Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 17 March 2005 — Page 5

The Muncie Times • March 17, 2005 • Page 5

^uncic’s favorite gatons

barbershops

Specializing in Hair Care

Simply Red Salon 604 West McGalliard Road 286-2960

Rhinehart Salon is seeking a Commissioned Stylist Booth Rental is also available 284-4194

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Master Barber Bernard Branson Simply Red Barber Shop Full Service Barber Shop

Salon 21

While in Los Angeles Visit Salon 21 Michelle Moore Bell, owner/beauty & gift consultant A native of Muncie (323) 939-0621 www.salon21-beauty.com Hair Care*Hair Care Products*Cosmetics Skin Care*Facial Waxing*Mail Order

Bush Budget Endangers Foster Care

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Just as Congress begins consideration of President Bush’s 2006 budget proposal, the Children’s Defense Fund has released new national and state fact sheets on child abuse and neglect that pull together important details for the budget debate. In its proposed budget, the administration has made policy choices that leave the nation’s most vulnerable children at risk, said MaryLee Allen, director of CDF’s

Child Welfare and Mental Health Division. The plan would jeopardize the already precarious situation of abused and neglected children with proposals to end a longstanding federal guarantee of help to provide then safe foster homes, she said. It also would cut Medicaid in ways that may harm children with special needs who are in the child welfare system and freeze funding for most other child welfare programs.

"The administration should be increasing, rather than trying to end, the federal commitment to protect abused and neglected children," said Allen. "States need increased funding to prevent abuse and neglect, expand specialized treatment, promote pathways to finding permanent families for children and improve the quality of the child welfare workforce." Based on data from federal and state governments and the work of researchers, the fact

sheets: • Provide data on abused and neglected children, children in foster care, children who have left foster care and children living with kin. • Identify the proportions of child welfare funding that come from federal, state and local sources. • Describe the federal and state funding that supports child welfare. • Highlight expenditures and trends within the Title IV-E Foster Care Program, the sin-

gle largest source of federal child welfare funding. The national fact sheet and 51 fact sheets for the states and the District of Columbia can be downloaded at www.childrensdefense.org. "We hope the public, children’s advocates, and policy makers will use this information to pursue reforms at the national, state and local levels that will help all children grow up in safe and loving families," Allen said.