| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"fx" |
| Date: |
15 Aug 2007 12:27:09 PM |
| Object: |
Michigan- Don't spend foster funds fighting Law suit |
Don't spend foster funds fighting suit
August 15, 2007
BY ROCHELLE RILEY
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070815/COL10/708150335/1081
It's not rocket science.
If the governor and legislators and Michigan residents only remembered
that the tax dollars allotted to the state foster care system are for
children, not for policy, not for roads, but for children -- then maybe
Ricky Holland and Isaac Lethbridge would be alive.
Then maybe the state would not be fighting a lawsuit that is costing
millions in fees that could have been spent on foster children.
Then maybe the thoughtful, courageous woman who had begun to turn the
system around would not have resigned two weeks ago.
Children in danger
What do we not understand about the crisis of children in danger?
We get budget crises. We wring our hands and call press conferences and
call each other partisan epithets.
We get roads crisis. We find hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure
that we don't have to sit in traffic one minute more than necessary.
But we have a crisis in foster care in this state, one that led a New
York group, Children's Rights, to sue us to clean up our act -- an act
that resulted in at least two deaths in the past two years and has left
many children who have aged out of the system floundering in poor health
and dire circumstances.
That, we don't get.
The solution to this crisis is simple. And again, it's not rocket
science. The state spends about $1.9 billion on corrections, more than a
fifth of the general fund. It pays about $30,000 to house a prisoner.
Alternately, it spends about $240 million in foster care payments and
salaries for 706 workers, or about $9,700 per child.
What kind of dope-fiend system is that?
What Michigan should do is triple the number of foster care workers to
more than 2,000, and spend three times as much on salaries and payments.
That would mean that Michigan workers could stop handling 30 cases at a
time as they do now (instead of the 15 that is the preferred national
average) and could do better screening of families.
Settle the lawsuit
Before resigning, Marianne Udow, the recently former Department of Human
Services director, was urging a culture change based on fixing homes
instead of removing kids from them -- action that required the
Legislature to help families meet the financial burden of taking in
extra members.
She also urged legislators to settle the Children's Rights lawsuit.
"This is crazy that we're fighting that lawsuit," she said. "We're going
to spend millions on attorney fees that should go to children."
Udow is right. We should settle the lawsuit, increase the foster care
budget and pretend that we were asleep instead of uncaring in the way
we've dealt with foster kids.
These are children we're talking about. We should be willing to spend as
much on them, at the very least, as we spend to improve roads or
incarcerate inmates.
ROCHELLE RILEY is one of 13 journalists named as Knight-Wallace Fellows
at the University of Michigan for the 2007-2008 academic year. She will
be on sabbatical from Sept. 4 through May 1. She will take classes,
attend seminars, travel abroad and study media, television, public
policy and the Internet. You may send letters to her at Rochelle Riley,
615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226.
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....
CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.
every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*
Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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