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As our community mourns yet more domestic violence-related deaths, our state legislators are considering a Republican House amended budget that includes 9.1 percent cuts for both domestic violence services and rape crisis services.

House Appropriations Chairman Bill Adolph has framed cuts to the Department of Public Welfare programs as a way to find money to restore funding to education programs. This is being justified based on contested estimates of the rate of “waste, fraud and abuse” within “welfare” programs.

In the hierarchy of human needs, safety comes first. Basic human needs (food, shelter and safety) must be met before more “advanced” needs can be realized. Witnessing or experiencing rape, battery and other abuse destroys safety.

Children and young adults who live with these realities day after day cannot benefit fully from an education. While I find cuts to education funding proposed by Gov. Tom Corbett appalling, and laud legislators for looking at ways to restore that funding, it should not be at the expense of the safety of domestic violence and rape victims. Education cannot be a priority over victim services, and it is bad public policy.

Rape crisis centers across Pennsylvania assisted more than 31,000 victims of sexual assault in fiscal 2010. Approximately one-third of those clients were children. Domestic violence programs served 92,000 victims, including 7,410 children during that same year. The proposed cut is likely to result in a complete lack of services for nearly 4,000 sexual assault victims.

It is important to note that for nine years rape crisis and domestic violence services received no state increases, and in fact have sustained cuts.

Neither the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence nor the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, which fund local centers, has been the subject or rumor of “waste, fraud or abuse” of DPW dollars, In fact, both organization are known as models for responsible administrative oversight and positive service outcomes.

I have contacted state Rep. Gerald Mullery, D-Newport Twp., about my concerns over these proposed cuts and he has assured me he will fight to have the funding restored.

I encourage everyone to contact their state legislators and let them know the proposed cuts to vital services are not acceptable.