Why Maine Is So Secretive In Privatization: It Stripped Civil Rights Out Of Child Welfare

This is a very insightful opinion piece on privatization in the great State of Maine.

Maine Governor Paul LePage advocating child labor policies
through privatization

In dealing with child welfare services, one must understand that Michigan launched the privatization model,

Contained within this privatization model of child welfare services are series of layers, which are densely compressed through what is called, "the best interest of the child".

In short, the best interest of the child, means that everything is a secret.

No FOIA.

No audits.

No bid contracts which sets its own pricing.

Oh, and never forget, no one cares about the fraud, rapes, suicides and perpetual life on the streets for those who age out of child welfare.

And not one person will ever be held accountable.

Gotta love privatization.

So, if Maine's Governor Paul LePage is not reaping the financial benefits of saving poor abused and neglected children, why does he allow the perpetuation of privatization policies which have proven not to work?

Simple.  Re-election of Governor Paul LePage.

The Maine Heritage Policy Center is quite bold in its public declaration to dismantle civil rights, and what better place than to start with child welfare polices while funding re-election campaigns!

Selling chattel is the oldest form of survival and the best way to "maximize revenues" from the Social Security Trust Fund is to remove civil rights from society.

No one to whom to grieve.  No one to care, but campaigns to be funded.

Privatization has no civil rights, and that is why Maine can be as secretive as it desires.

If privatization is so great, why won’t the LePage administration share information?

Gov. Paul LePage’s administration has given little explanation as to why it has changed longstanding contracts and outsourced government services. The administration has touted and ramped up competitive procurement but has not made it easy for the public to see which private organizations won state contracts and why.

The administration’s decisions affect state services that thousands of Maine residents rely on and have altered the way millions of taxpayer dollars are spent. If LePage is confident that his contract awards are improving the state of Maine, he has no reason to shield them.

There is an easy fix to solving the lack of transparency surrounding Maine’s service contracts. The administration just needs to follow the law.

Last year, the Maine Legislature supported a bill requiring the state to publish online cost-savings information associated with competitive contracts. LePage tried to veto the bill but missed the deadline to do so.

More than a year later, the LePage’s administration is apparently still in the process of creating the rules needed to implement the new law but is not saying when that work will be completed.

Whether it’s refusing to talk to media, limiting the amount of information his administration releases to legislators or equating FOAA requests to a form of “ internal terrorism,” LePage has routinely dismissed the public’s right-to-know since taking office in 2011.

“If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, as [Thomas] Jefferson cautioned, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed,” Ronald Reagan’s said in a statement to mark National Library Week in 1981.

We agree with Reagan and Jefferson. An informed public is essential to the very essence of a democracy. To be truly informed, citizens must have the ability to gain insight into the decisions made by public officials. When it comes to understanding why large state contracts in Maine were awarded to one entity over another, the public is left in the dark.

If the administration today were as transparent as LePage promised the state would be when he ran for office in 2010, the public would already have online access to all contract decisions. The public would be able to see how the administration is spending its tax dollars.

Without public oversight of contract awards, there’s a higher risk of government officials awarding contracts for personal gain. Such actions are responsible for billions in lost public U.S. dollars each year.

There is no evidence LePage or anyone from his administration has engaged in such unethical practices, but the public has a constitutional right to make sure. But, in 2013, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington ranked LePage as the second worst governor in the nation in terms of transparency, cronyism, pressuring public officials and mismanagement. The lack of transparency and accountability has only worsened since then.

Making contract information available online is an incredibly easy fix that requires minimal additional resources.

The University of Maine System publishes the names of successful bidders online. The Maine Department of Transportation also publishes that information. Numerous other states, including several under Republican leadership, publish it as well. There is no reason why the LePage’s administration cannot follow suit.

If the governor’s cost-saving initiatives are as effective as he claims, it’s time for him to prove it.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Maine Launches Medicaid Fraud in Child Welfare Awareness Campaign

Maine did not accept the Medicaid Expansion of the Affordable Care Act.

In order to qualify for the Medicaid Expansion, which would have provided funding for services to families with children who need assistance, Maine would have been mandated to come into compliance in dealing with Medicaid fraud.

Instead of complying to stop Medicaid fraud in child welfare, it becomes fiscally beneficial to allow fraud to flourish through billing of reactionary programs.

This has nothing to do with child abuse prevention.  It is a marketing campaign about profiting from poverty at the expense of the most vulnerable of society.

Poverty is the crime of child abuse.

It goes hand in hand with his push to repeal child labor laws for cheap labor, reimbursed through Medicaid.

