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What Is It We Don’t Understand about fostering conditions almost ensuring criminality

Published

on January 14, 2012

in Crime and Courts, education and Public Policy

. 2 Comments

- which guarantees a public outcry for more police & prisons, acting stupid when our streets turn dangerous, and so surprised when our schools fail because these children are now in their 4^th, 5^th, & 6^th generation of dysfunctional families with terrible behavior problems that make classroom performance almost impossible (think Prozac, Ritalin, Zoloft)?

Attorney, successful businessman, & ACLU president Vance Opperman gave a spirited and informative talk at the Stone Arch DFL meeting in Minneapolis this morning. He is a very smart and insightful fellow with a terrific grasp of so many critical issues, but not this one.

Unfortunately, like 99% of the nation, he has very little comprehension of why America has 25% of the world’s prison population, charges 25% of juvenile justice youth in adult criminal court, and is the world leader with five to ten times the murder and crime rates of any other *industrialized nation (for many years now).

On the plus side, Vance did speak to the African American Men’s Study & the importance of the institutionalized racist fact that 50% of Black Men are either in prison, on the way to prison, or on parole.

But when I asked him a question about how to solve the conundrum of preteen moms and adolescent felons, he said he was not very familiar with the issues.

I had hoped that Senator Amy Klobuchar would back me up. She was in the audience and had worked in juvenile court when I was a guardian ad-Litem and she saw what I saw when she was a public defense lawyer in the court system that is child protection in our community.

Senator Klobuchar was in the Juvenile Court system when MN Supreme Court Chief Justice stated that 90% of the youth in Juvenile justice had come through Child Protective Services & the same time Hennepin County arrested 44% of the adult Black Men (2001, with no duplicate arrests). Google “Rich Stanek Resigns” to find out more about how the appointed Police Commissioner made that happen.

Unfortunately, I did not get to ask the question about preteen mom’s (Industrialized World’s Leader) and STD’s (another World Leading category for America).

If communities were to foster conditions that lead to healthy children; our streets would be safer, more kids would graduate, we’d save money on police, prisons, and insurance. It would also make for a happier and more knowledgeable citizenry, save tax dollars, and it would be the right thing to do.

* there are 24 other industrialized nations with great wealth and advanced infrastructures that the U.S. has compared itself to for many years. Recently, due to America’s poor rankings, some journalists have begun comparing this nation to third world and emerging economies.

Please send me related stories.

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Support The Guardian Ad-Litem Program For Abused & Neglected Children

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on November 8, 2011

in education and Guardian ad-Litem

. 0 Comments

Please join me in learning more about Minnesota volunteer guardian ad-Litems (CASA volunteers). For many years now, I have been an active participant in the program and can attest to the powerful impact that it has had in the lives of abused and neglected children in our state. I was one of 500 guardians and oversaw the family and court proceedings of 50 children. Some of those children still contact me 15 years later (in many cases, I was the only caring adult that remained in their life).

Please visit the CASA website www.casamn.org & make your friends and circle of influence aware of the good work CASA does.

The mission of CASA Minnesota is to broadly support volunteer advocacy on behalf of abused and neglected children in our state. We believe that every abused and neglected child in Minnesota court proceedings should have a volunteer advocate working for their best interests. In pursuit of this goal, we do the following:

Assist in the recruitment and retention of Minnesota volunteer guardians ad litem
Provide initial and continuing education and support to Minnesota volunteer guardians ad litem
Increase public awareness about child welfare and guardians ad litem
Provide a network for communication among Minnesota volunteer guardians ad litem
Advocate for legislative change, public policies and best practices that enhance the quality of advocacy and care for abused and neglected children

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The Floggings Will Continue Until The Test Scores Improve

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on July 17, 2011

in David Strand, education and The States

. 1 Comment

While Americans are spending great sums building schools and supporting education in Afghanistan (to rebuild a different nation), our own schools are being dismantled, educators pilloried, and students cast into the exploding world of technology & change without the basic tools to make a productive life.

Our teachers are denigrated by politicians for their failure to fix under-resourced schools filled with at risk children from poor and often troubled families.

The problems facing educators are many and complicated but must be addressed if we are to stop this nations slide to the bottom.

