By KHI News Service, April 27, 2011
TOPEKA — A coalition of advocacy groups are campaigning to call legislators’ attention to the effects of proposed spending cuts on education and social services.
"We believe we’re rapidly approaching – or we’re already at – a point where people are feeling the impact of what’s been happening," said Mark Desetti, a lobbyist with the Kansas-National Education Association and a spokesman for Kansans for Quality Communities. "We really feel that the quality of life of Kansas is at risk."
The campaign, called "Save Our State," is scheduled to be announced at a press conference Thursday at the Statehouse.
"We’ll be talking about the fact that we’re already seeing class sizes increasing and teachers being given their pink slips," Desetti said. "We’re seeing people with disabilities being put on waiting lists or having their services cut back dramatically or losing them entirely. This is real."
Kansans for Quality Communities includes the KNEA, American Federation of Teachers, Kansas Association of School Boards, Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas, Interhab, Statewide Independent Living Council of Kansas, National Alliance on Mental Illness-Kansas, Oral Health Kansas, Kansas Citizens for the Arts, Kansas Area Agencies on Aging Association, and the Big Tent Coalition.
As in each of the past few years, organized protests by people with disabilities are expected at the Statehouse during the veto session.
"We’ll have about 20 people there on Thursday," said Summer Lugwig, a case manager at the Resource Center for Independent Living in Osage City. "We’ll be letting legislators know that people’s lives are being impacted. They’re not just numbers in a budget."
Lugwig gave as an example a man with whom she has been working. His legs have been amputated and he has limited use of his hands.
"Technically, he quadriplegic," she said. "He’s on Medicaid, so he’s poor. He’s been on the HCBS (home and community based services) waiting list for more than a year. He has no family to speak of. His nutrition is terrible because he can’t cook and he doesn’t have anybody to take him grocery shopping," Ludwig said.
The man, she said, lives on snack foods and cold cuts.
"He could be getting Meals on Wheels, but he’d have to pay for them. He has no money," Ludwig said. "He could get them for free if he was on the HCBS waiver, but he can’t get on. He’s on the waiting list."