Michigan Prepares to Launch God's Economic Model to End Child Poverty

Yes, Bill Johnson has slithered to another secret division of DHS. Johnson has abdicated to his trusty side-kick, Bruce Hoffman, who has taken over the throne of omnipotence.

I am guessing, as I really do not feel like finding out where he went at this particular moment, that he is doing something with child welfare contracts.

Now, how did I come to this conclusion?

Well, the Madame Maura Corrigan has stepped down as DHS Director after successfully running a game on the federal court monitor that "all is well" in Michigan child welfare.

All is not well, not even close because it seems the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has picked Michigan, under the Madame's leadership, to launch a pilot model for privatizing the entire system of child welfare, or more specifically, foster care. The pilot city is Grand Rapids and it has a long, nasty, sordid history of snatching kids via bible thumping.

When I say "bible-thumping" I specifically mean the christian child placing agencies which are all Michigan non-profit corporations.

Michigan Legislature just seriously attempted to slam a Bill down the throats of the people under the guise of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).  This Bill, mirrored from its namesake federal Act, was originally used as the backbone for the Michigan Parental Rights Resolution which was introduced for an Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  I worked on the construction of the Bill.
 
The RFRA federal case was centered on a Child Protective Service case of parents using certain plants with hallucinogenic properties in their traditional, indigenous religious ceremonies.  Parenting was transmogrified into a religious belief overnight. 

The Tea Party began to take roots as a family economic movement and I was there to witness.  It was built off the desperation of parents who had their children legally kidnapped.  These families became powerful catalysts for the extreme right wing to, predatorially, push through their "christian" subversive agendas.  Look who launched the Tea Party on "God's economy" (Michele Bachmann's reference to children @ 4:30):


As few may not know, it takes 3/5ths of the States 7 years to have a referendum to amend the Constitution.  The Parental Rights Amendment did not survive but RFRA did.

RFRA will take the same course as the Parental Rights Amendment, mark my word.  Also mark my words when I say that it just might steam roll the national level and become an Amendment as there are a series of states which have already signed on.

RFRA is not alone in its ride to becoming an Amendment.  The Hobby Lobby decision opened the flood gates for legal challenges to "religious freedom" as corporations, legal persons, now have recognized religious beliefs.

Michigan has introduced, sine die, major changes to its Non-Profit Corporation Law.  From a quick overview, I see it is now easier for a not-for-profit to set up and transfer to a for-profit.

This got me thinking that timing of the shift in Michigan child welfare leadership is not a coincidence. 

Michigan spends $1B on charter schools but fails to hold them accountable

Medicaid Expansion + RFRA + Non-Profit Corporation changes +Privatization = Corporate $$$

Charter schools do not provide special needs education but child welfare does and the money comes from Medicaid.  The federal A+PLUS Act would give direct access to CPS in viewing school records, with no oversight, to generate more child welfare cases by providing special needs services.

Every corporation is about to hire a child and no one will stop this from being a nationally diffusable model.

As of this writing, the Michigan Bureau of Adult and Children Licensing no longer has oversight of Grand Rapid child placing agencies.  Actually, no one has oversight as the pilot program of privitization has been launched.  The only way to file a complaint/grievance is through the state court because, remember, a corporation is a person, too, but soon with protected religious beliefs and the ability to dissolve at the drop of a hat to a for-profit.

Children under the auspices of the state (ie. foster care, residential institutions, juvenile justice, court child welfare cases) are not calculated in the national child poverty numbers.

This is God's economic model to reduce child poverty.

#Time2AuditGod

After 8 years Michigan has not addressed racial inequities in foster care

Well, here we go again.

Michigan is up to its old tricks by coming out with a report to cover up all the billing fraud, ineptness of administrative oversight and what they call "racial inequity" in foster care.

With just about all of the same who worked on, and were suppose to get it right, they come together again, with shock and awe renewed, on the exact same crap they came out with 8 years ago.

For your viewing pleasure, I submit the first report on "racial inequity" in foster care from 2006.

Equity: Moving Toward Better Outcomes for All of Michigan's Children 2006 by Beverly Tran

Now, one would think that 8 years later they would have ameliorated, or at least, made an effort to address the issue of the overrepresentation of children of color in child welfare, but of course not, that would be too much like admitting they have no idea how to execute the recommendations made in the report.

The recommendations of the 2006 report was to find more money to fix the problem, which was, unmentioned in the report, that it was just hit with a salaciously horrific state audit of fraud.