More than a few U.S. states already look like Afghanistan when comparing the health and well being statistics of their children.

The rest of the industrialized world understands that education is the engine that drives society. Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the 23 other industrialized nations treat children, daycare, & early childhood programs as important parts of their societies. We don’t.

These wise nations know that children need skills to function as contributing citizens while America (in a growing number of states) spend more on prisons than schools, lack affordable daycare and early childhood programs, and sell Ritalin, Prozac, and Zoloft to children instead of providing healthcare.

Subsidized daycare has thousands on waiting lists in Minnesota (I was forced to take children from a working father only because he could not afford daycare when I was an active volunteer guardian ad-Litem).

Daycare workers in the U.S. are paid about as much as food service workers (the lowest paid profession in the nation). American daycare is underfunded, under-trained, and misunderstood.

The high school I attended is now a decrepit old building with fewer extra curricular activities, larger classes and fewer choices. Teaching is not the attractive profession it was when I graduated from college and thought seriously about being an educator.

To politicize the education of children (our future citizens) is the very definition of how to insure the destruction of a democratic society.

As Pliny said 2500 years ago; “What we do to our children, they will do to society”

Below is the Early Childhood Education Manifesto created by David Strand, a KARA board member. Please read it and send it to your State Legislators and Governor. Children have no lobby; we are it.

Support KARA’s effort to stop punishing children; sponsor a conversation in your community (invite me to speak at your conference) / Buy our book or donate

Continue reading ‘The Floggings Will Continue Until The Test Scores Improve’

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Back To School & In Support of Education

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on September 5, 2010

in education

. 0 Comments

No nation will maintain leading status in the world without a workable educational system. No educational system will succeed in meeting even essential goals if a great number of students do not have the basic skills to learn when they begin their schooling.

We must not expect normal graduation or competency rates from a population of children that have lived in very troubled homes without community help.

A seven year old girl in my caseload knew just a few words, been sexually abused (kicked so hard by her abuser that she went into convulsions) when she started first grade. She was representative of many of the fifty children I worked with as a guardian ad-Litem.

Over many years I watched as educators tried diligently to help her succeed, but her underlying lack of skills and mental health issues made it impossible for her to learn or lead a normal life. She was a handful for all who came in contact with her.

She and our schools and community would have been much better served if this child had first been soundly supported from a mental health perspective rather than demanding that teachers manage her outbursts and sometimes terrifying behaviors (and expect her to play well with others).

This child’s traumatic and fearful entry into an unprepared and under-resourced public school system is the tip of the iceberg.

The Prozac, Ritalin, and other psychotropic medications being prescribed to very young children is terrifically overused in many child protection systems. Judge Heidi Schellhas shared with me the pages and pages of five, seven, and nine year old children that passed through her courtroom that were heavily medicated on antipsychotic drugs. We read about it often, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/business/02kids.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1283685929-4vV95VANamU0xapU45ORhg

The disruption from one child with the type of problems I have witnessed is multiplied by the growing number of at risk children in this nation as poverty and disappearing support systems create more troubled families and more child abuse.

When the calls are taken, three million children are reported to child protection in the U.S. each year.

Minnesota is now screening out 2/3′s of the calls coming into child protection under the assumption that making services available will gain better results than bringing children into the court system. Providing services to families is the best answer, but removing children from violence, sexual abuse, and drugs is critical if we expect that child to sit in a classroom and do math, or write a comprehensible sentence.

All children deserve to have the skills necessary for achieving success in school and in the larger community.

Dealing with the deficits at risk children bring into the classroom would make schools successful, our communities safe and healthy, empty the prisons, & lower the rates of early pregnancy & sexually transmitted diseases.

Each one of us can do something positive in support of educating children. Support a bill, tax, or program that enhances a child’s chance to grow. Volunteer as a reader, mentor, or anything that fits your comfort zone (so you will stick at it).

It will take all of us to support those that are doing the work to mend our very troubled schools and communities.

