Foster care has reached an impasse. We have found ourselves in a meta-crisis, where the root crisis is how we think. Albert Einstein famously remarked, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” In recent writings, I have proposed some truly radical, yet revolutionary ideas. One idea was the creation of an entirely new field and profession: Bachelor of Science in Foster Parenting.
In order to execute these radical ideas, we first need a new source of funding. For this, we can look to the past as everything that is old is new. First, let’s take a look at an old, yet successful approach – War Bonds. We will then discuss how Government Bonds work. Lastly, we will discuss the creation of the Foster Care Bond, where you have the unique opportunity to be fully invested in the success of a foster child.
Buy Your War Bonds!
During World War II, War Bonds were promoted by movie stars who toured the country. They used slogans such as, “If you can’t go across . . . Come across!” Approximately $185 billion in bonds were sold. Imagine the impact if we were to do this today. Think of Britney Spears or Kid Rock touring the country rallying support to purchase bonds. Additionally, one of the largest advantages of War Bonds was the fact that the money was essentially recycled back into the U.S. economy after World War II.
What are Government Bonds?
So, what are bonds? Essentially, there are three types of bonds: Government, Municipal, and Corporate. They are used to raise funds to issue to whoever wants to buy them. They are similar to stocks, yet bonds are more like a loan in that you are lending money to an organization. In return, the organization promises to pay interest.
Our focus here is Government Bonds. See below for a quick look at Government Bonds.
Now let’s take a look at U.S. Savings Bonds.
So, how can we use Government Bonds to fund foster care?
Invest in Foster Care
Let me start with a question: Can you name one place in the U.S. that is getting foster care right? Really think about it . . . anything come to mind? People are upset with the failures in the foster care system, and they should be. But what is anyone doing about it? Who is stepping forward to be the voice of the voiceless? Not many, but there could be.
I truly believe my radical ideas can work, but they will need an even more radical idea to fund them. If we created a new type of bond, similar to the approach taken in 1990 with the Education Savings Bond, we could create a way to fund foster care. One that allows everyone to be personally invested in the success of the system.
Similar to War Bonds, everyone would be funding the success of a child. Think of the phenomenal success this would bring to a child and the system by simply purchasing a Foster Care Bond!
Let me emphatically conclude with this: There is no way this will work with the current foster care system. The system is operating so poorly, I can almost guarantee the money invested would be used for the wrong initiatives and would be poorly accounted for. This is why we must scrap the current system and begin with a new model. This is one of the few examples where we would be better off recreating the wheel.
Let’s imagine for a moment that we could hit the reset button and start from scratch. By simply investing in a Foster Care Bond, we would be able to adequately fund this new system. The entire country would have the opportunity to be personally invested in the success of every foster child.
“Every valuable human being must be a radical and a rebel, for what he must aim at is to make things better than they are.” – Niels Bohr