Maine to Launch Child Abuse Prevention Effort - A Mary Mayhew Photo Opportunity

Attn World!!!  Gov. LePage declares April Child Abuse and Neglect Awareness Month

Ever notice that the one department in DHHS that never gets the proper conservative criticism regarding cost or efficiency is The Department of Children and Families, AKA Child Protective Services and Maine's Foster Care System?

Sure, they'll take away your drug treatment, cut off your food stamps, and even put thousands at risk of loosing their psych meds by pulling their health care out from under them...  But God forbid you say anything about the cruel and sadistic frauds who are supposed to protect Maine's most vulnerable children from abuse or neglect and instead bounce them from home to home; dope them up on psych meds and cut them off from any and all contact with their friends and families, and in some cases abuse them so that they end up in the teen shelters and on the streets of Portland just to avoid being in the system.  Nope, these are wonderful people deserving of our love and respect.  They should be placed on the highest of pedestals and we should give them raises and glorify their names!

In ceremonies kicking off Child Abuse Awareness Month, Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew said that DHHS plans to launch a new initiative next year aimed at reducing child abuse. 

Maine to Launch Child Abuse Prevention Effort

New initiative?  What is that supposed to mean?

Next year, Mayhew said, DHHS will launch a new initiative that will seek to prevent child abuse by setting up a new unit of specially trained staff that will review all reported cases of abuse and neglect and assess all of the cases, with a mandate to establish specific action plans to address each case on an individual basis.

Didn't we already have that?  The workers who answer the phones at the Child Abuse Hotline perhaps?   Are they not specially trained to determine whether or not a report merits further investigation and are very liberal in that regard already?  Are their supervisors not trained to review these decisions?  Now they're going to set up a specific action plan based on every single call to the Child Abuse Hotline?

Okay so let me get this straight, so a call comes into the child abuse hotline, it is a self-righteous helicopter-parent who is concerned about their neighbors neglect because their kid stepped out onto the front porch without a jacket, now what do you do?  Do you send a social worker out there to do a state sponsored anal probe of the family?  Do you send them to Coats for Kids or even Goodwill with a voucher... oh wait never mind that's welfare.   No!  You add a whole new level of bureaucracy to create an action plan just because somebody made a phone call when just a few short years ago the state was bragging about being anational model child welfare system who excelled at keeping kids safe while in the home by setting up an individual safety plan specifically designed for every family based on the needs of that child and family when in many cases the best that could be done was to leave the family alone and focus on the kids who really are abused and neglected so that they don't fall through the cracks while social workers are off chasing shadows.

When did this all change so that they gotta address the problems now?  And how is it that Mary Mayhew can turn this all into a photo opportunity by suddenly deciding that this is necessary when the state has already increased the number of kids they snatch, and that we should now spend what will most likely be an awful lot of money to implement such a program and create action plans for every case?   

Considering the fact that teachers and health care providers are mandated to report every little scrape on the knee, they're bound to be busy.

What a pathetic waste of time and money by the utterly clueless who should learn to leave well enough alone or let those with the right expertise to handle it.  But hey, if you can convince them that it will keep kids safe, the legislature will overwhelmingly vote for it because they will otherwise be chastised as being anti-child or pro-child abuse for voting against it.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Michigan's New Corporate Acquisition Team

For the first time in Michigan's history, child protection workers are sworn in.  Here is the video: 

The significance is that child protection workers have never been sworn in before.  

Is this such a simple concept to overlook?  No.  The significance is that these workers have taken an oath of office, swearing that they will uphold the constitution, meaning workers previously have not held up the constitution.

Snyder swears in hundreds of child welfare workers

MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich.—

Close to 300 child welfare workers were sworn in to their new jobs on Monday by Gov. Rick Snyder, who thanked them for what he said was the courageous and crucial work they're about to undertake.

"To have the ability to impact even one individual child's life is so meaningful," the first-term Republican governor told those who will work in the children's protective, foster care, adoption, juvenile and home licensing services under the auspices of the state Department of Human Services.
After the swearing-in ceremony, which was conducted in a jam-packed room in the Detroit suburb of Madison Heights, Snyder put his signature on a series of bills aimed at streamlining the adoption process for children in foster care.

The hundreds of DHS workers sworn in are less than half of the 720 who have been hired by the state since February, part of what agency Director Maura Corrigan called a "huge push" to improve the welfare of children in the state.

"This is more than a job. It's a mission," said Corrigan, a former state Supreme Court justice whose agency is working with six colleges and universities across the state to recruit recent graduates to fill the positions.