“What we do to our children, they will do to our society” (Pliny the Elder, 2400 years ago) Continue reading ‘Back To School & In Support of Education’

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International Symposium on Human Nature and Early Experience at Notre Dame

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on August 18, 2010

in education and Events

. 0 Comments

The University of Notre Dame’s Department of Psychology and Center for Children and Families invites you to a multidisciplinary symposium entitled “Human Nature and Early Experience: Addressing the ‘Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness’” October 10-12, 2010. This symposium brings together an international audience interested in innovative approaches to human development, children, families, parenting, and human evolution. Speakers will present their research on the relationship between caregiving practices and outcomes.

See the schedule and speaker list below. Continue reading ‘International Symposium on Human Nature and Early Experience at Notre Dame’

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Practical Strategies for Helping Troubled Adopted Children with Complex Histories: Focus On Anger Issues with Dr. Richard J. Delaney

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on August 11, 2010

in education and Links To Helpful Orgs

. 0 Comments

Minnesota Adoption Resource Network

Announces August Webinar

Wednesday, August 25, 2010
12:00 PM to 1:30 PM

Many adopted children are “multiply impacted” by prenatal exposure to drugs, and/or alcohol, by neglect and deprivation, complex trauma such as chronic child physical and sexual abuse, exposure to domestic violence, separation from or loss of significant other, and/or multiple out-of-home placements.

Please join Dr. Richard J. Delaney, internationally known speaker, acclaimed author and consultant to foster, kinship and adoptive parents for this 90-minute webinar presentation as he addresses adoptive parenting issues that include, how to get to the bottom of why children behave and how to approach problems, especially social aggression and anger outbursts.

Substantial time for discussion, questions and answers will be included during this 90-minute online presentation. Parents, professionals and others are invited to participate in this interactive online training. All you need is a computer with internet access, a telephone and a pioneer spirit!

$15.00 webinar only – REGISTER NOW
$25.00 webinar & CD – REGISTER NOW

Registration will not be available the day of the webinar.

For more information, please contact Anne Johnson at 612-746-5122 or ajohnson@mnadopt.org.

To learn more about MN ADOPT, visit www.mnadopt.org Continue reading ‘Practical Strategies for Helping Troubled Adopted Children with Complex Histories: Focus On Anger Issues with Dr. Richard J. Delaney’

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Accentuate The Positive; Child-Parent Centers

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on August 10, 2010

in education, Occasional Authors and Public Policy

. 2 Comments

Dave Mast’s research on the positive impact Child-Parent Centers have on the lives of at risk children and his observations on why our nation still struggles with supporting them is powerful. Send it to your friends.

Dave is a KARA volunteer intern from Century College and an occasional author on this site;

The Positive Effects of Child-Parent Centers on Education
By Dave Mast

Few problems facing children of all ages have been discussed as often as that of substandard education. More specifically, the American education system has been under attack from a number of sources.
However, the situation has yet to improve, possibly because the programs that work are not highlighted, instead only those that have failed are.

How bad has the situation in the United States become? Roughly 18% of children are not familiar with the basic rules of printing or writing. However, when looking at children with mothers who did not obtain their high school diplomas, this number increased drastically to 32%. In contrast, only 8% of children with mothers who have college degrees struggle with the basic rules of writing (Siegel & Welsh, 2006, p. 336).

The seriousness of the state of America’s education system can be demonstrated by looking at the effects, both short and long-term, that the failure of the system can have on a child. For example, the annual income that a juvenile can expect to earn as an adult is significantly lower if he or she drops out of high school. For adults 18-65 years old, the average annual income of high school dropouts is only $20,000, compared to $30,000 for those who graduate from high school or obtain their GED (Siegel & Welsh, 2006, p. 336).

A grimmer example of the effects that unsuccessful education can have on children is related to criminal activity. Though 74% of non-offenders graduated from high school, only 9% of chronic offenders obtained their diplomas. Another look at the subject shows that less than 40% of incarcerated felons in America completed 12 or more years of education. In contrast, 80% of the general population has completed the same level of education.

More important than identifying the effects that educational failure can have on children is the need to determine which programs are effective in stopping such a downward spiral and making them available to more American children. Arguably one of the best programs to date was started in Chicago in 1967 and uses what are known as Child-Parent Centers (CPCs). CPCs are located in low income areas in the Chicago public school system, and are available for children to start at three to five years of age.

Through parental involvement, the children enrolled in CPCs are able to develop reading, writing, and math skills, while their parents learn about topics related to child growth, development, health, safety, and nutrition (Chicago Public Schools, 2010).

