TASC to Chicago Tribune: 1st Responders to Illinois High School Student Drug Problems Must Be Counselors, Not Cops

(Chicago) – The Chicago Tribune‘s Diane Rado reported last week that minority students in Chicago-area high schools are more likely to receive tougher punishments and police referrals than white students over issues involving drugs or other illegal activity in school.

Here’s an excerpt from her story:

“The newspaper’s review of federal data as well as school, police and court records shows inconsistent and sometimes arbitrary discipline for the same or similar offenses at Chicago-area schools. The cases often involve drugs, drinking, smoking cigarettes, peddling prescription drugs or fighting and stealing.

The inconsistencies affect white students, too, the Tribune found, but minority students, particularly blacks, are more likely to be reported to police — a step more serious than a suspension that is handled confidentially at school.”

TASC’s Executive Vice President Peter Palanca responded to Rado’s story with a letter-to-the-editor, criticizing school administrators for a “law enforcement” first approach to student substance abuse issues.

Here’s Palanca’s letter to the Tribune:

Dear Editor:

Based on my more than 30 years as a professional focused on adolescent substance abuse issues, including school-based prevention and intervention, school administrators need to know that the discipline and law-enforcement only approaches described in your article (“Minorities unequally disciplined in high school” Tribune, 26 September 2012) fly in the face of best practice.

Arresting one student out of four for a drug-related incident is the wrong answer.  Providing the appropriate service intervention in every case is the right answer.

School discipline is not compromised by addressing substance abuse through prevention, intervention and treatment. Instead, it is enhanced. When a student has been found to be in possession of, or having used, any illegal substance, including alcohol, schools must first engage clinically qualified professionals-–rather than law enforcement-–to assess the student’s drug or alcohol use and behavior, and to ensure follow-through with appropriate interventions.

Moreover, in my experience, and as your article illustrates, schools’ responses to student substance abuse often reinforce that fact that the problem tends to be minimized or overlooked in some communities, while it receives severe consequences in others, and these unequal responses often fall under racial lines. This is unacceptable. Consequences must be equally enforced across schools and across districts. 

The focus of school administrators must shift to getting students the help that the right intervention and treatment provide.

Peter Palanca

Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

TASC, Inc.

New Report: Illinois Medicaid Cuts Could Cost Illinois 25,000 Jobs

(Springfield, IL) – Two health-care advocacy groups are predicting thousands of job losses and billions of dollars in economic damage to Illinois, if Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to conjure $2.7 billion in savings from the Medicaid program is implemented.

Quinn’s plan would jeopardize 25,615 jobs and cost the state’s economy $3.2 billion, according to a report released Wednesday by the Illinois Hospital Association, which lobbies for Illinois hospitals, and the Campaign for Better Health Care, an organization that advocates for health-care access

“Drastic Medicaid cuts hurt everyone, not just the Medicaid patients. Hospitals will be forced to reduce jobs. Local businesses will be impacted,” Illinois Hospital Association President Maryjane Wurth said.

“And hospitals will be forced to cut or eliminate medical services that everyone uses — there is not a separate set of staff, equipment and facilities just for Medicaid patients.”

Quinn’s proposal reduces the amount Medicaid providers get paid by $675 million, accounting for 25 percent of the $2.7 billion in savings.

Nearly every dollar of the $6.6 billion the state spends on Medicaid goes to providers. Cutting provider reimbursement’s by $675 million translates into an across the board rate reduction of 7 percent to 9 percent for providers, according to Quinn spokeswoman Brie Callahan.

Callahan said that in the end it wouldn’t be a blanket rate cut. Some providers would see rates reduced by more than 9 percent, while others might avoid a rate cut all together.

“That still is something that’s being worked out,” Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said. “These are tough choices, but the reality is that (the) entire Medicaid system will collapse, which would be far worse, if we do nothing.”

Illinois’ Unpaid Bills Could Top $34 Billion in 5 Years

(Springfield, IL) – Illinois’ difficulties reining in its pension costs are expected to pale in comparison to its efforts to control Medicaid, the state’s other big expense.

