This time it's the dynamic duo, Judges Cindy Lederman and Jeri Beth Cohen, and they apparently think it's a bad idea to further defund the Guardian Ad Litem program:
If Florida House budget proposal 2009 passes, the most vulnerable children are at risk of losing their voice in court. This proposal recommends a 23-percent cut -- $7.6 million -- in the GAL budget. If passed, it will force the program to substantially reduce the indispensable support system upon which volunteer advocates rely. About 5,700 victims of abuse, abandonment and neglect (18 percent of the total number of children in care) will lose their GAL. This means their voices in court will go silent, and judges will lose an indispensable resource in making sound, therapeutic decisions.
Not one organization involved in child welfare supports the cut, including the Department of Children & Families, Florida's Children First and The Children's Campaign. The Florida Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges -- 48 juvenile-court judges from Pensacola to Miami -- is not in favor of cutting one penny from the GAL budget, let alone by $7.6 million.
Although the Legislature mandates a GAL for every child, that has not been achieved because of lack of funding. By drastically defunding an underfunded mandate, the Legislature is breaking faith with the children it promised to care for and protect.
Good letter, but like I always say don't send it to the Herald, which will print it alongside various rantings by its well-informed readers and that cranky old guy Abe Simpson.
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