Time to fix child welfare system
State Auditor Mike Foley has provided Nebraskans an example of what a committed, ethical and relentless advocate for the public good an elected official can be by his extensive examination of the conduct of the Heineman administration's decision to privatize Nebraska's child welfare services.
Foley found it to be a wanton disregard for professional management at best and a jeopardizing of our state's most vulnerable children at worst.
Our union, along with advocates for children in the child welfare system, stated at this idea's inception that it would not improve a system that had very real challenges and that it would most likely destabilize a population of neglected children.
A recent audit has identified the very issues that advocates and union members predicted would prove to be the downfall. The lessons from this debacle need to be heeded. Statutory changes need to occur that provide checks and balances that could prevent the type of ignorant and calloused decisions that created this fiasco.
It is time for the Department of Health and Human Services and the governor, who is ultimately responsible, to stand up and take responsibility for this failed system.
Julie Dake Abel, Lincoln
Executive director, Nebraska Association of Public Employees