The benefits reaped from enrollment in CPCs have been demonstrated in a number of studies involving juveniles and adults who received educational enrichment from the program. One such study was conducted by Reynolds, Temple, Robertson, and Mann in 2001. This study compared a group of adults who had completed an educational program at a CPC prior to entering kindergarten with a group whose members had not been enrolled in a CPC. Continue reading ‘Accentuate The Positive; Child-Parent Centers’

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Art Rolnick & Pliny, Friends of Children

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on July 5, 2010

in education, Politics and Funding and Public Policy

. 0 Comments

Lori Sturdevant points out in her July 4th Star Tribune column how Minnesota “has been missing the biggest public investment opportunity – early education” and how Art Rolnick’s extensive studies as director of research at the Federal Reserve Board have made those investments measurable.

Just like investing in the stock market or tax increment financing, putting money into early childhood programs brings solid financial and social returns back into a community.

As a negative example, just look at states and nations that have not (failing schools, filled prisons, high crime, poverty, preteen pregnancies, & unsafe communities).

At every level, this state has benefited from a smart, educated workforce that created opportunities (out of genius and thin air) with lasting impact.

Medical alley, which has had a huge impact on this state’s fiscal well being, launched giant successful med tech companies and would not have done nearly so well without the very smart people that came through this states many fine schools and school programs because they were important at the time and well funded.

Children in Minnesota have had a friend and champion in Art Rolnick, who well understands Pliny’s 2500 year old observation, “What we do to our children, they will do to our society”.

It is easy to see the relationship between healthy, adjusted children and productive citizens.

Healthy, adjusted children do well in school and go on to lead lives that contribute to the well being of our community (and of course, the opposite is just as true).

There is no return on investment from children that we abandon in our system and the cost of crime and incarceration is a triple negative that can cost our state for a lifetime (five hundred million dollars for prisons in MN this year does not include the medical costs, the cost of crime, fear, or blighted neighborhoods). The relationship between success in school and crime and preteen pregnancy is well established.

Art refers to medical costs driving state deficits. A growing body of evidence from the medical community proves that the chronic disease and medical costs of at risk children is another extreme cost to our communities (www.avahealth.org – this site is worth spending some time on)

I met Art Rolnick a few years ago when he graciously allowed me to use his work (as chapter five) in the writing of my book INVISIBLE CHILDREN.

It was my purpose to draw attention to the behavior problems and learning ability that I see in abused and neglected children that continue to negatively impact our schools and later on, the safety of our communities.

Art’s Federal Reserve Board research clearly demonstrates the high return on investment in children (8% to 16%)

There is even a higher return on investment for Invisible Children (three million children are reported to child protection services in this nation each year in this nation) to make them ready to learn and prepare them for a place in our community.

These are the children I continue to watch and hope for as budgets and services are cut and policy makers think they are saving money by not investing in programs that could change the lives of the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

On top of all this positive financial and socially important evidence, it is the right thing to do.

“Rolnick has been sounding the alarm about early ed since 2003… Little kids don’t vote…Early ed has a champion in Rolnick. Now it needs one in the Governors office”.

Continue reading ‘Art Rolnick & Pliny, Friends of Children’

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Better Guidance Urgently Needed For Doctors In Child Protection Cases, Say Experts

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on June 26, 2010

in education and Health and Mental Health

. 0 Comments

A British Medical Journal Journal article (below) points out the confusion in doctors duties regarding child protection. In Britain the welfare of the child is place highly only when a decision is governed by the Children Act statute, which has created an atmosphere of increased complaints against paediatricians. Doctors may be avoiding work related to abuse because of this.

As a guardian ad Litem in the U.S., I often found medical professionals unresponsive to the violence and dysfunction responsible for the condition of the child before them.

In the U.S. there is an organization trying to change that; The Academy on Violence and Abuse, www.avahealth.org is working diligently to better educate the medical profession about the signs of abuse and how to respond effectively.

Visit the Academy’s website and watch their videos, it is compelling.

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/KidsAtRisk

Support KARA buy our book or donate

Become part of KARA’s email network by sending a request to join to;

amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

Continue reading ‘Better Guidance Urgently Needed For Doctors In Child Protection Cases, Say Experts’

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How Can We Better Serve Abused And Neglected Children?

