Jeb Bush speaks with passion and authority when he says cutting the budget of Healthy Families Florida would be devastating. After all, it was Bush who learned of the program's early achievements and championed its statewide expansion long before he was elected.
But state lawmakers don't have to take Bush's word for it. There are plenty of researchers and grateful parents who could tell them that cutting the nationally praised home-visitation program would be foolish in more ways than one.
For the first time in years, the House and Senate are proposing to slash the program's $28.4-million budget, by $15-million and $7-million, respectively. That proposal drew an angry response from Bush.
"We should be discarding the things that don't work and expanding the things that do," he told reporters last week. "For some odd reason that has yet to be explained to me, the Legislature ... didn't get this right."
Bush has proof to back up his passion. He could cite the findings reached by Williams, Stern & Associates, a Miami-based firm that has studied Healthy Families every year since 1999:
"HFF has had a positive impact on preventing child maltreatment."
"HFF positively affected self-sufficiency."
"The overwhelming majority of participants agree that . . . their patience with children and ability to cope with stress have improved."
With success like this, lawmakers should be increasing Healthy Families' funding, not cutting it. Even at current spending levels, the program cannot serve all families in need. In many counties, services are limited to a few zip codes. In fourteen counties, no program exists at all.
Healthy Families has a documented and impressive record of preventing abuse and building parental skills. It saves money, and it saves lives. If lawmakers don't believe that, they can ask mothers such as New Port Richey's Shannon Kaltenbronn, who appeared with Bush last week. A high-school dropout and drug addict when she became pregnant, Kaltenbronn is now off drugs and working at a job while striving to get her GED.
She's become a good mother, with the help of Healthy Families.
"Programs like this give you hope," the 27-year-old said.
Bush is not the only one who can't understand why lawmakers would want to take that away.
