Democrats diminish our ability to respond to disaster
The San Francisco quake of 1989 was the same intensity as the one that shook Haiti, yet only 63 Americans died. There was no mass devastation, disorder and death like that occurring in Haiti. Better buildings, better health care and better social institutions, including expectations of order and civility, allowed San Franciscans to escape relatively unscathed.
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Each of these elements is both the result of — and constitutive of — the United States’ wealth, which the Democrats have been squandering since 2007. Democrats’ antagonism to a self-reliant citizenry, along with their indifference to liberty and the foundational institutions of civil society, will continue to weaken the U.S. until it resembles a Third World country.
This is no exaggeration. Consider the plight of Democrat-controlled states like California, which has a wealthy elite, a parasitic public sector, and the poor. Middle-class citizens left in droves as Democrats legislated economic mobility and opportunity away. Michigan vies with California to win the Democrat states’ Race to the Bottom. If New Orleans comes to mind, remember which party runs that city, too.
It’s time to reject an agenda that promotes the state as the buffer against all disasters. Capitalism and limited government allow U.S. citizens to create the wealth and maintain the civil society that allow us to cope with disaster and give generously to others in need.
Mary Albaugh
McLean
CFSA policies harm children and waste money
Leaving aside for the moment the question of why we should entrust the fate of a vulnerable child to an agency that can’t even send out a claim form for a doctor’s appointment, the notion that the only alternative for making up the Child and Family Services Agency shortfall is cutting services is nonsense.
As a proud tax-and-spend liberal, there’s nothing I’d rather throw money at than children who need it. The most recent available data shows that D.C. spent well over triple the national average on child welfare in 2006. But the money was wasted because of the great paradox of child welfare: the worse the option for children, the more it costs. Safe, proven alternatives to foster care cost less than foster homes, which cost less than group homes, which cost less than institutions which are by far the worst form of “care.”
Most states reduced the number of children torn from their parents in 2008, but D.C. had the highest rate in the nation due to the foster care panic set off by Mayor Fenty’s response to the Banita Jacks case. There’s plenty of money right now to provide the help District children need, if only CFSA would change how it spends it.
Richard Wexler
Executive director, National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
Alexandria
Dropout problem must be addressed in middle school
Re: “More students graduating from D.C. Public Schools,” Jan. 10
With education reform hot in the District, we must be proactive in reforming middle schools, as they are the origin of our dropout rate crisis. A 2008 ACT study showed that a student’s academic achievement in middle school has a larger influence on his or her college and career readiness than anything that happens academically in high school. We cannot ignore our younger children today, because they will surely become the statistics of tomorrow.
Higher Achievement, a year-round academic enrichment program serving 450 middle school students in the D.C. metro area, has centered its mission on this belief. Students commit to 950 hours of additional academic work each year, ensuring that they do not suffer debilitating summer learning loss. With 100 percent of students improving their reading and math scores by at least 20 percent, Higher Achievement proves what the studies have been saying for years.
Abigail Cohen
Media and community outreach coordinator, Higher Achievement
Washington
