Bob Ehrlich And Child Advocates Discuss Threats To Services For At Risk Youths

Child Advocates Criticize State Moves to Centralize Control and Cut Funds for At-Risk Kids

ROCKVILLE -- Bob Ehrlich met with parents, educators, and family advocates who expressed growing concerns about what they consider emerging threats to state services for Maryland’s at-risk children. Ehrlich pledged that, as Governor, he will advocate for decentralized decision-making authority to ensure local communities have greater say in how to meet the needs of vulnerable children and families in their communities.

The O’Malley Administration proposed this year to strip local management boards, or LMBs, of decision-making authority and to drastically cut their funding. In Montgomery County, for instance, the O’Malley Administration’s approach would have wiped out 35 after-school programs serving 1,000 children and cut eighty jobs, according to press reports.*

“Those who know our children best – parents, advocates, and caregivers – have made clear that services for at-risk kids are declining at an alarming rate,” said Ehrlich. “As Governor, I will get Maryland’s child services working again. I will explore ways to ensure the front line workers who interact with kids every day have a voice in how we deliver positive results for children and families. Our goal is to combat teen pregnancy, gang violence, substance abuse, and other threats our kid face in a cost-effective way. Local advocates must play a central role in that effort.”

For decades, Maryland addressed the needs of troubled children and families through a decentralized network of Local Management Boards (LMBs). The O’Malley Administration has sought to strip LMBs of decision-making authority and to cut funding for caregivers, hindering the ability to provide vulnerable kids high standards of care.

Source: The Washington Examiner, February 19, 2010, “Local youth advocates fight Maryland agency for funding control.”