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Reagan never mentions that 70% of the "welfare cheaters" he is cutting off as he "prunes non-essential programs" are children. He said, "Like F. D. R. may I say I am not trying to destroy what is best in our system of humane, free government." How dare this man compare himself to the architect of the social programs he is destroying?

He did not say that he is denying most of the half a million children
trapped in our out-of-home-care system the opportunity to have a family
of their own when he recommends repealing of PL 96-272, the Child
Welfare and Adoption Assistance Act of 1980.

He didn't mention that he is forcing many already burdened parents of
handicapped children to pay for schooling to meet their children's
needs for special education by having cut funding for the education of
the handicapped by 29.6% since taking office, and by asking for a 19%
further cut in 1983.

He did not say that since taking office, he has cut Child Abuse State
Grants by 37.8%---programs that protect helpless children from parents
who take their anger out on them; bruise, bloody and batter them; and
often kill them. The solution has been left, apparently, up to Nancy
Reagan, who is going around the country joining child abuse councils
so that they will feel better about being rendered impotent and de-funded
by her husband.

He didn't mention that even the most successful federal program for
children, Head Start, will suffer when inflationary factors are taken
into consideration---not forgetting the 51% cut he has made in
Compensatory Education funding, or $6017.1 million cut from all education.

Can anyone consider these programs non-essential?

For this, you offer an award?

Expecting volunteers, private enterprise, and state and local governments to leap up, shouting, "I'll do it!"---clamoring to pick up the social responsibilities dropped by the federal government---is like expecting to fund your child's college education out of donations from the tooth fairy. Already struggling to make ends meet, state and local governments stand to lose more than

$ 27 billion as a result of the reductions in federal taxes from fiscal year 1981 to 1986. They will be forced to stop linking their own tax structure to federal tax amounts and to increase the burden on tax payers through higher state and local taxes.

* When the 535,000 jobs which were to be funded by CETA Public Service
Employment were eliminated by Reagan, only one third of those unemployed
found jobs immediately, and one year later, another third were still
out of work. So much for private industry's commitment to picking up
the gauntlet, even in their area of expertise, providing jobs. How much
sorrier will their performance be in child welfare?

* Merely threatening
to repeal the Education for All Handicapped
Children Act stimulated 13 states to begin to repeal or substantially
weaken their own state special education laws. The states cannot be
relied upon to protect children by replacing the lost federal funds,
or by maintaining even present standards of quality of service.

The President has not looked at the hands outstretched in Watts, in East Los Angeles, in Appalachia or in Harlem, or he couldn't have stated, "Government can't properly substitute for the helping hand of neighbor to neighbor." In these low income areas there are a few helping hands from one to another, but the resources, power, job capabilities and transportation do not exist. The adults are asking for enough of a boost up, so that they can make it on their own. The children are wishing they had more to eat; wondering whether the clean houses they've seen in pictures and on television exist; wishing they weren't so bored in school, that they could learn something; and wishing that their care-taker (mom, dad, aunt or foster parent) cared more about them. They won't understand when they must continue to wear out-grown, holey clothes because their mom has had to quit her job and go on welfare full-time because changes in AFDC will cause her to lose more benefits than she would gain from her job. What good is a mere "helping hand" in the face of such purposeful, systematic degradation?

How could we dream of leading the world to peaceful co-existence in the years to come, when we are publicly acknowledging the man responsible for federal abuse of our children, our nation's future, in a positive way, rather than by criticism? It will cost the tax payers of the future billions of dollars to pay for the damage caused by this administration---in increased institutional and jail costs and in larger numbers dependent on welfare and jobless because they lacked adequate education and training.

OUTRAGE is the only word to describe the awarding of the Charles Evans Hughes medal to the master destroyer of social services---children's services in particular---President Reagan. Even admitting a mistake will not be enough. THE AWARD MUST BE RESCINDED BY THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS, IMMEDIATELY.

Sincerely,

Ratherin's Miller

Katherine Miller

26. MM

Dr. David G. Miller

Cc:

New York Times

Los Angeles Times

Children's Defense Fund

North American Council on Adoptable Children

California Children's Lobby

President Reagan

David Stockman

Jules Sandford, attorney

All statistics can be verified in our resource:

A Children's Defense Budget: An Analysis of the President's Budget and
Children, 1982, Children's Defense Fund

STATEMENT OF THE CHILD ADVOCACY WORKING GROUP, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

The Child Advocacy Working Group of the National Council of Churches is pleased that you have given us the opportunity to address the urgent needs of children and their families in the face of devastating budget cuts, both realized and projected, in programs affecting our children.