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on June 11, 2010

in education

. 21 Comments

How can those of us who care about at risk children, be more effective in bringing positive change to the politics, attitudes, people, and institutions that rule the lives of these children?

What has worked in your community?

What did not work?

Where do you go for help?

Share your comments here;

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Advanced or Stupid? It’s How You Frame It.

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on June 3, 2010

in Crime and Courts, education, Politics and Funding and Public Policy

. 0 Comments

The world’s most advanced technical and military power, greatest economic engine (California ranked fourth highest GDP among nations at one time) & we are refusing to take care of our children.

25% of U.S. high school grads are functionally illiterate upon graduation, our drop out rates are the worst in the industrialized world.

America is sending juveniles into adult prisons at alarming rates. By privatizing service providers, overwhelming government service agencies, & not providing resources we are abandoning children at an institutional level.

Many third world nations treat prenatal care more seriously than we do. There are no industrial nations that suffer the sexually transmitted disease rates or early pregnancy rates that America does.

Talking to the people at The Academy on Violence and Abuse http://www.avahealth.org/ very important things have become clear to me;

1. Child abuse impact children for life. Chronic illness and early death are significant within the population of abused and neglected children as they age.

2. Dr Bruce Perry’s research indicates that 25% of all American’s will be classified as “special needs” within a generation if the mental health aspects are not addressed in a direct and meaningful way.

As a long time guardian ad-Litem, I have seen the evidence of the Academy’s research at a very personal level. I have lost friends and now know why.

Mental health becomes all important when you work with the population of abused children and understand the concept of violence, sex abuse, and trauma as it applies to two and three year olds (and what it will mean to them for the rest of their lives).

Children become citizens. Healthy citizens lead normal productive lives and are a benefit to society.

Children born into unhealthy homes and poor resources, are abandoned, abused, or ignored, end up in juvenile justice, criminal justice, pregnant without the ability to parent (just like their parent) lead painful lives and are a problem for society.

There is NO percentage is the communal abandonment of our children (it is sinking our nation).

What you do to your children, they will do to your society (Pliny – 2500 years ago)

Let’s all agree to support child friendly programs and legislation (even if it costs money and takes effort).

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The Consequences of Media Concentrating On Negative Child Protection & Adoption

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on April 26, 2010

in education and Public Policy

. 0 Comments

If it bleeds it leads, is the standard newsroom motto. Adults suffer the consequences of trial by media regularly and I don’t see that changing in my lifetime.

*We live in a time when newsrooms don’t have budgets to adequately follow complicated stories, like child protection, adoption, foster care & the other very serious issues that social workers, educators, parents & other service providers must study deeply to manage abused and neglected children.

A brief interview covering the death of a child in child protection leads to a short news story making a social worker look inadequate (or worse) bringing outrage from a community, and even less support for an already overburdened department of human services. Almost no attention is paid to the lack of resources, low salaries, and patchwork system that holds together the millions of children and workers across this nation.

When a baby is found in a dumpster, too many of us are not trained to dig down deep for compassion and understanding and ask ourselves what we could do to prevent this. Just where could we put more and better resources? Who could I call to show support for programs supporting pregnant preteen moms?

Our media response quite often drives us to an opposite response of quick anger and blaming, and even less compassion and support for our already overworked social workers, foster care providers, educators and everyone else in the system.

It is telling to note that we were in the top five as a nation in the quality of life indices for over twenty years among the 24 industrialized nations with 200 year democracies and now we don’t compare ourselves to them (but to the 90 or so “emerging nations”).

We desperately need to agree that children in need of services will receive them. The cost is minimal as compared to their expense in crime, prisons and jails over their lifetimes and is now well documented.

How to deal with a media that does not have resources to adequately report the details that lead to the baby in the dumpster, drowned in the bathtub, or 7 year old that hung himself?

My suggestion is to change the rule social workers are taught during their training from “never talk about your work outside of work” to “use your own judgement, be legally and personally discreet, but feel free to discuss the nature of child protection, the circumstance that are common to you in your work, and by all means, the needs you see not being met in the lives of abused and neglected children”.

