A strong argument against privatizing the state’s prison system a couple years back was the lack of accountability, especially when profit is a motive to the organizational structure.
The same doubts are cropping up with the state’s foster care system that was privatized almost 20 years ago to two agencies, KVC Behavioral Healthcare of Olathe, and St. Francis Community Services based out of Salina. Locally, TFI Family Services is a subcontractor with KVC.
Kansas was the first in nation to outsource foster care to private industry. In all those years since, only a handful of states have followed suit.
A number of issues indicate the system needs closer review, if not a complete overhaul, including;
1) The deaths of several children and increased reports of child abuse of those placed in foster care homes in recent years.
2) The dearth of qualified case workers to handle current cases.
3) A rapidly increasing caseload.
SINCE 2009, the number of Kansas children placed in foster homes has increased by 18 percent.
The reason? Resources for struggling families have been diverted to prop up the state budget.
The number of families receiving help through the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program has been cut by more than half over the past several years, depriving them of any sort of lifeline.
One result is that the number of children who qualify for free or subsidized lunches is, for the first time, more than half of all children in Kansas public schools.
Also either reduced or eliminated are early childhood programs, tax benefits for those who live in rental properties, and utility relief credits.
There’s a direct link between poverty and stress, stress and a disrupted home life, a disrupted home life and child abuse.
The more we can keep our citizens fed, clothed and sheltered, the better the chances they can provide a stable home environment for their children and keep them out of the foster care system.
PROFIT ALSO plays into the equation of foster care services delivered in Kansas. According to a recent story by the Associated Press, the CEOs of the two contracting agencies are paid upward of $500,000, several times over what a position with the state would pay. Phyllis Gilmore, secretary of the Department of Children and Families, which oversees the state’s foster care services, earns a little more than $100,000.
The high CEO pay also is an affront to case workers — the system’s “boots on the ground” — who start out at about $35,000 a year, and that’s including a master’s degree.
This is not to say a program of such responsibility does not merit good pay. But it would feel better if it were more equitably distributed, and if Kansans could be assured the money was going to its intended target — the welfare of our children.
So far, the numbers speak otherwise.
— Susan Lynn
