50 percent is a big number

On May 31, 2009, the Illinois General  Assembly passed a partial budget  which created a $9.2 billion funding gap which is now forcing draconian cuts in fundamental state services.

Severe cuts in the State human services budget will have serious adverse consequences for local governments, public safety agencies, the courts and corrections.   Slashing funding for mental health services, addiction prevention and treatment programs, and youth services will result in less prevention, more crime, more trials, additional probation caseloads and higher detention and incarceration rates. (IL NASW)

The state’s proposed budget is set to cut 50% in funding for social services, starting in just two weeks. On a personal level, I’ve been very lucky. I get to wait out the current financial chaos and budget cuts via a (government financed) veteran’s tuition waiver for graduate school at a (government funded) university, while accumulating thousands in (government subsidized) loans. (I wonder if people think i’m a ‘deadbeat’ too for living on government assistance??)

But my internship is transforming the ridiculous numbers and statistics I keep reading about into faces and names. I have the blessing to meet mothers that are trying to fight the cyclical poverty they grew up in and maintain employment, yet because of state budget cuts, their children will soon have no day care and they’ll be forced to leave their (crappy, low-paying, and demeaning) jobs. Parents that are genuinely good parents, but aren’t poor enough to qualify for assistance, yet are so stressed to put food on the table that they severely beat each other. Children that are exposed to severe trauma, yet their counselors are being fired as they’re shifted around the system.  Mothers that want to be in their child’s life, but can’t without being on proper medication, of which they can’t get because budget cuts have placed them on long waiting lists to get their meds refilled. Social workers that have dedicated decades of their lives to helping people (on ridiculously low pay) that are being fired on a two-week notice.

How are we supposed to protect children from abuse and neglect with caseloads of 50 (as opposed to the 15 they have now–which is still way too much)? What are we going to do with the thousands of mentally ill or physically disabled that will soon have no place to live? Too bad homeless shelters are already too crowded for us to just throw them there. Do we think that incarceration, teen pregnancy, and substance abuse rates will just hold steady while we cut practically every community based prevention program out there?

Ugh. I’d really like to rant for hours about how misunderstood, improperly financed, and misdirected funding of social services really is, but your time would better be put to use contacting  your local legislator about the absurdity of cutting 50% of the budget for social services:)