- October 23, 2003 
Do what I say, not what I do.
The Republican Party on the Federal level claims the right to lead us all as little children into the garden of moral correctness.
Remember this blog is moving.Please go to http://unionmaine.org/?p=167 to read the rest of this post.
Now go there or your next job will be providing day care to Dick Cheney.
Sometimes the best defense against a home invader is not a loaded gun. When the perpetrator is the Director of the Office of Children's and Families' Services and his assault upon your home is by subterfuge, the weapon of choice is his own attack approach. Martial artists recognize the concept.
ReplyDeleteThe Child Welfare League of America maintains the National Data Analysis System, a tabulation of the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System affectionately known as AFCARS. This is data submitted by Maine (and other states) to the Children's Bureau at DHHS (federal.)
Mr. Beougher testifies at every opportunity that the proposed 30% cuts to foster care providers will place Maine in closer alignment with the rates of other New England states. His office reports to the feds that 8.66% of Maine children in Out-of-Home Care are in group homes or institutions (according to the 2007 CWLA tabulation through 2005.)
Our nearest neighbors have comparable rates of 28.4% for New Hampshire, 20.2% for Massachusetts, 20.4% for Vermont. Colorado, a model state, reports 30.2% in group homes or institutions. These children are the kids we in Maine refer to as Treatment Level.
The Level A children in regular foster care were spared the rate cut in the current proposal. Their $16.50 daily rate remains well-aligned with our neighbors; in fact, most states range within a couple of dollars of this rate.
Our New England neighbors, however, have not had Maine's great success in moving Treatment Level children from restrictive, institutional settings into community-based foster families. These states continue to expend hundreds of dollars daily on care.
The defensive jujitsu move is simply to apply Mr. Beougher's own alignment momentum. Suddenly, his thrust to align Maine with our New England neighbors puts him in the position of raising Treatment Level rates (the very ones he wanted to cut) by several fold.
You may enjoy this even more than watching COPS; tune in at http://ndas.cwla.org/data_stats/access/predefined/Report.asp?ReportID=384 or just browse the wealth of information available at
http://ndas.cwla.org/data_stats/
It is notable that neither Dan Despard nor Jim Beougher have been prepared to share this information even in response to direct requests at their own informational/question-answering sessions. I wonder whether our legislators have had better success extracting the truth behind their assertions in work sessions.
Let's hope that our representatives get to them before they join Mr. Cheney in undisclosed locations.