The Feds and families

Most fathers are absent because the government makes sure they stay absent.
Looking at the marriage initiative, left-liberals ask why a conservative administration is involving the federal government in something as private as the family. There is irony in these liberals defending the family against the government. Yet many Democrats are certain to go along, because all politicians tend to go along with programs that bring money. Domestic violence programs, for example, en… Continue

Follow the money

The "best interest" standard also transforms judges into dispensers of patronage who can appoint evaluators of both parents and children. Here we begin to glimpse the political dynamic that will be fueled by the funding proposed by the Bush administration.

Family courts are controlled by bar associations. To satisfy their members, judges can hire them at public expense or at litigants' expense. "Lucrative patronage positions," writes legal scholar Herbert Jacob, "are generally… Continue

Why has Congress appropriated taxpayers' money to give perverse incentives that break up families and deprive children of their fathers? The built-in financial incentives in the current child-support system have expanded the tragedy of fatherless children from the welfare class to millions of non-welfare divorced couples.
Americans have finally realized that providing generous welfare through Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was counterproductive because the father had to disappear… Continue

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When my son was three months old, I came home from Christmas shopping to a screaming infant with his father telling me that rolled off the couch while he was changing his diaper. As a frantic new mother I immediately brought my child to the ER for treatment.After the pediatric orthapedic specialist basically informed me that in no way was my childs' injuries (1mm long hairline fracture of the upper arm) consistent with abuse, the state mandated call to DCFS was made, we were interviewed e… Continue

Report details medical needs of children in child welfare system
By Gina Barton of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Sept. 20, 2009


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Fatal Care: Fostering reform in child welfare
For complete archived coverage of the story of the death of 13-month-old Christopher L. Thomas Jr. and its catalyst for change in the child welfare bureau, click here.
An evaluation of more than 500 young children removed from their parents' care by the Milwaukee Bureau of Child Welfare found five children… Continue