Marian Wright Edelman on Spending For Kids
on Wednesday, October 15, 2014Marian Wright Edelman Money Quotation saying we’re willing to pay the cost of incarceration rather than valuing keeping them in their own home. Marian Wright Edelman said:
“We are willing to spend the least amount of money to keep a kid at home, more to put him in a foster home and the most to institutionalize him” — Marian Wright Edelman
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In this quote, children’s rights advocate Marian Wright Edelman seems to be criticizing how the U.S. system allocates funding for at-risk youth. She argues that the least amount of funding is spent on supporting kids to remain with their families, more is spent on foster care when removal is necessary, and the highest level of spending goes towards institutionalizing youth, such as in juvenile detention centers.
Edelman appears to believe this funding structure creates misplaced incentives that favor separating children from their families and communities.
The quote conveys Edelman’s view that the system would be better served by investing more heavily in family support services so that kids can safely remain at home, rather than spending the most on the most restrictive and costly placement options as a last resort.