The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) found the majority of people who have experienced foster care prefer private options instead, according to a poll released Tuesday.
The government provides many different services to those in need. Many of these programs are specifically aimed at helping children. The government helps provide children homes, education, free meals, medical help and foster care. When asked, however, 71 percent of voters with foster care experience say they prefer private charities over the public option.
“Children who are being abused or neglected often find themselves caught up in a system with overworked social workers and overloaded foster families,” FGA President Tarren Bragdon said in a statement. “Compounding the trauma of being separated from their families as they slowly become a statistic.”
Though the budget has declined slightly in the years prior, the Congressional Budget Office estimated foster care in 2013 cost the federal government $161 million. Despite the amount that goes into it, people still prefer private options. The poll included Democrats, Republicans and Independents. A large majority of all three political groups prefer the private option.
“These children deserve better,” Bragdon continued. “Fortunately there are lots of people willing to help, as long as they are able to support struggling families in their communities without having to become part of a bureaucratic system.”
FGA also found only half of all children that go through foster care graduate high school by the time they’re 18. Additionally, 60 percent of the children the FBI rescues from sex trafficking had prior contact with foster care.
“Local organizations have been connecting volunteer families for years and have universally better outcomes for families than foster care on nearly every measure,” Bragdon concluded.
The poll included 2,237 likely voters and was conducted at the end of July.
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