Passing burden onto disabled kids

Feb. 27, 2003 12:00 AM

During times of billion-dollar budget deficits, children are red ink. Children can be subtracted. Particularly children whom we rarely see or turn away from when we do. Children with cerebral palsy. Children with autism. Children with Down syndrome. Children for whom one guardian angel is not enough, who require therapists and caseworkers and teachers with special skills. Children who in times of billion-dollar budget deficits are red ink.

On Friday their parents will bring some of these children to the state Capitol. Some of them will arrive in vans with devices attached to the side that can lift the wheelchairs the children require. Some will bring children whose disabilities are less obvious but no less devastating.

The parents will bring their children to the Capitol tomorrow because they are afraid that the men and women who run state government see their little boys and little girls only as numbers on a spreadsheet. Which can be subtracted.

"There is in this state a wonderful network of parents whose children must deal with disabilities of all sorts," says Theresa Cutler, whose 4-year-old son Paul has autism. "Right now, the proposed cuts in programs to DDD (Department of Developmental Disabilities) would simply devastate those families. And, we think, it would harm the state even worse in the long run. Caring for children is one thing. Denying those children care, however, means you're going to have to care for them as adults, and that is much more costly."

One proposal has the state discontinuing services for a family with a total income over $40,000. Those who make less would be required to pay at levels ranging up to 20 percent of their salaries. Jessica Irwin is a therapist with more than 50 clients, none of whom would qualify for benefits under such a plan.

"It's insane," she says. "Working parents would have to quit jobs in order to care for children. That means fewer taxes for the state. Also, there would be no therapy because they couldn't afford it on their own. Some of these parents actually may have to look into the possibility of turning over guardianship of their children to the state in order to have the child institutionalized."

Every politician in the state will tell you that his or her top priority is children, as it should be. On Friday a group of parents will bring their children to the Capitol as a way of reminding them of that pledge. There will be hearings soon in the Appropriations Committee of the state House and Senate to discuss how much must be cut from the state budget. The accountants went through line by line and have made recommendations for severe reductions. It is a business where warm blood is transfused with cold red ink.

"We should remember that the state only pays a third of the cost in most of these cases," Theresa Cutler says. "The federal government contributes the rest. Deep cuts will only throw away all that federal money. And for what? We estimate it costs about $14,000 to treat a child for a year, but $55,000 to care for an adult. Shouldn't the state be more interested in my son becoming a taxpayer some time down the road, rather than an institutionalized adult?"

They will bring their children to the Capitol on Friday, and all those who see them will thank their lucky stars and rush home that night in order to give an extra hug to their happy, healthy kids. If the legislators look and listen, they will find out that children who so cruelly must face the challenges of genetics and disease can grow into happy, productive adults. And we'll learn something, too. Depending on what the people in power eventually decide, we'll learn which of the two groups at the Capitol, the children or the politicians, actually are developmentally disabled.



Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8978.