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Printed
on Monday, July 21, 2003
San Jose Mercury News
Foster
Kids' Sex Education Class Cut Off
by
Julie Patel, San Jose Mercury News
A 10-week sex education course that served 800 foster kids each year died quietly this month, another victim of the state's budget crisis.
Unlike the stir created by parents who protest and raise money when legislators propose cutting back on school or day care programs, few rally behind courses like the one at San Jose's Bill Wilson Center, said Sparky Harlan, the center's director.
"They don't see that it affects them. It's not their kids,'' she said. "The kids feel it; society will feel it in the long term when the kids get pregnant or get'' sexually transmitted diseases.
Since 1996, the center's year-round Power Through Choices program has taught foster kids and other at-risk youths about date rape, pregnancy and STD prevention, among other health topics. In the past, California's Office of Family Planning has provided about $100,000 annually to fully fund the program. This year, the office postponed accepting applications from non-profit organizations until August, uncertain how much money it would receive from the state because of the budget impasse.
As a result, the center eliminated the two staff positions for Power Through Choices and held its last course in June. One of those employees transferred to another department; the other left.
Power Through Choices is one of hundreds of social services and programs scaled back by budget cuts meant to offset the state's projected $38.2 billion deficit. "All our dollars were from the state last year, totally from the state. This coming year, it will be both state and federal,'' said Anna Ramirez, who runs the Office of Family Planning. The state slashed the office's budget in half, although federal money will probably make up the difference.
At the same time, the office expects to receive more than 150 applications -- double the amount from years past -- from non-profit organizations, Ramirez said. It typically funds about 25 groups. The office will announce its funding decisions in November.
Even if the state restores the Bill Wilson Center program, it will take several months to revamp, said Judy Whittier, director of community resources at the center.
"We would have to hire staff and then it depends on how much we would have to train them,'' she said.
There was a huge emphasis on lowering teen pregnancy rates in the early 1990s, Ramirez said. For every 1,000 teenage girls, about 73 were giving birth in California at the time, she said. That number is down to about 45, although California continues to have one of the highest teen birth rates in the country, she said.
That's all the more reason why programs like Power Through Choices are needed, Whittier said.
"People need more help now, not less,'' she said. ``It's making it a challenge.''