcement funding for the states were scaled back, but they did not disappear.
Advocates for children and families must view Congress' work over the past year without a strong sense of disappointment. We did succeed in focusing public attention on what was happening. Our hope is that there will be a strong national voice that holds Congress accountable for the policy decisions made this year and there will major improvements either in the next session or the next Congress.
New Board members at the Maine Children's Alliance
We are happy to welcome Linda McGill, Sean Yardley, Chris Stenberg and Lee Umphrey as the newest members of the MCA Board of Directors. Linda McGill's biography is included in this newsletter; we will introduce the other new members in subsequent newsletters. To read Linda's biography, please click here.
122nd Legislature, Second Regular Session
Despite the Legislature's efforts to complete its work in the First Regular Session, several important bills have been carried over. In addition, some Legislators have received permission to introduce new legislation this session, and Executive Branch departments have submitted legislative requests. This is likely to be a busy and interesting session. Here are some of the bills that the Maine Children's Alliance is following.
LD 1772, AN ACT TO IMPROVE EARLY CHILDHOOD SPECIAL EDUCATION
This bill consolidates and reorganizes the delivery of early childhood special education services. During a transition period from 2006-2008, a public instrumentality is created to coordinate the provision of early education. It eliminates the current form of Child Developmental Services, and empowers school districts to provide services as early childhood education, or to contract for those services.
LD 1790, AN ACT CONCERNING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CUTS IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES
This is a concept draft that presently has no language. It was designed to create an alternative to LD 1772.
LD 1936, AN ACT TO INCLUDE DENTAL SCREENING WITH OTHER PRESCHOOL TESTING FOR MAINE'S CHILDREN
This bill would add dental screenings to the hearing and vision screenings given to children before they start school.
LD 1954, AN ACT TO INVEST IN THE FUTURE OF MAINE CITIZENS
This bill would establish resources to improve the health, well-being, education and economic security of Maine citizens by enhancing and expanding early education opportunities, after-school initiatives, physical education programs and access to higher education scholarships.
Below are other bills that we are following, with links. Once you have opened the link, click on "Bill Text and Other Docs" for the text of the bill; click on "Committee Info" for dates and times of public hearings and work sessions, to find out if the bill has been reported out of Committee, and how the Committee voted on it.
LD 1778, An Act to Protect Children from Contact with Convicted Sex Offenders http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280019925
LD 1766, An Act To Further the Implementation of the Essential Programs and Services Funding Model
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280019903
LD 1887, An Act To Update Licensing and Certification Requirements for Child Care Facilities and Family Child Care Providers
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280019969
LD 1771, An Act To Amend the Criminal Code and Various Provisions Related to Juveniles
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280019909
LD 1311, An Act To Preserve the Integrity of the Fund for a Healthy Maine
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280016761
LD 1420, An Act To Establish a Maternal and Infant Death Review Panel
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280016778
LD 1555, An Act To Improve Quality, Effectiveness and Efficiency in the Department of Health and Human Services
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280017198
LD 1526, An Act To Enact the Uniform Parentage Act and Conforming Amendments and Additional Amendments to Laws Concerning Probate, Adoption, Child Support, Child Protection and Other Family Law Issues
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280017086
LD 151, An Act to Improve the Delivery of Maine's Mental Health Services
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280014758
LD 1757, An Act To Improve the MaineCare Program
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280019867
LD 1958, An Act To Create a Children's Education Advocate
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280020100
LD 1755, An Act To Extend Tuition Waivers to Persons Who Have Resided in Foster Care or Subsidized Adoptive Care or Who Have Subsidized Guardians
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280019862
Maine Children's Alliance, 303 State Street, Augusta, Maine 04330 v. (207) 623-1868 f. (207) 626-3302
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