As it is today, abused and neglected children have no voice in the terribly abusive homes they are raised in nor the court system once they are removed from those homes.

Some of us, preferably some of us educated in the study of the issues; social workers, health and mental health providers, and others close and sympathetic to abused and neglected children, needs to give these children a voice in their own lives other than a Media that has to sell itself with “if it bleeds it leads”.

*I’m not blaming anyone. Newspapers don’t have money to pay people, the system is what it is. There are many great reporters trying to do good work, but it is an uphill slog against terrific odds. This is a complicated topic that does not lend itself to the type of news we have prepared American citizens to comprehend.

Kids At Risk Action needs your support for its successful launch of televised public service announcements building awareness to the issues surrounding child abuse.

In collaboration with award winning Salo of Finland, KARA is working to create and place ads on national TV.

These ads will reach millions and create interest and understanding of this important and often misunderstood subject.

Contact KARA with your questions and support. Please contact us with your questions, referrals, and donations.

The KARA team.

ps… pass this on to those you think might appreciate the opportunity;

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The Impact of Trauma and Neglect on the Developing Child: Focus on Youth in the Juvenile Justice System

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on April 19, 2010

in education and Kids At Risk Action (KARA)

. 0 Comments

Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D.
ChildTrauma Academy

When: Thursday, June 17th
Registration: 8:30 a.m.
Training: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Mystic Mystice Lake Casino, Shakopee MN
Cost: $40 Standard, $30 JJC Community Member, $30 Student Rate
Scholarships available

Targeted Audience: Policy makers, professionals and practitioners in education, the court system, law enforcement, corrections, human services, community-based organizations, mental and chemical health, parents, youth, advocates, elected officials and others.

Presenter:
Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D. is the Senior Fellow of the ChildTrauma Academy, a not-for-profit organization based in Houston that promotes innovations in service, research and education in child maltreatment and childhood trauma (www.ChildTraumaAcademy.org). Dr. Perry is the author with Maia Szalavitz of The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog: What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love and Healing, a book based on his work with maltreated children. Over the last twenty years, Dr. Perry has been an active teacher, clinician and researcher in children’s mental health and the neurosciences holding a variety academic positions.

Continue reading ‘The Impact of Trauma and Neglect on the Developing Child: Focus on Youth in the Juvenile Justice System’

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Adoptees Have Answers…and lots of questons

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on April 11, 2010

in education and Links To Helpful Orgs

. 3 Comments

Minnesota Adoption Resource Network (Marn) is launching an inspired program that should become a national model for dealing with foster and adoptive care. Ten adoptees from diverse ethnic backgrounds have combined their wisdom & energy to provide adoptee-to-adoptee training, connections and resources.

A calender full of adoptee-focused events, support groups, website, networking and discussion tools.

Wow. This is a heartfelt and logical pooling of talent and concern that could make a world of difference to a world full of adoptees.

Best wishes to everyone in this grand new venture. Read their newsletter;
Continue reading ‘Adoptees Have Answers…and lots of questons’

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National Child Protection Training Center

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on March 24, 2010

in education

. 0 Comments

This is a program worth knowing about; http://www.ncptc.org/index.asp?Type=NONE&SEC={D2B324A2-07CB-404F-8927-5891D28A8AF8}

Send to people that you know to be interested in the topic.

Developed in 2004, the Child Advocacy Studies Minor started at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota. The curriculum was designed to bring the goals of the National Child Protection Training Center to the field by providing students with real-world experience. Continue reading ‘National Child Protection Training Center’

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Education Is The Engine of Progress & Prosperity

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on March 13, 2010

in David Strand, education and Politics and Funding

. 1 Comment

No nation can achieve its potential for greatness without investing in its human capital. The extent to which children successfully negotiate the treacherous passage to adulthood depends on the earliest years of brain and emotional development. That explains why early childhood education is crucial to society.

America’s current public policy regarding at-risk children is an economic and moral failure:
“We reject community investment programs (implemented today by nearly all developed countries) that stress preventing the creation of at-risk children. Instead we assume colossal costs of corrective measures that mostly fail regardless of how earnestly they are pursued.”

