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KIDS

Number of Kids in Foster Care Drops Dramatically

Down by over 100,000 compared to a decade ago

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by Dain Fitzgerald

Staff Writer t

Image: AP

It's nice to have good news for once (or twice), especially when it relates to kids.

The number of youth being placed in foster care has dropped for the sixth year in a row, reports The Associated Press, bringing the number of children and teens in temporary homes to about 400,000. That's down by one fifth, from over half a million ten years ago.

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Would you ever consider fostering a child?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • Bobolinsky
    !
    "The number of youth being placed in foster care has dropped for the sixth year in a row"

    Sixth Year... let's see... One, Two, Three, Four, Five, SIX... That means it started DROPPING in 2007.

    Does Bush at least get credit for this?
  • Bobolinsky
    !
    Seriously though this is good news. And I get to take a little Pennsylvania pride. "Wards of the state" are a great way of judging a society. Just like borders, every country has them.

    What one can learn from examining a country's border is by looking at whether people are coming or going. Also indicative is whether a country uses its borders to keep people in or to keep people out.
  • o
    srennelkztirF
    !
    I guess that many of those who would normally give their kids up for adoption are instead keeping them in an effort to beef up their entitlement-benefits...big surprise, there. I wonder if any of those folks are getting creative when it comes to naming all of them? "This is my oldest, DirecTV, and then we have DSL, XBOXLive, Cricket, DodgeNeon, and our new baby, iPad."
  • BetaBraker
    !
    This is a tough question but I like that it gives us a break from all of the clinical thinking.

    I'd like to think that I would at the very least consider fostering a child, but I know it's a really tough lifestyle on kids and would probably have a very hard time bringing a kid into our everyday lifestyle without feeling like I needed to explain why that situation couldn't become permanent for them. There are some really great foster care families out there, but at the end of the day - the more we can do to make adoption an easier process for all involved, the better.
  • Keyjo
    !
    If I was in the position, financially and domestically, I'd be happy to offer a good home to a child, or children.
    However, like Beta, I'd rather be able to provide a permanent, stable, secure environment. Foster care has to be heartbreaking for both good kids and good adults. And a lot of foster children develop difficulties adapting to both childhood and adulthood.
    Ironic that you have to take a test and have a license to drive a car, but not to be a parent. Perhaps if people could be required to take classes, pass a test, have a license to be parents, there'd be less need of foster parents.
  • Fishbone345
    !
    You shouldn't be any kind of parent, because you are gay.
    Oh my God, I couldn't type that without cracking up about what a dumbass I looked like typing it. People actually believe that stupid shit!!!
  • Keyjo
    !
    Yeah, a lot of people believe a lot of stupid shit.
    I'm certain that I too have bought a bridge in the Mojave a time or two.
    What's the cure? I guess education and the wisdom of living.
  • Fishbone345
    !
    I was gonna go with "outlive them" being as they all are gobbling up the Chick-Fill-A now. Matter of time before the time bombs that are their hearts just explode.
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    Fishbone, you started out speaking the truth and then you let yourself be forced into being politically correct. So sad... truly it is.
  • Keyjo
    !
    Really Neo!? You think I'd be a bad parent because I'm Gay!?
    Care to elaborate? And please use FACTS, not FICTION.*

    *Side note: My heterosexual friend has taught his 3 year old son to yell, "Chunky booty," every time he sees a female with a nice butt! He's also convinced that his son is going to be Gay because he has blond hair!*

    Again, justification using facts, please!
  • View all 7 replies >
  • Bobolinsky
    !
    In the spirit of good news I offer this piece by one of my favorite thinkers. I include it as good news because it is a piece about one of HIS favorite thinkers as well as one of his mentors.

    Milton Friedman's Centenary
    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/201...

    He concludes his piece with this sentence.

    "Both his grading standards and his refusal to try to be politically correct increased my respect for him."

    I never had the pleasure of taking a class by either men but they're refusal to be politically correct has increased my respect for both of them.

    Here's a video of the two together debating with Francis Fox Piven and some British Guy. In it they discuss what the nature of a "welfare state" should be. And that would include "wards of the state". So I guess that makes it on topic too.

    Frances Fox Piven vs. Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell
    http://www.youtube.com/watch...