Here is the result of "wow-we-did-not-know-this-was-a-problem" report findings:

Key Findings and Recommendations of the Michigan Race Equity Coalition by Beverly Tran

It should be noted that not one original parent, not one foster kid who survived, participated in this report.

Nothing in the findings identified the extreme-reaching "one-drop-rule" labeling technique when sticking a kid, or parents, in a racial category.

Too bad the state will not, or cannot, investigate agencies like Black Family Development to find out why so many Black kids are in the system.

By the way, what exactly is "Black Family Development", as opposed to, obviously,  I assume there must be the counterpart called "White Family Development"?

The reason wht there are racial inequities in foster care is because the system was designed that way.

At least the report did recommend steering away from using poverty as a reason to put kids in the system.

Learn more: BEVERLY TRAN: After 8 years Michigan has not addressed racial inequities in foster care http://beverlytran.blogspot.com/2014/05/after-8-years-michigan-has-not.html#ixzz333fTTPrL
Stop Medicaid Fraud in Child Welfare 

Don't Beat Your Foster Parents - Baby LK Report For May 25th 2014

Baby LK recaps the week in news for the child protection industry.

Report finds racial disparity in Michigan's foster care system

Here is a fun fact as to why the report found racial disparity in Michigan's foster care system:

It was designed that way!

Just ask Bill Johnson, Superintendent of the Michigan Children's Institute.

Report’s Findings

Key findings from a report from the Michigan Race Equity Coalition in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice:

• Minority kids were 2.1 times more likely to age out of foster care than white children. Hispanic kids were 1.1 times more likely, American Indian 1.4 times more likely, and black children 2.3 times more likely to age out of the system.

• Black children were 1.6 times more likely than white children to live in families investigated for abuse or neglect.

• Children from minority families were 1.3 times more likely than white kids to be removed from their families’ homes due to abuse and neglect.

Michigan’s minority children are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to age out of the foster care system without being adopted or returned to their families, a new report shows.

Children of color also are more likely to be removed from their families for abuse and neglect, according to the report from the Michigan Race Equity Coalition in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice, to be released today.

“This gives us verifiable data that policymakers, legislators really like,” said Michigan Supreme Court Justice Mary Beth Kelly, who co-chaired the coalition effort with public policy advocate and former legislator Lynn Jondahl. “That is really what moves decision-makers faster.”

Those behind the report hope it will help improve early intervention and community-based services for families, win more funding for child abuse and neglect prevention and lead to better training for child welfare workers to help them discern the difference between poverty and neglect.

About 13,000 kids in Michigan are in foster care at any given time, according to the Department of Human Services. Using data from 2013, the coalition’s report compares the number of minority children with the number of white children in care. It found:

•Minority kids were 2.1 times more likely to age out of foster care than white children. Hispanic kids were 1.1 times more likely, American Indian 1.4 times more likely and black children 2.3 times more likely to age out of the system.

•Black children were 1.6 times more likely than white children to live with families investigated for abuse or neglect. Kids from Hispanic or American Indian families were slightly less likely than their white counterparts to live in families investigated for abuse or neglect.

•Children from minority families were 1.3 times more likely than white kids to be removed from their families’ homes due to abuse and neglect.

That’s troubling, said Jane Zehnder-Merrell of the Michigan League for Public Policy. She served as data coordinator for the project.

“That suggests we are not doing enough upstream to get these kids safe or keep these kids safe in their own homes,” she said.

“A lot of these kids get pulled into the child welfare system because that’s our response rather than helping their families with economic stability,” she said.

She said erosion in assistance for poor families and school funding in recent years has made the situation more precarious for many families.

“People are really struggling to maintain any kind of stability for their kids,” she said. “It used to be that schools were the bedrock in the community. That’s not the case anymore, particularly in our most desperately poor cities.”

Kelly said she’s encouraged by some recent changes, including a 2011 law that allows foster kids who meet certain criteria such as working or attending college to receive continuing assistance until they are 21.

The state also has boosted the number of foster care caseworkers.

Jondahl said a pilot program in Saginaw County involving courts, child welfare and juvenile justice systems provides a model for reducing the disproportionate numbers.

He also said an advisory panel will be created, meeting regularly, to check on progress in meeting the recommendations in the report.

“It won’t be just a report to put on the shelf,” he said. “That, to me, makes all the difference in the world.”