A letter to The Oreginian
An insult to foster system
Regarding your editorial, "More classrooms, not more cells" (Oct. 5), we have worked with children in foster care for 25 years in our respective agencies and have yet to see foster care serve as a "holding tank for the next generation of criminals."
We have not seen children "shoveled into Oregon's woeful foster care system." Rather, when a family cannot care for its child and there is nobody to pick up the pieces, it falls to the state to parent.
We do see children regularly graduate from high school, garner work experience and give back through community service projects. We see them pursue post-secondary education through college or vocational training.
We see children struggle with the same challenges all children struggle with and see children enjoy the same successes other children enjoy. Some children in the foster care system do become part of that "next generation of criminals"; however, many more youth transition successfully.
Your description is a disservice to these children and to the numerous foster parents who accept these children into their families and provide the needed guidance, attention and affection that enable these children to be successful.
Tom Mitchell
9 October 2008
http://www.oregonlive.com/letters/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1223511939296930.xml&coll=7
