The shame of California's foster care system
Posted by Jennifer Nelson
The recent story about the boy who was held for a year against his will in Tracy and physically abused should make our state leaders reflect on the success of our child welfare system and how seriously the courts deal with child abuse.
The facts around this case are horrifying. … (And) just last September, the Bay Area was rattled by the death of a 15-year-old foster child in her aunt's care. …
The maddening fact is that our state leaders would rather worry about global warming and spaying dogs and cats than protecting our children. These children were in the "system." Authorities knew that the boy was being abused. The state's solution? Send him to foster care (although the foster care system had already harmed him – it's no wonder he ran away from that home). We didn't even put his abuser in jail. (And the 15-year-old from the Bay Area) didn't even get the chance to be removed from her abuser's care. … Let's not forget that we, the taxpayers, pay these guardians – family members or not – to "care" for the children we place with them.
Every adult in this state should feel shame about these cases. …
Our state leaders need to find a way to shake up our foster care system and increase the protections for children of unfit parents. We should look at the possibility of creating a system of orphanages where children can be better supervised and protected. The Schwarzenegger administration and legislators should take a fresh look at the academic evidence of the success of orphanages and think about ways to support their growth. Honestly, if our leaders spent as much time trying to help fix the foster care system as they do talking about what kind of light bulbs we're supposed to be using, maybe we'd see some improvements in the lives of California's foster children.
Nothing funny about forecast
Posted by Dale Kasler
We appreciate a sense of humor here at the Front, and Jeff Michael of the University of the Pacific has a great line in his recently released quarterly economic forecast:
"Oil prices have dropped below $50 in a few months (a decline more rapid than Stockton home prices)."
The rest of the report is pretty dismal. Unemployment will top 9 percent in Sacramento and California in 2009 and 2010, even though the recession is likely to end in late 2009. (That's if things go well).
While the state has lost about 100,000 jobs so far, it's likely to lose another 300,000 jobs by next fall.
Unemployment in the low teens is forecast for many parts of the San Joaquin Valley. ... Things will be almost as bad as they were in the 1990s.
Maviglio re-emerges as Mayor Johnson's spokesman
Posted by Stuart Leavenworth
The Swarm was surprised to see Steve Maviglio's name as the contact person on a city press release Tuesday regarding the outside accounting firm that Mayor Kevin Johnson wants the City Council to hire.
Why? Because Maviglio doesn't work for the city.
Maviglio had served as Johnson's spokesman during the campaign, doing double duty as Assembly Speaker Karen Bass' spokesman. But following the election, Maviglio slipped off to Italy for some R&R, and Johnson announced a staff that included Kunal Merchant as chief of staff but no mention of Maviglio.
I reached the omnipresent Maviglio on Wednesday morning. He told me is working without pay. The city isn't paying him. Nor is anyone else, he said. He's also ended his employment with Speaker Bass after the election.
It's hard what to make of this. Signs of transitional stress in City Hall? Signs of Maviglio answering the mayor's call for more philanthropic efforts? What do you think?
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