The results of this undocumented policy are many:

1. A child is a work-in-process toward citizenship. A successful citizen adds $5 million of economic value to society in his/her life. If unsuccessful, that person instead costs society several million dollars in expenses. Therefore, the lost opportunity value between a success and a failure is somewhere between $5 and $10 million per child.

2. Young children are humiliated when they read below grade level. A wealthy society that rejects proven programs to avoid the humiliation of children is an immoral society.

3. Children who read by the third grade seldom are ever involved with the criminal justice system. Four of five incarcerated juvenile offenders read two years or more below grade, and a majority are functionally illiterate.

4. America has over two million prison inmates, the highest rate in the world and five to ten times that of European countries. Another five million Americans are involved in the criminal justice system for probation, parole, or supervision, all unproductive activities.

5. Several states forecast needed prison growth based on third grade reading scores. Our federal prisons are operating at 130% of capacity.

6. No industrial nation equals the United States in neglecting the basic needs of working families.

7. Minnesota’s under funded policy to assist low-income families for out of home child care has a waiting list of over 7000 families. This is a sham, not real policy.

When America isn’t fair, it doesn’t work. America is cheating its children.

High quality, universally eligible early childhood education and development similar to that now in place for decades elsewhere would solve the above problems. According to Minneapolis Federal Reserve researchers, no public sector investment of taxpayer money yields the high returns verified for early childhood education.

What are we waiting for? Continue reading ‘Education Is The Engine of Progress & Prosperity’

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Abandoning Abandoned Children

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on March 12, 2010

in education, Public Policy and The States

. 2 Comments

Not one third of Kansas City’s elementary students read at grade level.

Texas recently refused almost a billion dollars from the federal government to improve its school system. Texas has suffered the lowest graduation rates in the nation with the worst racial disparities.

Houston schools superintendent wrote at the time; “I have 100,000 kids in Houston who don’t read at grade level”.

Georgia education officials recently ordered investigations at 191 schools across the state where they found evidence of tampering on answer sheets for the state’s standardized achievement test.

The list of inner city schools struggling to educate the children of those who could not get to (or for reasons of loyalty, love, or ethics) decided not to, escape to the suburbs where the schools still function is long.

My old high school, Edison, built in 1922, graduates less than 50% of its students, its sister school across town has graduated less than 30% of its students for five years running.

As a nation, we know that high school dropouts have a far greater chance of preteen pregnancy, years of costly incarceration and leading dysfunctional lives that they pass on to their children (who will repeat this cycle).

25% of America’s graduating seniors are now functionally illiterate, and U.S. graduation rates are among the worst in the world.

Today, many states are increasing their percentage of spending on juvenile justice and criminal justice while maintaining or reducing spending on education.

New York and California have been spending about $250,000 per year per juvenile in their juvenile justice systems. MN has reached the half a billion dollar mark for maintaining its prison system this year after five years of double digit growth.

We are spending more on prisons than on schools and we are getting more accomplished criminals than good students.

Which is what Pliny meant when he said 2500 years ago;

“What we do to our children, they will do to our society”

Kids At Risk Action seeks information about what is happening in your community that impacts abused and neglected children.

Send us your stories.

Comment here, or privately; Info@invisiblechildren.org

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A Modest Proposal, or If Children Could Riot

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on February 21, 2010

in education, Guardian ad-Litem, Health and Mental Health, Politics and Funding and Public Policy

. 6 Comments

300 years ago an Irish Minister wrote a highly acclaimed critical satire (“A Modest Proposal” - in its entirety below) in protest of the cruel public policies imposed on poor families that were destroying the lives of Irish children.

Public policy at the time treated the Irish more like animals than people and their children were doomed to living lives of crime, prostitution, and destitution.

Jonathon Swift’s satirical theme was that Irish children would be better off dead than raised in such horrible and inescapable circumstances.

As a long time guardian ad-Litem, I have come to understand Swift’s rage at the cruelties a community can pile on to poor children.

The idea that America’s poor working families don’t deserve education, health care, & safe homes for their children in the richest nation in the world is a cruel and unsupportable position.

The other industrialized nations have figured out that caring for their youngest citizens guarantees healthy adults and productive communities. We now don’t rank anywhere near the top in the majority of quality of life indices among the 24 industrialized nations.

