Pew: Cuts to Nurse-Family Partnership Now Would Cost More Later

Libby Doggett, director of the Pew Home Visiting Campaign, an initiative of the Pew Center on the States, released the following statement in response to Louisiana's proposed cuts to the state's home visiting program, the Louisiana Nurse-Family Partnership.

"Faced with tough budget decisions, Louisiana policy makers need to ask which state policies have been shown to work, and which ones have not.

"Research shows that high-quality home visiting programs, like the Louisiana Nurse-Family Partnership, deliver real results for families, yielding a return to taxpayers of as much as $5.70 for every dollar spent.

"In the short term, cutting the Louisiana Nurse-Family Partnership program will reduce services for 225 women and their children, and in the long-term, Louisiana taxpayers will bear the cost of higher rates of poor maternal health, child abuse and juvenile crime."

The Pew Center on the States is a division of The Pew Charitable Trusts that identifies and advances effective solutions to critical issues facing states. Pew is a nonprofit organization that applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life.