ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 7, 1996 TAG: 9610070130
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
A ``KIDS First'' vehicle-license plate for Virginia, with a portion of the proceeds from its sale going to programs to prevent child abuse, is a nice idea.
The legislator who is promoting it - Del. Riley Ingram, R-Hopewell - probably won't have too much trouble convincing the General Assembly to authorize it. The special tag-for-a-good-cause may well prove as popular in the Old Dominion as it has in Indiana, whence Ingram borrowed the idea.
From this skeptics' corner, however, a note of caution:
The Virginia General Assembly is quick to embrace warm and fuzzy feel-good programs like this one. It's important that symbolic initiatives not be regarded as a substitute for realistic efforts to tackle social problems such as child abuse and child neglect.
What's more, this same legislature has a bad habit of reducing general-fund support for various comprehensive endeavors whenever it puts a special fund-raising program in place.
Lawmakers should no more expect the sale of ``Kids First'' license plates to fully fund effective child-abuse prevention efforts than to expect parents and teachers to finance public education by holding bake sales.
As for demonstrating a commitment to putting kids first: A lot more effort is under way in Virginia today to get people off welfare, than to ensure that children in these families won't be hurt.
Health care for children, early childhood education, effective-parenting programs - all remain woefully underfunded. There are more meaningful ways the lawmakers could show their concern for kids than with a license-plate program.
The ``Kids First'' plate may help raise public awareness of child abuse. It could beneficially supplement funding for child-abuse prevention programs in communities throughout Virginia.
But its approval cannot be the inexpensive be-all, end-all of the legislature's obligation to deal with the issue. As with so many other problems affecting Virginia's children and youth, as with so many other needs, statewide efforts and a firm commitment of state funds to support them are necessary.
There's also a precedent problem. Next thing you know, legislators will be calling for special license plates to bolster funding for numerous other good causes. The assembly should ask itself: Just how much can the traffic bear?
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB