Today's Letters: Child welfare suffers when we privatize the system

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published July 1, 2007

Failures persist in child welfare June 24, story  

Melanie Ave's article was a painful, detailed and documented look at what has gone wrong with Florida's foster care system. Of course, no single article can cover every aspect of a set of problems so vast and complex. I would add two points to Ave's excellent presentation.

First, don't think that because annual funding per child grew "from $9, 800 in 1998 to $18, 000 in 2005" that Florida is spending enough on the protection and care for our children at risk.

Under privatization, we are paying chief executive officers and chief operating officers at rates for executives in private business, much higher than we used to pay our public administrators and civil servants supervising the investigators and caseworkers.

Infrastructure costs have skyrocketed under privatization. When protective investigators and caseworkers were state employees, the cost of liability was minimal because the state is self-insuring. Now, each private firm that employs investigators and caseworkers buys expensive professional liability insurance, paid for by us, the taxpayers. Do readers need to be reminded that insurance companies are doing very well?

Second, there is no longer any local community input into this privatized child protection system that goes under the label, "community-based care."

Before privatization, each local district had a health and human services board composed of citizens who advised local administrators and had direct communication with the secretary at the state level. There is no such community input now. As is clear from the Ave article, the agency under contract to provide services is not even necessarily local. A subsidiary to Sarasota Family YMCA has the contract for Pinellas, and had responsibility for the child in Lake County.

In running our child welfare system like a business we have given up some efficiency and we have given up public accountability.

Alvin W. Wolfe, Ph.D., Lutz

Why the Middle East matters less and less June 24

It's not so simple

What a fascinating study of our Middle East problem by Philip Auerswald. His conclusion that this area represents only a small threat if we are prepared to ration gas by taxation and a substitute oil production is, in and of itself, a demanding requirement. But his supposition that a nuclear Iran is no more of a threat than nuclear North Korea appears to greatly underrate a religious fanaticism as compared to an aging ideological one, as well as the countries' difference in wealth.

Iraq, of course, complicates the problem badly, and Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden still alive and operating complicates it even further. Pakistan and Islamic North Africa all contain many more fanatics also. I doubt it will be quite as simple as Auerswald makes it sound.

W.H. Riddell, Tampa

Why the Middle East matters less and less June 24

A dangerous sect

The thesis by assistant professor Philip Auerswald that the Middle East matters less and less demonstrates the lack of knowledge in the academic world.

Auerswald may be correct in his views regarding the oil problem. On the other hand, he appears completely ignorant of the threat posed by the extreme form of fundamentalist Islam known as Wahhabism. This is the real threat to the entire world. Wahhabism would not only wipe Israel off the map, it also seeks to eliminate democracy worldwide.

We must wake up to the threat that Wahhabism poses to the entire world. It has its agents in our own Tampa Bay.

Norman N. Gross, Ph.D., president, PRIMER, Palm Harbor

Why the Middle East matters less and less June 24

Others hunger for oil

To print an article solely focused on the supply-side geopolitical issues of the energy challenges the world faces and not even mention China and India is myopic. The increasing demand from these emerging economic growth engines, which are less energy efficient, will make the Middle East that much more critical to world economic stability.

China and India's oil needs in five years could require the equivalent of another Saudi Arabia to meet world oil demand. As far as I know there isn't another such source coming on line anytime soon,

The fundamental point being missed is that the demand-and-supply situation balances on a geopolitical edge where any incremental change in oil supply results in more instability throughout the world and greater focus on this region.

Evan R. Jones, St. Petersburg

The con queen June 24, story

Engaging reading

It's very unusual that I read three-page stories, but the 27 mug shots on the front page tweaked my interest.

Reporter Chris Tisch and your researchers have archived a story that, truly, is hard to believe, and destined to become a movie of the week. I have to admire Shirley Gordon's moxie, cringe at Rhonda Schroeder's gullibility, wonder at any attorney's desire to take Gordon's case on (but I guess it's all about the money), and shudder to think our justice system is so discombobulated.

David Lubin, Tampa

The con queen June 24, story

Too many chances

Why do we as a supposedly intelligent society allow criminals to have so many chances? In baseball, it's three strikes and you're out. This "con queen" was arrested 45 times in 36 years. Why so many chances?

If we don't start getting tougher on crime, then crime will forever be the downfall of our society. Upon your 10th arrest you should forfeit your rights as an American citizen. A limit for committing crimes needs to be enforced.

Richard T. Welch, Zephyrhills

Pull up your pants, you big buffoon June 24, Bill Maxwell column

Try a new approach

Bill Maxwell's sententious article suggested that blacks who wear "saggin' " pants were "buffoonish, self-loathing and effeminate ... "

Unfortunately, Maxwell continues to wield his pen like a club, beating whites and the smaller black readership of the Times senseless with stereotypes of black males. There are young black men who are loving fathers, husbands, taxpaying workers, students and veterans who wear outsized pants.

The noted African-American sociologist Charles S. Johnson understood that racism would change "only through a process of molding rather than to shock." Perhaps Maxwell would be more successful getting his better opinions across if he sincerely tried to mold young men in forums that include them rather than denouncing them as "buffoons" to a skeptical public.

Keith Berry, Ph.D., Hillsborough Community College, Tampa

This isn't news

Now that Steve/Susan Stanton has faded from the spotlight you don't know what to do with yourself. That's the only explanation for why a "fake" Lesbian wedding (We the people, June 24) and an old gay man who was married to a transgender person (What the heart wants, June 24) are deemed "newsworthy."

I know the Stanton story may have sold newspapers, but enough already! Let's have some real news and let go of this gay agenda. No one cares!

Kathy Alexander Piscitelli, Clearwater

We the people June 24, photo

Picture of love

Thank you for the picture of Tammy Wernet and Debra Weisz. It is a joy to witness their celebration of love and commitment. They deserve all the same rights as the rest of us.

Massachusetts has legalized marriage for same-sex couples. They pay taxes, love and thrive in their families, or they suffer the same pitfalls common to all married couples. I'm proud to hail from the most liberal state in the union.

Judy Lambert, Clearwater

[Last modified June 30, 2007, 22:36:36]