The Child Advocacy Working Group with its focus on society's obligation to the "child in our midst" is made up of representatives from ten major national denominations (Protestant and Orthodox), and the agencies within those communions, which share a common commitment to identify and change the social conditions which harm children and their families.

As child advocates, we know that a healthy economy is important to family stability and the well-being of the poor in our society. Our deep concern, however, is that this Administration's budget is asking the poorest and most vulnerable our children to sacrifice unfairly. At the same time deep and painful cuts are made in current programs which provide daily bread, basic health care, day care for the working poor, special care for the handicapped child, and the protection of children from cruel abuse and neglect the most affluent individuals and institutions receive tax benefits and loopholes and our defense expenditures have increased (for fiscal year 1982) by $32 billion.

In 1953 Dwight David Eisenhower warned:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched every rocket fired
.a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those
who are cold and are not clothed."

signifies.

"This world in arms is not spending money alone. .It is spending
the sweat of its laborers, genius of its scientists, the HOPES OF
ITS CHILDREN."

The Fiscal year 1982 budget blatantly illustrates this theft where money was taken from needy children while military expenditures, even non-essential ones related to national defense, went untouched. For example:

President Reagan proposed an additional $3 million cut in the
childhood immunization program for FY 1982 which would eliminate
immunizations for 75,000 children at risk. In FY 1983 he plans
to cut $2 million more. The Defense Department spends $1.4 million
on shots and other veterinary services for the pets of military
personnel. Additional millions are spent on the transportation of
military pets when personnel are transferred. If the veterinary
benefits for military pets were eliminated, 35,000 low income

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children could be immunized instead.

For FY 1981 and FY 1982, President Reagan rescinded and proposed
cutting a total of $23.9 million from the Preschool Incentive Grants
for handicapped children which serves more than a quarter of a million
handicapped 3 to 6 year olds. In FY 1983 he is proposing to
effectively eliminate the program through block grant and further cuts.
These children are given early instruction in learning and communication
skills so that they will be able to benefit from later schooling. The
General Accounting Office has estimated that almost half of all messages
sent over Defense Department teletype machines are routine, non-priority
messages better sent by mail at a savings which would total $20 million
a year. The excess teletype machines could be donated to programs for
deaf children, thus further increasing savings.

It is our urgent request that not another dime be taken away from programs for the poor, homeless and handicapped children and their families. Rather, we urge the maintenance of those current programs for children which are demonstrably costeffective and successful and which are designed to meet basic survival needs and ensure opportunities for the most vulnerable children in our society.

In the past year, President Reagan's promise to get people working to decrease dependency and insure basic well-being for Americans has resulted in the following dismal statistics:

**There are one and one-half million more Americans out of work today than a year ago.

**Three and one-half million more Americans have fallen below the
poverty level in the last year. One million are children.
**Tens of thousands more people have gone on welfare and food stamps
as a result of Reagan jobs, child care cuts, and work disincentives.
**Many AFDC mothers with jobs will quit and go on welfare full-time
because of AFDC changes which will cause them to lose more benefits
than they would gain from a job. This includes Medicaid for their
children.

**800,000 children of working mothers are expected to be cut off AFDC
as a result of FY 1982 cuts.

The sad fact is that when programs and supports are taken away from the most vulnerable, there is a ripple effect. Child care programs, for example, serving mixed populations lose subsidy for the working poor, experience a ceiling on AFDC child care, lose staff paid through CETA and are forced to close their doors. Middle class working families, therefore, lose their child care support. The numbers of latch-key children increases. Welfare departments report increases in child abuse and neglect calls. The quality of life in the entire community is damaged. Most affected, of course, are those children living in poor, working families or whose parents are in school and training, trying to get the skills to break the cycle of welfare dependency.

The President has urged the voluntary sector, such as the churches, to fill in the service gaps left by these budget cuts. We, as Orthodox and Protestant churches on the Child Advocacy Working Group, welcome this opportunity to go to the limits to

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provide these services. There is no way, however, even with the highest ethical commitment and motivation that the churches can substitute for the government in providing basic subsidies and services to those of our citizens who can not exist without them. We know this situation best, because we represent those churches across the nation.

Thank you for your attention and concern. The Child Advocacy Working Group looks forward to further opportunity to share these concerns and will watch with great interest your efforts to speak to these budget issues which so critically effect "the least of these", our children.