The aggressive hiring reflects what the Snyder administration says is its commitment to comply with a 2008 consent decree aimed at improving child welfare programs. A court-appointed monitor gave the state poor marks under former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

The New York-based group Children's Rights filed a lawsuit that led to the agreement to improve the state's foster care system. In 2008, the state settled the lawsuit filed on behalf of nearly 20,000 children.

Michigan officials agreed to several changes, including hiring hundreds of people to reduce the caseloads of workers who oversee children in foster care or protective services.

A court-appointed watchdog said late last year Michigan had failed to achieve "by a wide margin" appropriate caseload numbers for workers who investigate allegations of child abuse and neglect. The watchdog's report also concluded it is taking the state more than six months, instead of a 90-day target, to grant licenses to people who want to take care of children who are relatives.

In December, the ratio of DHS caseworkers to cases was about 40-to-1, Corrigan said. It's now about 20- or 25-to-1, and she said the goal is to get it to 15-to-1 by the fall.

One of the child welfare workers sworn in Monday, Dee Foster, is a recent Grand Valley State University graduate who attended a DHS recruitment event this past winter. The 32-year-old Belding resident now will have nine weeks of training, starting Monday, and work with foster care parents and children.

"If our kids don't get it together, if we forget about them, they're going to multiply their existing problems," said Foster, who earned a degree in social work. "We can't leave kids behind."

Corrigan said the legislation Snyder signed will reduce by months wait times for adoptions.

Currently, there are 14,700 children in Michigan's foster care system, and 3,200 are available for adoption.

To complicate matters, before the legislation Snyder signed, the only person authorized to approve adoptions for children in foster care is the Michigan Children's Institute superintendent. Since April 2010, the MCI superintendent has received more than 1,300 such cases for approval.

Under the bills, the superintendent will be able to authorize designees to provide written consent to the adoption and guardianship of MCI wards. Effective Monday, five child welfare directors will be designated to make approvals.

Still, state officials insist the expedited process won't sacrifice due diligence in the examination of potential adoptive families.

Monday's swearing-in and bill-signing ceremonies had the feel of a celebration. They were held in a banquet hall, a choir performed and the new child welfare workers by the dozens stepped on to risers and had group pictures taken.

"The impact of your work will not be measured in dollars or in production," Corrigan told them. "It's going to be measured in the number of children that you help."

Why is the swearing in of new workers so important?  Because they're here.

Privatizing D.H.S services

The state Department of Human Services now has nearly 300 new child welfare workers. These new additions are supposed to speed up services to those who need help. But if the Senate version of the DHS budget is passed, the department could be looking at layoffs and costly consequences.

On Monday, Governor Rick Snyder welcomed the child welfare workers and signed legislation to streamline the adoption process, making it easier for children to find homes.

"It's an expense, but is well worth it because again we're talking about our children," said Snyder.

The new workers are supposed to reduce the workload on current child services staff. But it's the other side of DHS, the day-to-day services that may be lacking.

"If we don't have enough people in the lobbies, that will bleed over to the child protective services side. So hire more on the payments side and the child welfare side," said Ray Holman, legislative liaison for the UAW 6000.

In the Senate's proposed budget for DHS, one aspect calls to privatize the medicaid eligibility process. Forcing those clients to go elsewhere to apply for benefits. Holman says aside from the inconvenience it puts on people,,,, that could potentially cost the state more and lay off thousands of workers.

"We have competent people who are well trained and the answer is hiring more caseworkers not farming out the state's responsibility," said Holman.

The Department of Human Services couldn't comment on the Senate's budget bill but says the new child welfare workers will bring needed relief and give children the protection they need.

"We're encouraged to hear that more people are coming on board but we need as many workers as we can get," said Holman.

Some Democratic senators say the privatization section of the budget was added last minute and therefore hasn't been fully vetted, so there's no cost of savings that can be measured.

The chair of the Senate Appropriations committee was unavailable for comment on the privatization section. The House and Senate versions of the DHS budget are expected to be worked out in conference committee starting on Tuesday morning. Bot versions cut DHSfunding far more than Governor Snyder proposed.

Bill Johnson

Michigan, under the counsel of former Governor John Engler is privatizing human trafficking, oops, I mean Human Services to make way for every corporation to hire a child.

As the social safety net is unraveled, the state is able to harvest a cheaper and younger labor force, at the behest of corporations.

All of these powers are contained within on person, Michigan's most powerful man, Bill Johnson, Superintendent of the Michigan Children's Institute.