Bush's budget to cut vital programs

George Bush's 2009 budget proposal continues its long-standing pattern of freezes or cuts to childcare and early education programs.

• The budget calls for the elimination of all funding for Reading Is Fundamental, which distributes free books to millions of underprivileged children yearly. RIF has been funded by Congress and six administrations, without interruption, since 1975.

• The budget would freeze funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, which would eliminate childcare assistance for about 200,000 low-income children and their families.

• The $149 million proposed for Heat Start will not even cover inflation and, as a result, 13,000 fewer low-income infants, toddlers and preschoolers will be able to attend these programs.

• The 21st Century Community Learning Centers after-school program would be cut by $281 million (over 25 percent), resulting in hundreds of thousands of low-income children losing vital after-school support.

• Funds would be frozen for The Grants for Infants and Families and the Preschool Grants programs, which provide crucial early intervention and education services to young children with disabilities.

Underprivileged children are already deprived of the physical and material comforts the majority of us enjoy -- now George Bush wants to take these valuable supports away from them as well.

Apparently, when George Bush said "No child left behind," he meant "No child 'of privilege' left behind."

Please contact your members of Congress and ask them to fully fund these vital programs.

Lori Degman | Vernon Hills