By University of Oklahoma College of Professional and Continuing Education
LSTD 1313- 201 – What Are The Social Sciences
By Hope Elena Sardella
Oklahoma’s Corrupt Child Welfare System, Dirty Money & A Predatory Tax Bill
In an age-old saying predominantly known by Edmond Burk’s interpretation of the notion, “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it”. The initial quote provokes the inner need to question one’s current accuracy of understanding how the universe’s functionality could be improved by understanding the consequences of prior events more fully. Burk’s saying it has haunted many a’ scholar and has led us to ask the fundamental question once again, is there any validity to Burk’s statement; and are we as a society inherently flawed as human beings for repeating the same events because we are not actively using our power to change the outcome of the future by merely reflecting on prior history in the context to our current realities. It is in my educated opinion that Edmund Burk’s statement is genuine. However, comparatively, I argue we have always had the tools to resolve societal problems but that it is almost impossible to compete with a global economic system that consistently undermines civilization’s fabric. The following essay will review the findings of Daniel L. Hatcher, who has outlined through his personal experiences in working as an attorney for social services that witnessing the rampant misuse of public funds has compelled his career to examine the ‘Industry of Poverty.’ Through examining these dilemmas in the context of the social sciences, this essay will review how the impacts of a case of systemic abuse within America’s foster care system by identifying key players’ who profit from America’s viable natural resource of poverty, as well as reviewing the suggestions from Hatcher to end these corruptions. In light of these ideas, I will review the psychological implications and solutions for rampant abuse of power and possible ways of mitigating these issues. Lastly, I will review the geography of Oklahoma City and determine if any current events in political nature resemble Hatcher’s hallmarks of private interest corporations that engage in revenue maximizing schemes with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.
Who profits of the poor through economics?
University of Baltimore Professor Daniel L. Hatcher was interviewed by the Atlantic about his groundbreaking novel “The Poverty Industry: The Exploitation of Americas most vulnerable citizens,” which outlines a dark relationship between a conglomerate of individuals that operate private groups to aiding a systemic disparagement of the primary social welfare systems in the United States that exist to protect America’s most vulnerable populations, which creates an Industry of Poverty (White, M. 2016). Hatcher (2016) affirms that private enterprise has honed in on the severely underfunded state agencies such as foster care and the Medicaid system offering these programs incentives for partnering with them, resulting in private corporations capitalizing off these vulnerable populations as a viable economic resource. For example, foster care agencies across the nation have been recruiting the services of clandestine consulting firms to devise strategies to take full advantage of all available and potential opportunities for increasing claims for disability for foster children that are in their care, which results in ever-increasing federal payouts which are never used for upgrading the living conditions and future of the children in their care but are used to line their pockets (White, M. 2016). Scholars have related how these private companies are operating is the equivalency to striping mining in coal mines, but instead, the mines are our people and children’s benefits. Hatcher makes it abundantly clear that besides hiring contractors to increase revenue, there have been trends of accepting funding for ‘beneficiaries,’ which is a significant indicator of alarms with how the government chooses to fund themselves (White, G. 2016). The ever increasing ways in which the private interest corporations find ways to drive up revenue are evolving and making it difficult for some communities to identify these encroaching advancements on their public welfare systems. Hatcher states that this corruption can be resolved through economics that would create a more equitable revenue for taxes that would provide the state government with the funding they would need rather than having to continue with an immoral and unethical system they are perpetuating (White, G, 2016). Hatcher’s following statement outlines that there need to be drastic changes in creating much-needed laws that would create revenue for state agencies through proper tax laws rather than outside revenue sources.
Psychology
Ultimately Hatcher argues that the organized public corruption or legalized practices of bilking or nations’ most vulnerable populations from their benefits will only end with public participation and increased public outrage and awareness of the citizens (White, G. 2016). The following ominous advice suggests that these issues are so systemic that it would take almost a revolution of sorts to change the system.
Geography & Politics
At present, there is no distinct organization within Oklahoma examining these issues. Thus I would like to note that as the author, I have heard Danial Hatcher’s calls to action and subsequently filled the need and established my non-profit organization in Oklahoma City called the Oklahoma Parental Rights Foundation, which solely will constitute my life’s works to understand the socio-economic effects of family separation. In the past year of research, I was able to identify a series of organizations that resemble hallmarks of Professor Hatchers key identifier’s’ of what these dysfunctional relationships between Private Revenue Maximizing corporations and State Agencies look like, thus having identified a predatory tax bill called House Bill 2670 – Pay For Success as a key suspect that allows a giant invitation to organizations that do not have the best interest of society in mind. On April 23 of twenty nineteen, the Oklahoma Senate announced that a bill is known as House Bill 2670 – “Pay For Success” was passed with ninety-one yays’ and six nays. The official announcement from the principal author Chair Roger Thomson reads as follows;
“This bill encourages public and private partnerships that will result in innovations that help state agencies meet wide-ranging challenges without risking public resources, under this legislation, a private sector entity would be able to contract with state agencies to provide a program or services to receive a certifiable result. That private entity would provide the financing upfront but would only receive a payment if they are successful.”
(PAY FOR SUCCESS’ LEGISLATION CLEARS SENATE, HEADS TO GOV. 2019).
The previous announcement has a myriad of red flags, including legally vague references to ‘innovations’ and ‘wide-ranging challenges,’ which ultimately speaks to nothing about how the partnerships intend on accomplishing those tasks in their specificity. Like, wise the mention of a certifiable result as a contingency for their partnerships with the organizations, in order to avoid spending tax dollars that were intended to pay for the states budgets eludes to a larger issue at hand, why is the state having to take private interest money to balance their checkbook?. The evidence is clear that almost everyone, except for the six legislators who voted nay on “Pay For Success,” had something to gain from this arrangement. The result of Pay For Success was to serve as a well-orchestrated attack on Oklahoma’s citizens. The bill was cemented at the bottom of an economic bill (9,000 act to be exact), which has since it ratifications carved a door for the state to procure financial backers in public and private arenas of big business, which now have a vested interest in the foster-care industry in Oklahoma. To resolve these issues such as foster-care in the United States, state and federal legislative needs to enact laws that would end the relationships with corporate revenue-maximizing contractors and have a complete rehabilitation of social services (White, G, 2016). At present, The Mossy has connected Pay For Success to a predatory private interest revenue-maximizing corporation called the Arnall Family Foundation whom through Pay For Success, has created economic incentives for the state of Oklahoma to increase foster care children the implementation of the ISS.
“This Pay for Success partnership with the Arnall Foundation enables us to expand our ongoing efforts, reducing trauma to children, and making a real difference in the lives and futures of the families we serve.”
“For each successful ISS case, a payment of $9,480 will be made by DHS to the Arnall Family Foundation until the original investment is repaid. A case is determined successful if the child or children in the family served by ISS have not been placed in foster care at 12 months of post-ISS engagement.”
– DIRECTOR OF DHS ED LAKES STATEMENTS AT ARNALL FAMILY FOUNDATION. “OKLAHOMA DHS SIGNS STATE’S SECOND PAY FOR SUCCESS CONTRACT.” 2019
This is an ongoing investigation.
References
‘Pay For Success’ Legislation Clears Senate, heads to Gov. (2019). The Oklahoma Senate. Retrieved fromhttps://www.Oksenate.gov/press-releases/pay-success-legislation-clears-senate-heads-gov
White, G. (2016). When Poverty is Profitable. The Atlantic. Retrieved fromhttps://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/poverty-industry/487958/