Supervisors see big need for First Things First program

BISBEE — Voters will have to decide on Nov. 2 who deserves the $350 million or so collected from the 80-cent-per-pack tobacco tax — the state legislators or babies, toddlers and preschoolers.

In a work session Tuesday afternoon, the county Board of Supervisors was asked to stand for Arizona kids via a resolution to keep a vital program called First Things First alive by defeating Proposition 302.

As Cochise Regional Partnership Council member Jane Strain put it, “They want to rob our children. Those in Phoenix are desperate enough for that money that they’ve put it on the ballot. If this proposition passes and the money is shuttled to the state, all these programs stop on Nov. 3. We’d be out of business.”

Though $350 million may help the state coffers a bit, the children for whom the program was established will be harmed, a lot, she added. FTF money is divvied up between the counties based on population and poverty levels — and Cochise County gets about $3 million a year for FTF.

FTF was created in 2006 by the voter approval to provide health care and social services to children from birth through 5 years old, explained Melissa Avant, the regional coordinator for the volunteer CRPC. The FTF program provides critically needed services to children, including home visitations, therapists, general and oral health exams, obesity prevention, nutritional guidelines and family support.  FTF services all areas of the county from Benson to Douglas, from San Simon to Sierra Vista.

Everyone has heard on local and national news how unprepared high school graduates are for college. But the fact that unpreparedness really starts in kindergarten classes should be a wake-up call for Arizona voters. Arizona is one of the bottom-ranking states in dollars spent per student and in quality of education. Strain and other supporters of FTF see the need to continue the program.

Many states have early childhood programs and Arizona’s FTF is based on the 12-year-old active program in North Carolina, said Avant. That’s 12 years of data that proves early intervention of at-risk children not only boosts their intelligence, it helps develop social skills and positive attitudes that lead to more rounded lifestyles as they travel toward adulthood. “Even Oklahoma has seen similar results in its program.”

Strain emphasized, “At Cochise College, 70 percent of our students are unprepared to succeed in the curriculum they chose. That means money is being spent on remediation, bringing them up to speed. It’s time wasted.”

The point is that parents of children in the FTF program will know if their child has a hearing or sight problem or if their motor skills need work, said Strain. By working with babies as soon as they are born and their mothers and families, and by establishing ties for continued support, these children will have a better chance to become good students and find success and value in their lives.

Supervisor Ann English, a former school teacher, agreed that kids today are not even ready to enter kindergarten. “The family structure has changed. There are more single moms. We didn’t have that back in my day. If girls got pregnant they usually put the child up for adoption.”

Avant replied, “That has all changed. And younger girls are having babies, which makes it even more important to continue the program.”

According to English, educators can spend a few hours in a kindergarten classroom and determine which kids will have problems learning.

Though the supervisors could not take any action in the work session, they have agreed to vote on a resolution in a future meeting that the funding for the county’s neediest children should continue through the tobacco tax.