March 10, 2011 | Read Time: 2 minutes
WASHINGTON–
A coalition of youth charities rallied here on Wednesday to protest billions of dollars in proposed federal budget cuts to youth and education programs, including Head Start, Pell Grants, and Community Services Health Block grants.
The Children’s Leadership Council, which unites 57 organizations that provide services to young people, brought together advocates to protest proposed spending cuts that, if approved, would represent the largest loss of federal funding for youth organizations in nearly 50 years, Matthew Melmed, the group’s chairman and executive director of the youth charity Zero to Three, told a news conference.
The Republican-led House has proposed $61-billion in budget cuts for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, in an effort to reduce federal spending in the face of growing deficits. Senate Democrats have offered a competing plan that offers fewer cuts. The full Senate failed to approve either plan in votes on Wednesday.
While many groups that represent nonprofits that would be affected by the House legislation have been largely silent about the plan, the Children’s Leadership Council said the impact on youth charities would be so severe that they need to speak out.
Included in the proposal are more than $1-billion in cuts to Head Start, another $5.7-billion in cuts to the Pell Grant program for low- and moderate-income college students, and $50-million to the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant Program, which provides health services to children and mothers.
The plan would also reduce by more than $$340-million the amount of money provided to help address poverty through Community Services Block Grants.
Mr. Melmed said the proposal would also cut off access to job training programs for more than 250,000 people through the Workforce Investment Act’s youth services program.
“I have never seen a more ruthless and shortsighted proposal,” said Michael Petit, president of Every Child Matters, in Washington.
Mr. Petit says his organization is nonpartisan but he felt compelled to speak out against the proposed cuts because he believes that “children should not be paying for tax cuts for America’s wealthiest people.”