America can’t quit building prisons and filling them with juveniles and preteen moms. We continue to quit subsidizing daycare, early childhood programs, healthcare for the poor, & education funding, while at the same time listening more and more to the mean spirited philosophies of radio and TV hosts that blame the nations ills on people that have (and always will have) the least.

The economic arguments of caring for children are all in favor of creating productive citizens by early intervention and early childhood development. It actually costs a great deal more to continue to punish the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

Are we a community without compassion?

KARA is seeking a 21st Century Modest Proposal. If you are a writer and given to challenges, please read Swift’s “Proposal” below, and write your own as you see it applying to American children & include it as a comment, or send it to Info@invisiblechildren.org
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The Impact Of Tampering With Georgia’s Student’s Test Results

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on February 12, 2010

in education, Public Policy and The States

. 0 Comments

Georgia’s hiding of hard truths is a terrifying trend in our nation. Here’s why;

When the truth is not reported, the critical problem is not perceived and no steps are taken to correct the underlying core issues. Things can only get worse until the system is destroyed.

Operating on false information forces people to make choices based on lies, causing more terrible results and disruption and eventual failure in what was a functioning system (education, social work, courts, or any other institution).

What would have been accomplished had these people succeeded in hiding the failure rate of Georgia’s students?

The next generation of students would be lacking in knowledge and critical thinking skills (just like the adults responsible in the tampering, but a hair less intelligent). Would they continue the convention of hiding critical information from the community?

When would the system implode?

Let this be an example of why systems need to be transparent.

Bad results are good BECAUSE we see them and can do something about them.

Not teaching 21st century American children how to learn, read, and compete in school is a disaster at many levels. Not supporting educators, parents, children, and public policy in this endeavor has cost us greatly as a nation. http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2009/03/02/kara-action-group-manifesto-for-early-childhood-education/

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Keeping At-Risk Students In High School

Published

Mike Tikkanen

on February 9, 2010

in education, Politics and Funding and Public Policy

. 2 Comments

The good news; A recent report from the non profit Jobs For The Future found that high schools with early college programs that have been open for more than four years are graduating 92% of their students with 40% of students earning at least a full year of college credits.

The bad news; As a nation, we know that high school dropouts have a far greater chance of preteen pregnancy, years of costly incarceration and leading dysfunctional lives that they pass on to their children.

Today, many states are increasing their percentage of spending on juvenile justice and criminal justice while maintaining or reducing spending on education. New York and California have been spending about $250,000 per year per juvenile in their juvenile justice systems. MN has reached the half a billion dollar mark for maintaining its prison system this year after five years of double digit growth.

The potential for finding new money for progressive new programs (no matter how successful) in this climate is slim.

What can we do?

Does any one here have a story of a successful approach within their own community?

Please share.

Read NY Times article;http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/education/08school.html

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/KidsAtRisk
Click here to join our Linked in online discussion about at risk children

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2468497&trk=anet_ug_hm

Become part of our email network by sending a request to join to; amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

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INVISIBLE CHILDREN

Archive for the 'education' Category

What Is It We Don’t Understand about fostering conditions almost ensuring criminality

Support The Guardian Ad-Litem Program For Abused & Neglected Children

The Floggings Will Continue Until The Test Scores Improve

Back To School & In Support of Education

International Symposium on Human Nature and Early Experience at Notre Dame

Practical Strategies for Helping Troubled Adopted Children with Complex Histories: Focus On Anger Issues with Dr. Richard J. Delaney

Accentuate The Positive; Child-Parent Centers

Art Rolnick & Pliny, Friends of Children

Better Guidance Urgently Needed For Doctors In Child Protection Cases, Say Experts

How Can We Better Serve Abused And Neglected Children?

Advanced or Stupid? It’s How You Frame It.

The Consequences of Media Concentrating On Negative Child Protection & Adoption

The Impact of Trauma and Neglect on the Developing Child: Focus on Youth in the Juvenile Justice System

Adoptees Have Answers…and lots of questons

National Child Protection Training Center

Education Is The Engine of Progress & Prosperity

Abandoning Abandoned Children

A Modest Proposal, or If Children Could Riot

The Impact Of Tampering With Georgia’s Student’s Test Results

Keeping At-Risk Students In High School

Kids At Risk Action (KARA)

The Book

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