EDITORIAL FAILING THE CHILDREN.FEDERAL and local officials failed hundreds of working families Monday when their ineptitude Ineptitude See also Awkwardness. Brown, Charlie meek hero unable to kick a football, fly a kite, or win a baseball game. [Comics: “Peanuts” in Horn, 543] Capt. Queeg incompetent commander of the minesweeper Caine. caused a gap in the Head Start preschool programs serving the San Fernando San Fernando, city, Argentina San Fernando (săn fərnăn`dō), city (1991 pop. 144,761), Buenos Aires prov., E Argentina. It is a district administrative center in the Greater Buenos Aires area. and Santa Clarita valleys The Santa Clarita Valley is the valley of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. It stretches through Los Angeles County and Ventura County. Its main population center is the city of Santa Clarita. The valley was part of the 48,612-acre (19,672. . Many of the 1,435 children enrolled in the 26 affected Head Start programs come from low-income families who rely on the free child care in order to work. But these families had no idea the programs were going to be shut down Monday until the doors were locked. Undoubtedly, many parents lost work - and a day's pay - due to the unexpected closure. And no doubt it will hurt. This was not supposed to happen. The transition to a new provider was supposed to occur without a hitch. But clearly the bad feelings between the federal Administration for Children, Youth and Families, which oversees the Head Start programs nationwide, and local preschool officials influenced the outcome. The problems with the preschool provider, the Latin American Civic Association, have been going on for a long time. It was no surprise that the federal officials were planning to end LACA's contract and move it to another provider temporarily. But the feds promised the community that there would be no interruption in critical services. Federal officials shouldn't have closed down the programs until LACA LACA Los Angeles, California LACA Licking Area Computer Association (Ohio) LACA left atrial catheter ablation LACA Local Authority Catering Association LACA Louisiana Agricultural Consultants Association had turned over the paperwork to allow an interim provider to take over the preschools' operation. But LACA messed up too. The local organization supposedly has a strong commitment to the members of its community. Surely that connection to the community should have resulted in an effort to avoid this situation, or at least calling parents to give them some advance warning. This was a spat, pure and simple, between two agencies. And like most senseless sense·less adj. 1. Lacking sense or meaning; meaningless. 2. Deficient in sense; foolish or stupid. 3. Insensate; unconscious. battles, it is the innocents who suffered. Both federal and LACA officials ought to be ashamed of the way this turned out. Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. city officials pay a lot of lip service lip service n. Verbal expression of agreement or allegiance, unsupported by real conviction or action; hypocritical respect: to their concerns about the well-being of working families, but provided no leadership before or after this fiasco. These kind of betrayals of public trust have seriously undermined confidence in government at the local, state and national levels. |
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