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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
August 20, 2013 Camila Gallardo
(305) 215-4259
cgallardo@nclr.org
PRESS CONFERENCE
MIAMI—Tomorrow at 10:00 a.m., Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D–Fla.) will meet with NCLR (National Council of La Raza), Hispanic Unity of Florida, Amigos For Kids, Broward Meals on Wheels and South Florida Voices for Working Families to discuss the current and future impact of sequestration on Latino families in South Florida, followed by a press conference.
Congress failed to reach a budget deal earlier this year, resulting in over $1 trillion in automatic, arbitrary budget cuts—known as the sequester—to vital educational, research and job development programs. Hispanics and other minorities have been disproportionately impacted by those cuts. Recent estimates show that 57,000 preschoolers will be cut from Head Start this coming year, many of whom are Latino schoolchildren, who make up one-third of the program’s students. Cuts to programs that support lower-income students in reading and math under Title 1 K–12 education funding are estimated to have impacted over one million students nationwide, and more than 95,000 children in Florida. Thirty-seven percent of Latino kids attend high-poverty schools receiving Title I funding, meaning that, again, Hispanics are disproportionately impacted by these cuts.
In addition to educational funding cuts, job training and nutrition programs have already started feeling the effects of the sequester. Programs that provide food for the needy and elderly, such as Broward Meals on Wheels, have suffered significant budget cuts that have forced them to cut services to our community’s most vulnerable.
MEDIA ADVISORY
WHAT: Impact of sequestration on Hispanic families
WHO: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Rosa Plasencia, President & CEO, Amigos For Kids
Kit Rafferty, Executive Director, South Florida Voices for Working Families
Mark Adler, Executive Director, Broward Meals on Wheels
WHEN: Wednesday, August 21, 2013
10:00 a.m. -- Press Conference
WHERE: NCLR Florida State Office
2915 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 210
Miami, FL 33137
NCLR—the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States—works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. For more information on NCLR, please visit www.nclr.org or follow along on Facebook and Twitter.
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