Yet another government program that proves that government can work.

[JDPriestly]

. . . .

The passage of the Adoption Assistance Act was especially well-timed. In the late 1980s, this country experienced unprecedented social and economic crises. Homelessness, which began primarily among individuals who were part of the de-institutionalization process, spread to entire families with children. We also saw the explosion of the drug epidemic, which included a boom in the use of crack-cocaine, cocaine, PCP, and other drugs. This epidemic not only destabilized individuals, it also endangered families with children and entire communities. "Crack baby" became a common phrase in our language, and, increasingly, women abandoned their babies in hospitals. "Crack babies" were sensationalized by the media and written off while still infants. These babies were in for "a life of certain suffering, of probable deviance, of permanent inferiority," according to columnist Charles Krauthammer. Well, these children are coming into adulthood now, and a recent Washington Post article sheds light on just where and how we got it wrong. What it doesn't point out is where we got it right.

The Washington Post followed some of these so-called "crack babies" and, among notable findings, "(I)n the two decades that have passed since crack dominated drug markets in the District and around the nation, these babies have grown into young adults who can tell their stories -- and for the most part, they are tales of success."

In the 1980s and 90s, the media warned that these children would grow into "superpredators." Presumably, then, we now should be seeing marked increases in crime rates across the country and particularly here in DC, which is among a list of cities with the highest rates of infant abandonment in the late 80s and 90s. But, The Post reported, "The national violent crime rate in 2008, the last year for which data are available, hit its lowest level since 1972, when the Bureau of Justice Statistics began its annual survey. According to FBI data for the District, from 1990 to 2008, murders dropped from 472 to 186, rapes from 303 to 186, and robberies from 7,365 to 4,154."

What explains these figures? What has enabled many of these supposedly doomed children to avoid the grim futures that supposedly awaited them? One significant answer comes from a legislative milestone: the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, legislation that helped lower-income families to adopt children out of the foster care system and to address the special and ongoing needs those children frequently carried. We have learned through decades of experience that when children in the foster care system are adopted into safe and loving homes, their outcomes improve markedly. And society at large shares those benefits.

More

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-jim-mcdermott/some-suprising-news-about_b_562560.html

This is great news. A government program that helps people help others and themselves. Next time someone says that government doesn't work. Tell them about this heartwarming story.

[pnorman]

1. K & R!

I had no idea!