The Gladwin County Record published a letter to the editor yesterday questioning, among other things, "Does the Friend of the Court or the judge ever wonder how the mother is taking care of the kids?" The quick answer is no, the writer of the letter was doing it "for a friend" and I took the time to let them know they can contact me anytime and I will point them to the grievance process because their problems are not the only ones that are happening to people statewide. The reality is that each of the county Friend of the Courts aren't focusing their programs on needy families at all, they have adopted a model of revenue generation for their own offices, saturating their caseload with middle and upper class families.
Revenue generation being the focus is a problem stemming with how the Title IV Part D program is currently being administered by the federal government and how the associated state agencies have implemented the program. The current model leaves needy families behind, while the agency workers focus on easy targets to give the appearance that there is program success. The appearance of program success allows the state agencies to keep increasing their staffing levels because there is currently no cap on the amount that a state can claim for reimbursements through the program. The program currently also forces the federal and local taxpayers to fund a welfare scheme for middle and upper-class families which shouldn't be in the program in the first place.
Changing how the program operates is actually pretty easy. Check out http://www.nationwideblueprint.com and find out how. Lets bring funding and program administration back in line with expectations and focus on needy families instead of revenue generation for the massive bureaucracies that are leaving the nation's poor behind.
