Your May 28 article on the changing conditions of foster care in Illinois (“New rules may break backbone of foster care”) inadvertently uncovers the real problem with the Illinois child-welfare system. Although the article fails to point out the problem, the numbers spell it out in clear terms.
According to the article, there are 46,000 wards of the state. For the care of these children, the state pays somewhere around $350 per child per month to foster parents. Assuming DCFS is always making these payments for all of the wards, the total annual bill would be about $195 million. However, the article reports that the annual DCFS budget is “spiraling above $1 billion.” Here’s the burning question: What happens to the other $800 million? The likely answer is that most of it is wasted.
So, what the article really says is that another hopelessly bureaucratized government agency is failing to do its job responsibly. The solution, according to the article? Turn some of those responsibilities over to an even larger bureaucracy: The Department of Public Aid.
Someone once said, “God help the children.” We sure aren’t.
