 | Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177 |
The problem with parents today is that we tend to focus too much of our time on teaching our children to play nicely and modeling good behavior. Maybe our kids would be better served if we acted up a little, teaching them about their rights to assembly and to redress grievances to our government.
Playing nicely hasn’t gotten children in this state – or their parents – much of anywhere. That is, unless you consider it OK for thousands – one estimate is 17,000 – of children with disabilities to have to wait for state services.
One parent, posting on a Web site for families of children with disabilities, told another parent this:
“I hope someone else has a different answer for you, but from what I have experienced, the Med(icaid) Waiver is something you sign up for and then never hear from again. There is a 30-something year waiting list for services. Our children will all be grown before their turn comes up.”
The Medicaid Waiver program provides basic services to the elderly, the mentally ill and persons with disabilities. It is federal funded, but requires a state match.
This week, I’ll be involved with two events I hope you’ll consider attending:
The first is The Children's Campaign's Pasta with a Purpose dinner and town-hall meeting. The dinner is at 4:30 p.m., and the town-hall meeting starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Bethel AME Church, 501 W. Orange Ave. The pasta and admission are free, and the discussion, I hope, will be lively.
The second event is a fundraiser for students at Gretchen Everhart School called “Climb to Success” where I’m the guest speaker. The event is from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Los Robles Women’s Club, 1513 Cristobal Drive, Tallahassee. It costs $10 to get in and features light food and a silent auction with excellent items, including a stay at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C., along with other incredible items.
The second event illustrates what the first event is all about. The Gretchen event is an attempt by parents to “meet the needs of students when other funding is not available.” In this case, parents simply want to buy equipment that would allow disabled children to use the pool, which provides incredible therapy. They also would like to build a high school activity area to help students “develop social skills that are appropriate.”
It makes you wonder about how money is available to buy buildings we don’t need and airplane hangars that benefit a politician’s friend, but parents have to hold fundraisers on top of paying taxes to get basic educational equipment for their children.
The Tuesday town-hall meeting will talk about advocacy. But it’s not for professional advocates alone. It’s about hearing from parents and others who love children who think we can do better than cutting funding for the one program we know makes a difference: mentoring students.
The Children’s Campaign Inc. is an organization devoted to making children's issues a legislative priority. It is concerned about issues impacting all children and has held events like this around the state to raise awareness.
The conversation will be about the status of children – all children. The statistics are overwhelming.
For example: There are currently 165,182 children in the state’s school readiness program. Last year, there were 247,349 served. By the end of the fiscal year, that number is likely to be served again.
That would still leave 608,651 children who are eligible based on income and other state requirements without services.
The Children’s Campaign has hosted similar events in other Florida cities with great success. I hope they’ll get a good turnout here, too. The forum will also be Web cast live on Tallahassee.com.
To me, this is not about raising taxes, but investing in children instead of wasting our tax investments on things we can do without.
As a parent, that's a fight worth getting into.
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