A new report released Monday from the Civic Federation, a Chicago-based nonpartisan policy group that focuses on state spending, predicts Illinois’ Medicaid costs will skyrocket over the next five years.

Laurence Msall, federation president, said lawmakers and governors have spent Illinois into a deep hole by expanding Medicaid, which provides health-care coverage to low-income families.

“What is most frightening is that even after the income tax, the state was not able to pass a budget to fully fund Medicaid,” Msall said, referring to a 67 percent personal income tax increase and a 48 percent corporate income tax increase in January 2011.

But even with that additional revenue, Illinois lawmakers still had to pay more than $1 billion in 2011 Medicaid bills.

Illinois Pension, Medicaid Costs to Top Illinois Budget Problems in 2012

(Springfield, IL) – Illinois will be facing an $800 million deficit within three years, despite tax revenue projected to grow by more than $1 billion a year.

“These projections clearly demonstrate that action must be taken to control not only Medicaid costs but also (pension) costs or all other areas of government will continue to be squeezed,” Kelly Kraft, the governor’s budget spokeswoman said in a statement.

Quinn on Tuesday released his three-year budget projection in which Illinois in fiscal 2013 is expected to spend $33.7 billion, about $1.5 billion more than this year. By fiscal 2015, Illinois’ expenditures will reach $34.2 billion, or $2 billion more than the current budget.

The governor’s fiscal outline is part of the state’s Budgeting for Results initiative. Lawmakers created this process in 2011 to force the governor to craft a realistic budget within the financial means of the state.

The majority of the additional spending will be on public employee pensions.

Quinn’s own numbers project an $818 million deficit by 2015, even after holding spending flat on Medicaid, elementary and high school funding, and state government services.

Illinois’ pension payment jumps $1.1 billion in fiscal 2013, from $4.2 billion this year to $5.3 billion. By 2015, Illinois will be making an annual pension payment of $5.9 billion.

Republican State Treasurer Dan Rutherford said the state cannot afford a nearly $6 billion pension payment.

Illinois Lawmakers Vote Overwhelmingly to Restore Illinois Substance Abuse Treatment Money

TASC, Inc. President Pamela Rodriguez

(Chicago, IL) – The Illinois legislature on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to restore nearly $30 million to community substance abuse treatment providers throughout Illinois, drawing praise from advocates.

“This supplemental budget immediately restores substance abuse treatment money to community care providers who received less money than intended in the state’s original budget,” said State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), chair of the House Human Services Appropriations Committee.

The budget fix, Senate Bill 2412, which shifted money from various state accounts without increasing state spending, added $28 million to substance abuse treatment care and restored spending to other key state programs.

The bi-partisan bill passed the House 92-20, and in the Senate, 50-5.

“We focused on the 99%,” said Feigenholtz. “Our budget priorities reflected their needs.”

The restoration of the substance abuse treatment money for community providers drew deep praise from a top treatment advocate.

“The successful effort to restore funding to Illinois substance abuse treatment services had many legislative champions, especially Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton, State Representatives Sara Feigenholtz, Barbara Flynn Currie, Kenneth Dunkin, Patricia Bellock, and Rosemary Mulligan, as well as State Senators Heather Steans, Dan Kotowski, Jacqueline Collins, William Delgado and Mattie Hunter,” said TASC President Pamela Rodriguez. “We are deeply grateful to them, and to all who voted to restore funding for these essential services.”

The legislation also included $30 million for community mental health services.

Governor Pat Quinn is expected to sign the bill.

Illinois Lawmakers OK Funding to Keep Illinois Prisons, Mental Health Facilities Open

(Springfield, IL) – Illinois’ seven endangered prisons and mental health facilities will stay open for at least the next six months after lawmakers gave Gov. Pat Quinn the power to shift nearly $300 million inside the state budget.

But more importantly, lawmakers also said they sent the governor this clear message: He must not threaten to close state facilities to get what he wants from the state budget.

Lawmakers on Tuesday approved this new spending authority for Quinn. The House approved it with a 92-20 vote and the Senate with a 50-5 vote.

The money, which was taken from Illinois’ regional superintendents, school transportation accounts and the Medicaid budget by delaying payment on more Medicaid bills, will keep the seven sites open through the end of June.